About 'The Off Hours': Jill Magid’s sound installation for St. Peter’s Church

Jill Magid’s sound installation for St. Peter’s Church

A concert in exile

M recently exhibited The Migration of the Wings: a film, sound and sculpture installation by Jill Magid that was inspired by The Last Supper’s tumultuous history. The work has now gained a counterpart in The Off Hours, a site-specific work for St. Peter’s Church.

Curator Valerie Verhack, head of the contemporary art department, explains: ‘St Peter’s Church closes every evening at 4.30pm, and the sexton reopens the doors the next day at 7.30am. For three months, Jill Magid’s sound work will be played in the church when it is shut. These are also known as ‘the off hours’, hence the title of the work. The church administration preferred silence during opening hours, and the work was conceived with this restriction in mind.’

‘The Off Hours is a sequel to The Migration of the Wings. It builds on the themes of the latter work, which was previously shown at M: forced migration and the Jewish diaspora. The music is partly inspired by the nocturnal calls of European migrating birds. Composed by clarinettist Stuart Bogie, the piece lasts a staggering fifteen hours, which is exactly how long the church is closed at night. Bogie actually performed the piece in the space; it is a remixed recording that is played in the church each night. Jill uses the building itself as a sound box – a huge church like St. Peter’s was built so that song, prayer and music reverberates. Moreover, in this case, the music resonates with a story of exile, set on the margins of time.’

Jill Magid, 'The Off Hours', M Leuven (St. Peter’s Church), 2023, photo: © Useful Art Services

‘The speakers are located in the chapel of The Last Supper. Two musical scores are also exhibited in the space, one historical and one contemporary. The Liturgisch Handschrift van het Heilig Sacramentsaltaar – or The Book of Hours in English – was compiled in the fifteenth century by the same brotherhood that commissioned The Last Supper from Bouts. It comprises 18 folios and, for Jill, these represent the nine daylight hours that the church is open. To complement this, she created The Book of Off Hours: a visual score of the new composition that has 30 folios and thus represents the 15 nocturnal hours during which the church is closed.’

‘For The Migration of the Wings, Jill departed from the fact that the side panels – or wings – of The Last Supper had travelled extensively over the centuries: they were used as pawns in the political rivalry between Germany and Belgium. The central panel, on the other hand, had always remained in the church. In her view, this speaks volumes about the unequal balance of power between the centre and the margins, about migration, about the Jewish diaspora.... On the exceptional occasion of the Bouts exhibition, the complete painting has been moved from the church to M. It left behind an empty space, albeit a temporary one. With her sound work, Jill wants to thematise that emptiness. She calls it a concert for the church and its souls: after all, there are no other listeners. Anyone who wants to catch something of the sound work can take a nocturnal walk along the outside walls of the chapel that houses The Last Supper. A live performance might also be organised at a later date.’