After being rejected by the Dadaists for being too romantic, Schwitters developed his own one-man art movement: "MERZ means creating relationships", he unhumbly proclaimed, "preferably between all things in the world!" Driven by restlessness and runaway imagination, Schwitters moved across disciplines and materials, creating installation art before the term existed, multimedia concepts beyond the technology of his time, a libretto for a surreal, apocalyptic sci-fi opera – and, famously, the iconic sound poem Ursonate, developed throughout the 1920s.
In 2002, on the verge of mastering one of the most difficult flute pieces ever written, Michael Schmid was struck by a musician's worst nightmare: the rare neurological condition focal dystonia. Despite steadily worsening symptoms, he went on to become a celebrated flutist and core member of the Ictus Ensemble, while the condition also pushed him into a series of parallel artistic adventures, most notably as a voice performer obsessively studying and performing the Ursonate more than a hundred times over two decades.
In the spirit of Kurt Schwitters, Steen-Andersen folds his findings back onto the documentary material itself, subjecting them to the principles of MERZ and creating a playful, fantastical portrait of the two men. Across time and space, they encounter one another deep inside the Ursonate: Schmid, under the influence of neurological medication and mystic rituals performed by a speech therapist turned shaman; and Schwitters, himself hallucinating on his deathbed after a stroke while contemplating his own end.
Time and place
17 October - Donaueschinger Musiktage - Donaueschingen - Germany
25 October - Festival 20·21 - Leuven - Belgium
5 November - Festival d'Automne - Paris - France
6 November - Festival d'Automne - Paris - France