Kulturnatt Stockholm 2026

The Control Unit: Tudor Continuum

18.00–01.30 In the Auditorium, floor 2

The Control Unit is a newly formed musician collective with Mats Lindström from Elektronmusikstudion (EMS) and Joachim Nordwall from iDEAL Recordings, together with the Argentinian experimental bandoneon player Mercedes Krapovickas and the British musician Paul Purgas from the electronic music project Emptyset.

In their first collaboration, they explore ideas and methods initiated by the American avant-garde composer David Tudor, who performed at Moderna Museet in 1960 in a concert co-arranged with Fylkingen, an artist-run, non-profit association for experimental music and art. The Control Unit works with circuits, found objects and live sound processing to explore the material and unstable properties of the analogue and electroacoustic medium, in the spirit of an experimental sound ensemble.

Inspired by the temporary and collaborative possibilities in Tudor’s works, the group portrays the collective format as a balance between order and chaos, in which form and structure are created and dissolved at the same time as music creation is revealed as a system in constant change, where materiality, electronics and space communicate with each other.

The evening’s performance is a collaboration between Moderna Museet and Elektronmusikstudion.

David Tudor and Moderna Museet

David Tudor, born in 1926 in Philadelphia, was a very skilled pianist and his collaborations with John Cage became legendary. Tudor enabled Cage’s compositions through his virtuoso way of interpreting them on the piano. In the 1960s, David Tudor began composing electronic music live with self-designed modular synthesizers and subsequently, composing became his main focus.

In 1951, David Tudor met Merce Cunningham at the Black Mountain College, which was the beginning of a collaboration that lasted for more than forty years, during which Tudor often wrote music for choreographies by Cunningham and his dance company.

David Tudor also collaborated with the group Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) led by the Swedish engineer Billy Klüver, with close connections to Moderna Museet and Pontus Hultén. In 1960, Tudor performed at Moderna Museet in a concert organised by Fylkingen and in 1964 he participated in the museum’s “Five New York Evenings”.

Creative workshop with the Youth Council

19.00–22.00 in the Workshop, floor 2

The Youth Council of Moderna Museet invites you to a creative workshop inspired by the exhibition “The Subterranean Sky – Surrealism in the Moderna Museet Collection”. Together, we explore, in the spirit of surrealism, how humans can free themselves from cultural and social limitations.

Participate in a joint relay painting, experiment with surrealist poetry writing or create unexpected, dreamlike combinations through puzzle drawing. Who knows – maybe a new surrealist manifesto will take shape during the evening?