“The fictitious ‘Zentrale für Mobilitätsforschung’ (Center for Mobility Research) in Freiburg marks its 70th anniversary with a new name: the ‘Zentrale für Mobilitätsfragen’ (ZfMf – Center for Questions on Mobility). With its rebranding, the center signals its interest in engagement with the city’s public and makes scholarly content, such as mobility data, environmental issues, developmental history and urban planning strategies more accessible. Central to this reorientation is the launch of the online radio station mobile.fm. More than a source of information, it creates a new sense of community: through hotlines, studio guests and interactive formats, listeners become participants. The station is run by the ZfMf’s own staff, who are gradually finding their footing in this new role.”

The live radio play KNOTENPUNKTE by Clemens K. Thomas (music) and Friedemann Dupelius (text) brings this dynamic to the stage here at the Ensemblehaus. The musicians of Ensemble Recherche embody the ‘machinery’ of the bustling Centre – a sonic engine room suspended between precise bureaucracy and frenetic energy, in which institutional and media transformation become audible.

For alongside the mobility transition, two further upheavals are at play: the Centre comes under increasing political pressure and risks losing its funding – emblematic of many cultural and socio-political decisions currently being made across Germany and Europe. And with the so-called ‘Acoustic Turn’, sound moves to the centre of perception – as a countermovement to a visually dominated modernity, in which acoustic experiences increasingly shape our everyday lives, our memory and our sense of orientation.

With the ‘Centre for Mobility Questions’, the Ensemblehaus takes on a new function: the cycle paths and tram lines that normally simply pass by the building now converge– for a fictitious duration – at a place where experimental sounds are used to reflect on contemporary transport policy.

With works by

Clemens K. Thomas (music) and Friedemann Dupelius (text)

ENSEMBLE RECHERCHE

Anja Clift, Flute
Eduardo Olloqui, Oboe
Shizuyo Oka, Clarinet
Klaus Steffes-Holländer, Piano
Christian Dierstein, Percussion
Adam Woodward, Violin
Sofia von Atzingen, Viola
Åsa Åkerberg, Cello
Lukas Nowok, Sound Design

Tickets

available at reservix.de and at the box office.