Kipppunkte — Into the Void

* flyer KIPPPUNKTE — INTO THE VOID *

Ensemble Tzara’s 2025/26 season: AUSSTERBEN (EXTINCTION)

Our supermarkets are overflowing, the motorways are gridlocked and our smartphones’ storage is maxed out. We are living longer than ever before, yet the diversity of life is under threat: species are becoming extinct; strange animals, bizarre plants and colourful insects are quietly disappearing from our world. It seems as though our environment is increasingly being transformed into cows, car parks or palm trees.
The 2025/26 season is curated by Léo Collin and is dedicated to the theme of EXTINCTION. Is the vague unease that many feel an age-old sensation of our species – an evolutionary echo that culminates in collective exhaustion? Or is it a cognitive distortion that leads us to believe the worst is yet to come?
How is our relationship with the world changing amidst the tension between ecological reality and psychological perception? And what does that reveal about ourselves?

flyer of the season 2025/26 of Ensemble Tzara

announcing text for KIPPPUNKTE (tipping points) — INTO THE VOID

Sihlhölzli Park is a ‘hyper-place’ where many things happen at once; in fact, it is a ‘non-place’, with intersecting traffic arteries and other veins, where things rush, roar and chirp. People and animals pass through; sometimes they linger, sniffing, looking and observing one another. Here, we want to practise plunging into the void of our time, leaping boldly and joyfully into the abyss. In doing so, we risk our thoughts and ideas becoming (cunningly) twisted between us and what might be. Playing, mirroring, singing and making sounds – falling off our roles and celebrating – are all elements of this happening for which we have gathered: its score, of course, explores the open process with voices, sounds, gestures and experimental choreographic arrangements; resonances and a motorway stub (for their part) flirt with the margins and the random.

final report in German by Ensemble Tzara on Kipppunkte (tipping points)

Ensemble Tzara

Founded in Zurich in 2007, ENSEMBLE TZARA performs the latest works and classics of the 20th and 21st centuries with varying line-ups and commissions numerous compositions.

The name pays homage to Tristan Tzara, co-founder of the Dada movement in Zurich, and also sets out the ensemble’s mission: ENSEMBLE TZARA challenges traditional art forms, develops alternative concert formats and builds bridges to other art forms.

Another of the ensemble’s aims is to open young ears to contemporary music. The children’s concerts, specially designed for this purpose, make what is often perceived as inaccessible more accessible and spark enthusiasm for contemporary artistic creation.

ENSEMBLE TZARA performs both at home and abroad. In 2012, it was awarded the City of Zurich’s ‘Year of Interpretation’ grant, and in 2021 the ‘Year of New Concert Formats’ grant. It has performed in Boston, New York and Chicago, and made its debut in 2019 at the MUSIC CURRENT Festival in Dublin, where it was honoured by the Irish Times as ‘the new music performance of the year’.

more info in German https://www.ensembletzara.ch/