“A concert stage is simply not a safe space at all”

Franziska Bruecker is a musician and composer; her instruments are the voice and electronics, and her projects straddle the worlds of music and installation. As part of her Carte Blanche at Moods Zurich, she has now launched a new event format called SALON OUTSIGHT. The Carte Blanche is awarded to outstanding musicians from the Swiss jazz scene and offers them the opportunity to further develop their current musical work and try out new ideas.

“I wanted to use the Carte Blanche to create something that hadn’t existed before,” says Bruecker. The catalyst for SALON OUTSIGHT was the solo piece “Essay on Distance”, in which Franziska Bruecker explored what it is like for her to be on stage as a woman and as a singer. “I started studying music in 2008; back then, #MeToo was still a long way off, and female singers were practically the only women in the class. Female singing tutors were almost the only female teachers, and female singers made up the majority of the students. It wasn’t an easy time, and there was a lack of vocabulary for many things,” recalls Bruecker.

Creating space for dialogue

On top of that, being on stage can generally be challenging for musicians: “Unlike in the theatre, at concerts the audience doesn’t distinguish between the character on stage and the person they meet afterwards at the bar. A concert stage is simply not a safe space at all. More like a public peep show.”

The more Bruecker grappled with this, the clearer it became that she is not the only one dealing with these issues. This is how the idea for the SALON OUTSIGHT came about: “I realised that I’m interested in how others deal with this conflict – that although they work on stage, they don’t find it easy at all.” The idea for the “Salon” came to Franziska Bruecker because she deliberately wanted to create a low-threshold format: the Salon is intended to create a space in which dialogue can emerge and the discussion can take place collectively, together with the audience.

A project that sets a lot in motion

To bring SALON OUTSIGHT to life, Franziska Bruecker launched an open call: “It was the first time in my life I’d organised an open call – it was very exciting.” The aim of the open call was to reach people outside her own “bubble”. For example, Helvetiarockt, the Bøwie Gallery and other organisations shared the call for entries. Around 25 applications were submitted. “Some really great projects came in; it was great fun going through them and seeing what’s going on out there,” says Bruecker.

She made the selection together with the actress Annina Polivka. “As Annina Polivka comes from a theatre background, she has a more dramaturgical perspective on things. I found that a good complement, as I myself am very focused on audio.” From the applications, the two of them then selected four projects spanning music and performance: “Two of the projects already existed and two didn’t exist before; the open call was the spark that ignited them, which makes me very happy.”

Not only has Bruecker, with the launch of SALON OUTSIGHT, created the space for new projects to emerge, but he has also devised an event format that has the potential to endure: In addition to the performance at Moods, SALON OUTSIGHT will take place on 18 February 2025 at the Kaserne Basel and on 25 February 2025 at the Neubad Luzern. This is a collaboration with the feminist salon Basel, which has been in existence since 2018. Franziska Bruecker and Franca Schaad from the Feminist Salon will also be extending the evening there to include a panel and audience discussion.

With SALON OUTSIGHT, Franziska Bruecker is also venturing into new territory herself: “With this project, I’ve taken on a curatorial role; I’m organising events and bringing people together. It feels good.” When asked what kind of audience she hopes to attract, Franziska Bruecker says: “I hope we attract as diverse an audience as possible.” The idea behind SALON OUTSIGHT is also to occupy a space that isn’t necessarily intended for this purpose, thereby breaking down barriers for people who may never have been to Moods before or who have only just begun to engage with these issues.