I was commissioned to make work in response to the context of a newly constructed Police Station in Zurich. For this project, I proposed to work with improvisational musicians performing in the empty police station and recorded over zoom, provisionally titled In Absentia (Audi alteram partem).

In relation to the legal context of a police station myself and long-term collaborator David Harding explored a series of works in response to the context and the legal principle of Audi alteram partem (to "listen to the other side", or "let the other side be heard as well") which is both a principle of justice and of free improvisation alike. Also in the context of the covid pandemic and recent police violence in the US and BLM protests, the project would respond to the philosopher Achille Mbembe’s essay on ‘The Universal Right to Breath’ in which he writes: ‘We must reclaim the lungs of our world with a view to forging new ground.’

The early working title 'In Absentia' also referred to both a legal context for trial of an absent party and pointed to the remote conditions of production of site-specific work under conditions when artists may be ‘absent’ from a particular location due to Covid travel restrictions.

My work included collaboration with improvisation musicians Thomas Rohrer and Saadet Türkoz who had previously participated in the 'flattening the curve' project devised with Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra and based on recorded Zoom improvisations and which has been ongoing since March 2020.

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