Editorial 25

In the middle of the hot phase of an election campaign that is likely to be charged and tiring, ECLAT invites you to a large, multifaceted narrative about what it is really about: us. All of us in our uniqueness, contradictions and fragility, about our claims and doubts, stories and longings, about our togetherness.

 

36 artists from 22 countries are participating in 16 concerts, performances and concert installations, including 25 world premieres–imaginative and rich in different genres, styles and formats.

 

Perceiving oneself in the context of global challenges leads to personal, often speculative, dystopian or hopeful artistic statements.

 

Various images and ideas appear again and again in the projects, common threads emerge: the examination of home, also from the perspective of exile, questions of identity, the search for the divine, inspiration from historical models, surreal projections of the future, garishly colourful and grotesque comics–and play. Play as a communal moment, as a place of retreat, as a space of possibility.

 

International guests, as ECLAT debutants the United Instruments of Lucilin from Luxembourg, the Fabrik Quartet and Marco Fusi, and established Stuttgart players, including the SWR Symphonieorchester and the SWR Vokalensemble, curated by Lydia Jeschke, as well as the HMDK Stuttgart’s echtzeitEnsemble for the first time, characterise five diverse and exciting festival days at the Theaterhaus.

 

The offer to immerse ourselves in this diversity of current musical creation is also linked to an invitation to listen to each other. This is not just a phrase, but a change of method: we want to consciously broaden the way we communicate what we do and break new ground alongside the tried and tested method of showing how valuable and enriching the experience of (contemporary) music can be. As an organiser and producer, we want to listen and learn together with artists and develop artistic impulses from communicating with people from worlds that are far removed from our ‘art bubble’. One example of this is Uwe Rasch’s trilogy ‘Mit Ach und Krach’, which is present throughout the entire festival.

 

As a civil society, we have something to achieve together that we cannot delegate to the ‘top’. The ‘we’ and ‘togetherness’ must become much more of a focal point. Get out of the bubbles and away from lobbying solely on our own behalf. I am firmly convinced that we as artists can and must make a relevant contribution to cohesion in a stable democratic society.

 

‘If you can shape something, then you can cope better with the world,’ says Michael Zwenzner, who interviewed numerous artists of the festival in the weeks leading up to ECLAT. You can discover these conversations and further details of the program from January onwards in our portal on the ECLAT website. One of these interviewees is Alex Paxton. The Neue Vocalsolisten and Klangforum Wien will open the festival on 5 February with his grand celebration of sensuality: ‘Singing as play, listening as touch and harmony as life in a body.’

 

You are most welcome!

Christine Fischer

and the team of Musik der Jahrhunderte