No Borders Orchestra
Conducted by Premil Petrović
Directed by Brett Bailey
In a world marked by war, right-wing populism, deepening social inequality, human rights
violations, and human-caused climate change, turning our attention to love might seem
disarmingly simple. Yet, this apparent simplicity is precisely its power. At the root of our
global crises is an absolute lack of care, empathy, compassion, relational responsibility, and
the capacity to recognise the vulnerability of others.
In recent years, feminist, queer, and leftist thinkers and artists have therefore returned to
terms such as radical tenderness, radical love, and revolutionary love. These concepts do
not describe love as a private emotion alone; they understand it as an ethical and political
force: a way of resisting fear, alienation, division, and othering.
The Lovers Tour approaches love not as an escape from the world, but as a driving force
within it. We are choosing radical empathy over systemic apathy, solidarity, attention, a
refusal of exclusion, and a commitment to the freedom of others. It encompasses romantic
love, queer love, friendship, chosen family, self-love, and the fragile bonds through which
people create belonging. Within society as a whole, these seemingly small, everyday actions
are incredibly important, powerful, subversive, and transgressive toward the dominant
system.
The freedom to love remains an unfinished political struggle. It concerns the universal
recognition, protection, and inclusion of different forms of love, intimacy, and kinship.
Against discrimination, hatred, and violence, the Lovers Tour insists on a simple ethical
principle: when people find happiness, dignity, and connection with one another, what right
does anyone have to deny them that freedom?
For the No Borders Orchestra, this question is not abstract. The concert itself becomes a
laboratory for a kinder and more open society. Listening, breathing together, sharing time,
and giving space to others are not only musical acts—they are social acts. In this sense,
the Lovers understand the orchestra as a community in practice: a temporary public space in
which difference is not erased, but held, heard, and transformed into collective energy; a
space where people forge alliances across borders. Friendship as a way of being. Love as an
active practice of liberation. Lovers as an embodiment of love.
The Lovers Tour therefore thematizes both the freedom of the individual act of love and love
as a political force. It asks us to become more loving and to open up space for others. Love
appears here not as a naive ideal, but as a disruptive and liberating practice of connection.
Real love creates a new world. A different, better world! Let’s start where transformation is
the most realistic. Let’s start with ourselves!
