It all started in spring, when all 300 artists from the guerillaclassics network were invited to initiate new collaborations in various brainstorming sessions. This resulted in around 15 projects and collaborations, which were shown as part of the free flow festival.
Despite the summer heat, the festival attracted countless visitors to the Provitreff club, which was simultaneously transformed into a museum and concert venue. we shared moments of celebtrations, controversal discussions, great music and liveliness. some of the projects have already been discovered and placed by various cultural institutions such as museums and concert organisers. This allows artistic development to continue to flow.
the free, in-depth creation of artistic content over several months that sheds new perspectives on classical musics, is what free flow festival wants to further invest in.
all artists involved:
mischa cheung, cosmic percussion ensemble, jelena Dojčinović, vincent glanzmann, neel jansen, stefan kägi, flora luvualu, Graciela Martínez Arribas, anna nero, thomas niggli, OSZILOT, saf sap senegal, tracy september, malwina sosnowski, huguette tolinga, nermin tulic, saadet türköz, michaela unsinn, chengyi wang, jonas häni, sekou keita, saliou kouate, simon bucher, sinzo aanza, vladimir petrov, siavash nameshiri, vanessa sin, candy toe, lynn aineo
We contacted over 300 artists from our artist pool in February of this year. How have they been since the pandemic, where are they, where do they want to go? Would they be on board to organise a festival in the summer of 2022 to celebrate the fifth anniversary of guerillaclassics?
We received a lot of feedback, ideas were discussed and developed in brainstorming sessions. Our role: to accompany the emergence of new frameworks, and provide the space for them to be defined again and again.
With artists from over 13 countries, we have developed a unique festival format over the past months, in which no two concerts are alike, in which the old is questioned and the new is tried out. The artists' questions and experiences will be heard and seen from 14 to 17 July 2022 at Provitreff, Park Platz, Zentralwäscherei and other surprising places.
It all starts at Provitreff – the festival centre – on 14 July with a musical ping-pong of all participating artists. In 100-second performances, they will pass the ball to each other, get to know each other and engage with each other. Afterwards, Mischa Cheung, Simon Bucher, Jonas Häni and Flora Luvualu will work with two grand pianos, two loop machines and vocals to explore a technoid-acoustic sound between club music and concert atmosphere.
On 15 July, mezzo-soprano Anna Nero joins sitar player Thomas Niggli, percussionist Huguette Tolinga, percussionist Saliou Kouate and dancer Sekou Keita on a search for their very own sound – the voice, but also the "son primaire" of what they want to say. This will be followed by the vernissage of the visual artist Sinzo Aanza. Congolese sound archives up to recordings of the Congo Square in New Orleans are processed into a symphony with the help of artificial intelligence, programmed by Vladimir Petrov. Called "The Uninterrupted Song for the City", the work will be challenged and underscored by percussionist Vinc Glanzmann, and the archives of music, some of which are almost extinct, will be brought to life and connected live. After the installative concert, which can still be attended at the Provitreff until Saturday evening, the festival goes into the next round at Park Platz near Letten. Sevdalinke are Bosnian love songs written under the influence of the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century, performed by Jelena Dojcinovic and Nermin Tulic. The dancers Graciela Martinenz and Neel Jansen set the yearning love songs in motion with their dance.
Back at Provitreff on 16 July, sound artists OSZILOT, yangqin player Chengyi Wang and mezzo-soprano Michaela Unsinn create a hypnotic fusion of drone music, Chinese folk and contemporary ambient.
In the evening, tracy september and siavash namehshiri from the duo Black Pitch will create a space with the theme "Exile Frequency resonance", a space that will break out of the prefabricated structures of togetherness; a listening session that deals with decoding the amplitudes of voices.
On 17 July, the Car Surprise format invites us to break out of the whirlpool of the planned, to venture into unknown territory for three hours. Together we will board a bus that will take us to various places in and around Zurich. What happens where, what sounds, what interventions await us, remains a surprise until the end.
Also a secret is the menu that will be cooked in the evening at the Zentralwäscherei. guerillaclassics is teaming up with the association Essen und Zuhören. Once a month, the performative cooking workshop invites a female protagonist to talk. Women of our mothers' or grandmothers' generation share stories and insights that are and insights that are not listened to often enough - the participants cook, listen, talk. We take listening to the next level, not only cooking with the duo GrassBlues, but also listening to Saadet Türköz's songs.
