In 1874, on the occasion of an exhibition by his friend Victor Hartmann, Modest Mussorgsky wrote a splendid work for piano: ‘Pictures at an exhibition'. Commissioned by the then Radio 3 (now Klara) and Canon, Cultural Cell of the Department of Education of the Ministry of the Flemish Community, I was listening to this music when came the inspiration for sixteen charcoal drawings, which in turn formed the starting point for a composition by Martin Valcke for four-handed piano and percussion (also commissioned by the radio). ‘Hut on chicken legs' is the title of one of the movements of Mussorgsky's piece. As we liked its playfulness we made it the name of the project, which included a concert, an exhibition and workshops. In a later phase I reworked the drawings into etchings and paintings.
