Gessnerallee
Zürich

We live at a time when freedom takes the liberty of liberating itself from freedom. We live at a time when democracy may democratically dedemocratize itself. We live at a time when qualities are quantitative and quantities are qualitative.

In three acts entitled «Quantification», «Populism» and «Subversion» Patrick Frank stages the diagnosis of the present. He interweaves musical and theoretical language: the politician Moritz Leuenberger and the philosopher Enno Rudolph are discussing; Judit Polgar (piano), Jakob Pilgram (tenor) and Jürg Lindenberg (sound director) are playing. Frank’s compositions I love you, the law of quality and Subversion 2 are heard; Robert Schumann collides with John Cage and the most extraordinary people and hits of all times are buzzing through the Gessnerallee. This philosophical, political and historical fire work of pop culture invites the audience to a collective discussion about our mass culture of the extraordinary.

Patrick Frank is composer, cultural scholar and entrepreneur. In his nascent theory Frank operates with the notions of ‘quantity’ and ‘quality’, notions that play an important role in this very project.