Meret Matter & Lucas Niggli Duo // Un=glücks=fall=linien

In their performance, Meret Matter (voice) and Lucas Niggli (percussion) transmit the overwhelming power that emanates from Adolf Wölfli's work. The concert is a homage to the richness, beauty and excess in Wölfli's work. At the same time, Matter and Niggli show with their performance how fluid the transitions are between dream and reality, between sense and madness. The starting point for the interpretations of the two musicians/actors are Wölfli's visionary stories, drawings and musical compositions.

The theme of the concert evening is Wölfli's wild search for happiness. In his artistic work, he transfers his poverty-stricken biography into the glorious "St. Adolf Giant Creation". Wölfli's quest takes us around the world, from creation to hell and back again. It is a wild journey of adventure that takes us to places of yearning bliss, but also to Wölfli's crashes.

Music plays a prominent role in Adolf Wölfli's work. He spends hours rehearsing marches, polkas and mazurkas on his self-made paper trumpet. Constituent elements of his drawings are musical notations with six staves. Thousands of compositions, drawings and narratives intertwine in Adolf Wölfli's work to form an inspiring synthesis of the arts. His last work, the unfinished "Trauer=Marsch", is an almost abstract, onomatopoeic poem.

In their concert, Meret Matter and Lucas Niggli evoke the creative joy, humour and abundance of Wölfli's universe. In the combination of "voice and percussion", they make a statement in the artist's sense for the non-conformist and the extraordinary.

Meret Matter studied acting and has been working as a director at theatres in Switzerland and Germany, as well as in the independent scene, since 1989. She has directed at the Schauspielhaus Zurich, the Lucerne Theatre, the Schauspiel Hannover and the Freiburg Theatre, among others. Guest performances and festivals have taken her to Hamburg, Leipzig, Dresden, Paris and Toulouse. She has realised over 50 theatre projects. Collaboration with numerous musicians: Dead Brothers, Reverend Beat-Man, Sibylle Aeberli, Pierre Omer, Ted Gaier, Mich Gerber, Fredi Flückiger, Blind Butcher, Helena Winkelmann, Steamboat Switzerland and many more.

Lucas Niggli performs as a percussionist in the border area of new music, jazz, rock and improvisation. His worldwide concert tours with his formations ZOOM, STEAMBOAT SWITZERLAND and numerous projects have taken him to many renowned festivals. He is active as a composer, bandleader, lecturer (ZHdK) and organiser. He has performed on stage with artists as diverse as Barry Guy, John Cale, Sylvie Courvoisier, Fred Frith, Erika Stucky, Tim Berne, Xu Fengxia, Aly Keïta, Andreas Schaerer, Klangforum Wien and as soloist in Olga Neuwirth's opera Orlando (Vienna State Opera).