For the fifth edition of Night Shifts, musician and performance artist Billy Bultheel presents the site-specific performance concert A Short History of Decay III at the St. Nikolai Memorial. The work is based on research into the systematic confiscation and melting down of church bells by the Nazi regime during the Second World War, when thousands of bells across Europe were requisitioned and recast as raw material for the armaments industry. The work considers bells both as musical instruments and as historical witnesses: with their disappearance, not only was a significant part of Europe's material cultural heritage destroyed, but centuries of artisanal knowledge and unique sonic traditions were also lost. Bultheel's performance connects these historical traces to a present in which the resurgence of fascism once again threatens democratic values. A Short History of Decay III resonates particularly strongly within the ruins of St. Nikolai Church, whose bells likewise fell victim to the World Wars and whose new carillon was installed only in 1993. Performed in dialogue with a six-piece ensemble, the carillon – played by carillonneur Werner Lamm – becomes an integral part of Bultheel's new composition. It moves between antiquity and the present, combining reinterpreted Gregorian chant with electronics, blast beats and piercing distortion. The conceptual research was developed in collaboration with writer Edwin Nasr.
Performers
Vocals: Leah Marojević
Flute: Adam Sinclaire
Viola da gamba: Kyran Richard Assing
Double bass: Caleb Salgado
Live electronics: Andrea D'Arsiè
Carillon: Werner Lamm
Piano / Harmonium: Billy Bultheel
Night Shifts is a project by Rosanna Graf, Lisa Klosterkötter and Gesa Troch. As a year-long artistic program, it unfolds across Hamburg’s public spaces, structured into eight chapters dedicated to darkness. From dusk until dawn, exhibitions, performances, sound installations, and readings animate the city, probing the tensions between light and shadow, visibility and concealment. Throughout the year, diverse locations, such as the harbor, Harburg, City Nord, and St. Pauli, are transformed into stages for artistic exploration. At each event, three Nachtwächterinnen (night watchwomen) accompany and guide audiences through the night.
Website: www.night-shifts.com
Instagram: @night__shifts
Night Shifts 5 is a collaboration with the City Curator Hamburg and part of the Hamburg Art Week (3–6 September 2026).
As a prologue to the performance on 5 September 2026, the carillon of the St. Nikolai Memorial will be activated every Saturday at 8 pm with Bultheel's composition Act I (Le rachat des cloches). The work is part of the exhibition FIRE. From the Cosmos to the Commons by the City Curator Hamburg (21 June–21 September 2026), curated by Joanna Warsza.
