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Carte Blanche: Franziska Bruecker

Pascale Diggelmann12-03-20244 min. read

Franziska Bruecker is one of the nine artists who have received a Carte Blanche from Moods for the 24/25 season. Among other things, the singer and composer has created a new event format, SALON OUTSIGHT. In this interview, she explains how it came about.

Franziska Bruecker is a musician and composer, her instruments are voice and electronics, her projects range between music and installations. She has now created the new SALON OUTSIGHT event format as part of Carte Blanche. «I wanted to use Carte Blanche to create something that hadn't existed before.» The trigger for SALON OUTSIGHT was the solo piece «Essay on Distance», in which Franziska Bruecker explored the questions of what it is like for her to be on stage as a woman and as a singer. «I started studying music in 2008, when #metoo was still a long way off and singers were practically the only women in the class. Singing teachers were almost the only female teachers and female singers made up the majority of students. It was not an easy time and there was a lack of vocabulary for many things.»Creating space for dialog
What's more, being on stage can generally be challenging for musicians: «Unlike in the theater, the audience at concerts doesn't differentiate between the character on stage and the person you meet at the bar afterwards. A concert stage is simply not a safe space at all. It's more like a public peep show.” The more Bruecker thought about it, the clearer it became that she wasn't the only one dealing with these issues. This is how the idea for SALON OUTSIGHT came about: «I realized that I was interested in what others do with this conflict, that they work on stage but don't find it easy at all.” Franziska Bruecker came up with the idea for the «Salon» because she deliberately wanted to create a low-threshold format: a space in which a dialog can arise and the discussion can take place collectively, together with the audience.
A project that sets things in motion
In order to realize the SALON OUTSIGHT, Franziska Bruecker launched an open call. «It was the first time in my life that I had done an open call, which was very exciting.» The aim of the open call was to reach people outside of her own «bubble». For example, Helvetiarockt, the Bøwie Gallery and other organizations also shared the call. Around 25 applications were submitted. «Some really great projects came in, it was a lot of fun to look through them and see what's going on out there.”»She made the selection together with actress Annina Polivka. «As Annina Polivka comes from the theater, she has a more dramaturgical view of things. I thought that was a good complement, as I myself am very focused on audio.» The two then selected four projects between music and performance from the applications. «Two of the projects already existed and two didn't exist before, so the open call was the initial spark for them, which I'm very pleased about.» By launching SALON OUTSIGHT, Bruecker has not only created the space for new projects to emerge, but also created an event format that has the potential to continue: In addition to the performance at Moods, SALON OUTSIGHT will take place on 18.02.25 at the Kaserne Basel and on 25.02.25 at the Neubad Lucerne. This is a cooperation with the feminist salon Basel, which has been running since 2018. Franziska Bruecker and Franca Schaad from the feminist salon will expand the evening there with a panel and audience discussion.
««Eine Konzertbühne ist halt überhaupt kein Safe Space. Eher so eine öffentliche Peepshow.»»
Franziska Bruecker
With SALON OUTSIGHT, Franziska Bruecker is also venturing into new territory herself: «I've taken on a curatorial role with this project, I'm organizing events and bringing people together. That feels good.» When asked what kind of audience she would like, 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 is not intended for this purpose per se, thereby breaking down inhibitions and attracting people who have perhaps never been to Moods before or who have only dealt with these topics to a limited extent.

Further Carte Blanche concerts
Franziska Bruecker will also be playing in a duo with Dave Gisler, who has also received a Carte Blanche, at Moods on 06.02.25. «The duo with Dave Gisler is a project close to our hearts, we both knew that we definitely wanted to show this.» The duo will perform as part of Dave Gisler's Carte Blanche.

Konzert im Duo mit Dave Gisler

  • Carte Blanche

    Dave Gisler

    • Franziska Bruecker & Dave Gisler

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Franziska Bruecker's first Carte Blanche evening took place in mid-November with BrueckerMeisterTrauffer and Fitzgerald & Rimini. In an interview, Bruecker explained how she had put the evening together: «BrueckerMeisterTrauffer is my original project, it has become a very important project for me over the last few years, even during Covid. It quickly became clear to me that I wanted to give this project space.» The trio consisting of Franziska Bruecker, Anna Trauffer and Gerhard Meister came together because they all enjoy working with the space between words and music. «We are interested in how we can play with this hierarchy that often arises when text and music meet on stage.» The evening was complemented by Fitzgerald & Rimini: «I then looked for something that works with a similar desire and balance between music and text. And that's what Fitzgerald & Rimini is all about.»