Life on the Fringes of Society
Photo: Florian Spring
Lukas Bärfuss and I developed THE JOURNEY from our own experiences as descendants of stigmatised and marginalised families. It is a mosaic of stories that shows what life on the margins of society feels like, and documents how some of the most haunting stories and melodies emerge from these margins.
THE JOURNEY aims to make people aware that the anonymous refugees we hear about on the news are people with dreams, hopes and stories. The journey leads from Odesa and Istanbul on the Black Sea via Bucharest, Albania, Macedonia, Sarajevo to Switzerland and back to Budapest.
Music as a Universal Language
Photo: Florian Spring
Music, arising in a particular place, journeys through space and time. Music connects, regardless of skin color, faith, age, gender. It is a place of gathering. Music as a universal language is a measure of time and a mirror of cultural diversity.
In the stories written and told by Lukas Bärfuss about people on the road, their music is woven in, written by Swiss composers, such as Antoine Auberson (*Lausanne) or Daniel Schnyder (*Zurich). The work by Auberson is a premiere.
The political divisions and wars of Europe in the 20th century forcibly separated people, families, entire societies. European history can be read as an attempt by nation states to find their own identity by rejecting the foreign. The culture of the Travellers, Gypsies and Roma, but also Jewish history, is a culture of the journey, a culture of no man's land.
Developed long before, the attack on Ukraine in February 2022 has given THE JOURNEY a terrible topicality and an unexpected urgency. Our gaze goes to the people holding out in their bombed-out homes, to the millions fleeing the country. The refugees can take little with them, a small suitcase with their belongings; but they are rich in music, in songs, in stories, in experiences.
Photo: Florian Spring //
Graphic Design: Neidhart Grafik