'Urbo Kune' is esperanto for 'common city'. Klangforum Wien presents 24 hours of contemporary music and ideas today at the Muziekgebouw, focusing on the future of Europe and ideas about the ideal capital of the United States of Europe.
At 12:12 today afternoon, the event kicked off with an incomprehensible statement from the rooftop. Mayor Van der Laan, Arnon Grunberg, Francine Houben alternate with new work by Dutch composer Rozalie Hirs and the five-hour performance of Morton Feldman's For Philip Guston tonight.
We don't speak Esperanto, which is why Mayor Van der Laan was also quick to switch to Dutch. But without limiting ourselves to one language, as they do in the United States of America, commonality can also be found in the multiplicity and multiplication. Workshop and exchange is important, but so is giving the body all the space it needs and taking that experience into developing large-scale, utopian ideas.
As an attrition, the 24-hour event is an ode to experience not wrapped up in slogans, managerial frameworks and efficiency thinking. New music builds experience with sound as matter and experience as a guide. Besides the lectures, there is also yoga and gymnastics after Pindarus and Plato.
And for those who like old-fashioned hardcore: sleep with Morton Feldman tonight. Tomorrow early Percussion Workshop and the Economy of the Future, with of course a conversation with bankers from Rabobank and Triodos, but the final session led by directors Jan Tabor and Peter Böhm is about clearing one's head so that one can think utopian again.
For the programme, see the website of Holland Festival - Urbo Kune
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