“‘(Cathartic) Singers’: CTM Festival, Berlin, 24 January – 2 February 2025”, Cyclic Defrost

CTM Opening, Silent Green Kuppelhalle, CTM Festival 2025 Berlin. Photo: Frankie Casillo

 

For its 26th edition CTM Festival did not have a unifying theme, although it did unveil a new multi-year thematic thread “Resynthesizing the Traditional”. This concerns how artists are approaching and remaking “traditional” practices—songs, instruments, tuning systems—with contemporary tools, production techniques and to address current issues. This was evident in several performances during the festival, alongside a week-long lab that featured several notable artists such as bela and Nakul Krishnamurthy, which was showcased on the festival’s final day.

 Read the full review here.

“‘From behind the strobe lights and into the spotlight’: Thúrc Tinh by Animistic Beliefs + Jeisson Drenth”, Cyclic Defrost

My review of the premier of Animistic Beliefs + Jeisson Drenth’s new performance collaboration at Muzeikgebouw Amsterdam published in Cyclic Defrost.

Animistic Beliefs + Jeisson Drenth, “Thức Tỉnh”, Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam, 10 January 2025. Photo: Sabine van Nistelrooij.

 

Early in the new year, FIBER and The Rest Is Noise premiered a new multimedia collaboration by electronic music duo Animistic Beliefs and media artist Jeisson Drenth. On Friday 10 January, Thúrc Tinh was welcomed by enthusiastic supporters at Amsterdam’s landmark concert hall complex, Muzeikgebouw.

As the theatre lights dim, I hear forests sounds: birds, wind in trees, water bubbling over rocks. A masked figure emerges from the wings to the sound of a thudding drum. Dressed in black, the figure crouches and scurries tentatively across the stage as the rhythm picks up, punctuated with rasping growls. The creature  grasps a pail and a large brush as a wide screen over the stage fades in to project a view from above, framing a long white sheet on the floor. As the rhythm becomes more complex, Linh Luu, part of the duo Animistic Beliefs, begins to write a calligraphic script on the floor in wide performative gestures. On the screen above, subtitles provide a translation in English as each pictograph word is inked: Trauma, Discovery, Ancestry, Growth. When the script is complete two costumed assistants appear at the side of the stage to bring the sheet up to the wall, stage left, where it hangs as a banner overseeing the rest of the performance.

Read the full article here.

“Teleconnections: On Cycles of Media, Climate and Politics”, Berlin Art Link.

Tega Brain & Sam Lavigne: ‘Media Cycle,’ 2022, digital print // © Tega Brain & Sam Lavigne, courtesy the artist

Artist, researcher and curator Sybille Neumeyer recently opened the group show ‘Teleconnections’ at D21 Kunstraum Leipzig, as part of her long-term artistic research into the narratives and aesthetics of climate crises. The term “teleconnections,” often used in climate science to describe links between distant climate zones, is reimagined here to explore the interplay between climates, media and politics. It also nods to “telecommunication”—emphasizing how media shapes socio-political and bio-cultural atmospheres. The multimedia contributions by 14 international artists examine how media-driven climate narratives (re)produce power dynamics. They critically address topics such as greenwashing, CO2 cycles, colonial data systems, activism and energy infrastructures, often taking eco-feminist, speculative, poetic or humorous perspectives. We spoke with Neumeyer about the pressing concepts behind some of the works in ‘Teleconnections’ and about how art can become a transformative agent in these cycles. 

 Read on Berlin Art Link.

Fundraising for the Roof: ‘No! More White Money’ at Sophiensaele, Berlin Art Link

No! More White Money premiers at Sophiensaele, Berlin 6 November 2024. Foto: Paul Holdsworth.

 

[No! More White Money] is a theater performance produced by an international cohort of artist organizations: Afra Tafri Creations (IN/NL), Flinn Works (DE), Drama Queen (IN), Tutùọlá Institute (NG) and Ada Mukhina (RU/DE). It follows on from ‘White Money’ (2021), an exhibition and program of performances produced by Flinn Works, which also premiered at Sophiensaele, and critiqued how the flow of cultural funding from Europe to the so-called “Global South” shapes cultural production.

Read at Berlin Art Link.

‘DJ Report/DJ Backlash’: Unsound 2024 Noise, Kraków, 29th of September – 6th of October 2024, Cyclic Defrost

Unsound Festival, Noise. Photo: Helena Majewska 2024

 

Some thoughts on Unsound Festival 2024, Noise, are now up on Cyclic Defrost. It’s a long read!

So while Unsound presented numerous notable concerts, club nights, installations and a discourse program, my focus here is on the festival’s DJ sets. Once in Kraków, I sensed a backlash against DJ culture, as people voiced to me their disdain for the popular Boiler Room platform, complained about the exorbitant fees headlining DJs charge and generally begrudged those who, to paraphrase British producer aya, “make a career out of playing other people’s music”— albeit admitting to having done so herself. Are such criticisms warranted? Let’s cut to the chase.

Read it here.

‘The Melancholic Melody’ Exposes Berlin’s Tech Culture, Berlin Art Link

Ariel William Orah: ‘The Melancholic Melody of the New Economy,’ 2024, performance view.
Foto: Zé de Paiva

After the performance of ‘The Melancholic Melody of the New Economy’ at Ballhaus Naunynstraße, first-time director Ariel William Orah told an appreciative audience that 13 years ago, as a young migrant from Indonesia, he worked in Berlin’s then-burgeoning tech industry. Chatting later in the courtyard bar, Orah discussed scouring the migrant community channels where such jobs are posted to find the performers for his “musical-documentary theatre.” Rather than audition for roles, Orah interviewed whomever expressed interest and invited those willing to commit to the intense six-week development period to join. Despite working in Berlin’s so-called “creative industries,” the five participants of ‘The Melancholic Melody’ were eager to express themselves.

Read at Berlin Art Link.

Ethical Gaming: ‘The Soul Station’ at Halle am Berghain, Berlin Art Link

 

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley: ‘THE SOUL STATION,’ 2024, installation view at Halle am Berghain, Berlin. Foto: Alwin Lay

Staged within an amphitheatre constructed inside the former power plant of Halle am Berghain, ‘The Soul Station’—a monumental immersive installation by Berlin-based artist Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley—centres around a cockpit made of a twin reclining seat fitted with a single sizeable controller. “Leaders,” who voluntarily take up the controller, face a large round screen, a portal into a labyrinthine game-space. Commissioned by LAS Art Foundation, ‘The Soul Station’ debuts Brathwaite-Shirley’s newest video game, unfolding over two parts: the first episode, ‘You Can’t Hide Anything,’ was launched on July 12th and the second, ‘Are You Soulless, Too?’ is scheduled to go live on September 12th. Set in the aftermath of a revolution, the main action in ‘You Can’t Hide Anything’ occurs inside a temple dedicated to “Bodyswappers.” Gamers are challenged to find and engage with six people inhabiting this graphically dense and detailed parallel universe, and then save them by choosing from a restricted set of conversational prompts, all within 11 minutes. A testament to the graphic limitations of the PS2 console (released 2000), gamers steer their way through throngs of polygon characters, past curious objects, between floating text and across vibrant textures. 

Read at Berlin Art Link