City Symphony 2.0
Walter Ruttmann: Wochenende (GR, 1930, 11’, Audio) Michael Snow: Cityscape (CN, 2019, 9’) Henry Hills: Money (US, 1985, 14’) Helmi Kajaste, Käärmeniemi & Mika Taanila: A Radial View (FI, 2026, 25’, Live) John Smith: Blight (UK, 1996, 14’)
The city symphony genre, which emerged and flourished in the 1920s, celebrated movement, technology and the pulse of the modern metropolis. One hundred years later, that rhythm has intensified beyond its limits. What remains is the cold pulse of capitalism, laid bare in these contemporary symphonies.
Walter Ruttmann's Wochenende (1930) is a "film without images". Constructed from speech, musical fragments and urban noise, it forms a collage-like portrait of Berlin on the eve of Hitler's rise to power — anticipating musique concrète and later experimental sound practices.
Michael Snow's Cityscape (2019) presents an IMAX-shot panorama of the late capitalist city. Toronto's glass-clad financial district becomes an abstract vortex through accelerating camera movement and jazz percussion.
Henry Hills' Money (1985) is a breathless collage in which discussions of financial precarity among New York avant-garde artists during the Reagan era intertwine with Manhattan's architecture, fragmenting into a disjointed urban opera.
The world premiere A Radial View (2026) by Helmi Kajaste, Käärmeniemi and Mika Taanila presents a decaying portrait of a tower block and the utopian promise of suburban planning. The expanded cinema performance combines spoken word, 16mm film and the sonic turbulence of radio waves.
The programme concludes with Blight (1996). John Smith’s and composer Jocelyn Pook's collaboration is an elegy to East London: collapsing buildings, personal memories and hypnotic music merge into a spectral imprint of a city erased by the construction of the M11 motorway.
Curator: Joel Karppanen