A place where the projects are encouraged to grow into something long-term. These are the hallmarks for the second free flow festival, taking place at venues across Zurich in Switzerland from June 16-23, 2024.

It’s intended to provoke thought and confront the senses, with events like vernissage (21/6) that air nuanced sounds alongside movement, vocals and music instruments to explore the limitations of language, or the ensemble led by Hasan Nakhleh with traces of the organ from Aleppo to leipzig to cairo, tracing how melodic scales were used, from the church of ancient Syria through Bach’s music to the altered keyboard tunes of 1960s and 70s Cairo (20/6).

free flow looks at the world through a different lens

Begun in 2022, the festival’s ethos is to encourage both participants and audience to step outside the comfort zones and come together to celebrate without compromise. The performances are works in progress, that could be further developed and be presented in future editions of the festival or in other creative context. It’s an open space where everyone is welcome to join and be part of the experience and conversations.

One of those conversations will be <<schliess die augen nicht - von kröten und alten gespenstern>> #freetalk (20/6), where new western classical music, literature and queer-feminist activism meet, as the duo Lis à Lis (lis marti and lisa läng) perform a Robert Schumann song cycle with new lyrics by läng, changing the sexist role models, a chance for audiences to hear the work in a new context.

On 22/6, the late Zimbabwean mbira player and spiritual leader Stella Chiweshe will be celebrated in transcending legacies as Robert Machiri offers music and a biographical lecture of Chiweshe’s remarkable life and art.

The festival closes on 23/6 with watersheds, a deep listening to recordings made on the soundwalk suburban river sketch (which opens the festival 16/6). It’s a meditation on the way water and sound can flow and stretches its arms wide to embrace music and culture.

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