De Nijverheid, Utrecht
Images: Jim Dermois
Text: Lisanne Tijssen
Video: Rutger Nijkamp
July 19th, the Nijverheid opened its gates for the first installment of the Zenith & U Festival. A one-day program spanning 14 hours of collaboration, experimentation and play. Hosted in cooperation with o3o, Stranded.FM, Uncloud and Culture Shock, all multiple musically inclined collectives stationed in Utrecht, this resulted in an interesting day which highlighted what arises through the sharing of experience. The program was co-curated with a focus on exchange between the local and international; the entwinement of our fringes and where they stem from. Intercultural exchange in a broad sense.
These sentiments transluded in several ways by (collaborative) performances by, for example, Liaoliao and Nacho Tomillo, Tonto and Derozan, James Massiah and NECK. Some sonic performances guided by visual art forms such as VJ sets, by Antonija Vuletic, Margherita Allegrini and the Uncloud team, and installations by Merlijn Toby, Kyra Nijskens and Ines Kooli. Some performances intermingling the theatrical, political and sonic such as NDNMK Solutions and Autism Controller/Solution Hierarchy. Performances bordering not only the mere sonic, but also the spoken, the shown and the enacted.
Frequent collaborators and new voices, sourced from schools, clubs, street corners and other spaces, showing the interconnectedness of cultural life and the support that everyone gains from connection in a broad sense, through dancing, talking, laughing, listening, seeing, witnessing. For audience as well as performers, organizers as well as visitors and the manner in which all these groups need each other to exist. Wanting to show that borders aren’t as strict as they might seem, and that what is presumed difficult can actually be quite simple.
The festival grounds was comprised of 5 different stages, with all their different characteristics. With the various stages being a mix of inside and outside, they added to the physicality of fringe, with the sun as well as the rain joining performances in various ways.
What is denoted as a musical festival isn’t just music, but it needs other forms of art to support, speak, ground and connect. That said, connections are made at various starting points transcending boundaries and meet again in different forms and different spaces.
What is denoted as a musical festival isn’t just music, but it needs other forms of art to support, speak, ground and connect. That said, connections are made at various starting points transcending boundaries and meet again in different forms and different spaces.
We would also like the wonderful audience for coming into this with an open mind, and the necessary curiousity to fully emerge themselves in the experience. We could not have asked for a better crowd.