A century after Ursonate
A hundred years after the creation of Ursonate, a groundbreaking phonetic poem by Kurt Schwitters, artist Simon Steen-Andersen explores the legacy of Schwitters and his interpreter, Michael Schmid, through a blend of documentary, performance, and fiction.Kurt Schwitters and the MERZ movement*
Kurt Schwitters, excluded from the Dada movement for his perceived romanticism, founded the MERZ movement in 1920. His work sought to connect all aspects of life and blurred boundaries between art forms, leading to the creation of Ursonate, a phonetic poem that took over a decade to complete.Michael Schmid and focal dystonia*
In 2002, flutist Michael Schmid faced a career-threatening condition called focal dystonia, a rare neurological disorder. Despite this, he continued his musical journey and found in Schwitters’ Ursonate a new creative direction, performing it over a hundred times on stage.Steen-Andersen’s artistic exploration*
Simon Steen-Andersen uses Schmid as both guide and inspiration to explore Ursonate and its creator. True to Schwitters’ MERZ spirit, he combines archives, sounds, and images into a dynamic and inventive montage that reflects the poem’s complexity.Performance and collaboration details*
The stage performance and video UR! is a collaborative work by Simon Steen-Andersen and Michael Schmid, produced by Ictus Ensemble. It is part of a co-production involving several European festivals and supported by the Belgian government’s tax shelter program.Festival presentation and commissions*
The Autumn Festival in Paris presents UR! in co-production with Ircam-Centre Pompidou. The piece was commissioned by Ictus, the SWR Donaueschinger Musiktage, and the Autumn Festival in Paris, highlighting its significance in contemporary performance art.
