"Through Betrayal – Music as an Imaginary Space of Knowledge" Trio Signum, Kadja Grönke (Moderation/Conversation)

The project "Through Betrayal" explores the possibility of using music to uncover inner attitudes, emotional reflections, and cultural spaces of meaning that often remain concealed in everyday life. The starting point is Dante's Inferno, particularly Canto XXXII, in which betrayal is described as the gravest and most destructive form of human misconduct. Dante's vision of Cocytus – a lake frozen to ice in the final circle of hell – serves as a symbolic topography of complete standstill and inner hardening. In current societal tensions, the theme of betrayal gains new relevance. Betrayal appears both as a real phenomenon and as a rhetorical construction that serves to legitimize political, social, or individual positions. From a cultural studies perspective, this process can be described as an escalation spiral that generates a crescendo and accelerando of alienation, potentially culminating in a climax of disintegration.

At the center of the project is the work cycle "Paths," through which Violeta Dinescu investigates the question of how music, as an aesthetic medium, can open up a counter-space: a space where imaginary experiences become possible, which do not have to end in real actions but can contribute to self-awareness. Music has the unique ability to make processes of freezing, condensation, and inner transformation sensually perceptible. It creates – especially in the absence of conceptual definitions – a field of perception in which emotional, ethical, and existential dimensions can be explored. The works of Corneliu Dan Georgescu, Laura Manolache, and others will also illuminate different facets of betrayal: the dynamics of gradual escalation as well as the possibility of inner distancing. The project thus sees itself both as a musical reflection and as a contribution to a broader discussion about ethical orientation in times of societal uncertainty. The audience will be guided through the evening by the renowned musicologist Kadja Grönke (Oldenburg). She will discuss the thematic field and provide the audience with access to the individual works of the evening, as well as to contemporary music in general.