Commissions to Michele Abondano, Jessie Cox & Fojan Gharibnejad

1h55 is a concert project featuring immersive world premieres, developed by Ensemble Recherche (Freiburg) and collective lovemusic (Strasbourg) in collaboration with Gare du Nord (Basel). The project will be performed in Basel, Freiburg, Strasbourg, and Schengen (Luxembourg). Inspired by the exact time it takes to travel by train between the cities of Basel, Freiburg, and Strasbourg, the project takes regional mobility as its starting point and crosses the borders between France, Germany, and Switzerland.

1h55 addresses the reality of freedom of movement within the Schengen Area: While its 40th anniversary was celebrated in 2025, open borders are increasingly threatened by heightened controls and racial profiling. For some people, boarding this train is not without risk: identity checks, arbitrary suspicion, and discrimination become a daily reality. Especially at the borders with France and Switzerland, which are supposed to remain open, people without valid papers are subject to random checks—often based on racist, ethnic, or religious criteria. 1h55 takes these experiences seriously and gives them an audible and visible form within an artistic context. The project examines the impact of these developments on artists who work and live between cities and asks: How can contemporary music respond to racial profiling?

The concert program features three commissioned works made possible by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation: Fojan Gharibnejad composes a work for Ensemble Recherche, Michele Abondano a work for collective lovemusic, and Jessie Cox creates a collaborative work for an open ensemble featuring both groups.

Further information:
ensemble-recherche.de

Dates

January 14, 2027
Gare du Nord, Basel

January 15, 2027
Ensemblehaus, Freiburg

January 16, 2027
Cité de la Musique et de la Danse, Strasbourg

January 17, 2027
Fondation Valentiny, Remerschen