Fluid Wor(l)ds full participant announcement
3hd 2019 moves fluidly through the thoughts, behaviours and actions effecting social change and transformation today. Carrying on the Berlin festival’s focus on the interface of art, music, performance and digital culture, its “Fluid Wor(l)ds”-themed fifth edition explores how interdisciplinary artists navigate, renegotiate and adapt to the shifting realities of networked communication through language, text and narration. The program runs over six days, from October 22 to 27, and features live performances, club nights and an exhibition, digital commissions, writing and a workshop, with each project and event shapeshifting through material, virtual and imaginal forms.
“Fluid Wor(l)ds” becomes a non-linear narrative formed from the scattered fragments of a collective consciousness that reveals itself in spare and surprising ways. There is strength and power in vulnerability, and the ‘fluidity’ of the 3hd program stands not for the ubiquitous smoothness of technocapitalist aesthetics, but confronting and moving through the cracks, disharmonies and confusion of contemporary living. It adjusts to its environment but refuses to be gentle.
For its fifth anniversary, 3hd aims to concretize its forward-thinking position by telling its own story, and that of the community it has helped build and support. The “(Un-)Real E-state” group exhibition at Postscheckamt presents artists creating alternative identities and interpretations of their lived experience. Viviana Abelson, Ruth Angel Edwards, Julian-Jakob Kneer and others, explore the art of storytelling and myth-making beyond familiar visual and textual narratives. Jen Rosenblit’s open call for the “Laboratory for Feeling Right” workshop uses early intuition research surrounding the architectures of emotions and fantasy, collections and kits to deal with the body’s constant capacity to build and consistent drive toward autonomy.
Communication in all its forms is of central importance to the 3hd program, where the two “Wordplay I & II” cross-disciplinary evenings in the HAU Hebbel am Ufer theater present sound, text and audio-visual performances by artists, writers and musicians. Alpha Maid, Göksu Kunak, Ms. Carrie Stacks and Erica Scourti employ narratives informed by our technologically dominated present. “Switching Codes” carries the conversation into sound as a universal language at the hybrid club space of Trauma Bar and Kino. Live performances and a DJ set by the likes of x/o, KayaKata, Elvin Brandhi and Qualiatik combine old and new codes in a composite visual and sonic vocabulary for an emerging generation of non-prescriptive artists existing in the shadows of the curly pop continuum.
Then there is the electronic trilogy of E-vents, each with their own unique component. The “E-Scape” critical rave will include a dance piece from Michele Rizzo, along with a DJ set by Malibu. The “E-Work” club night explores the entangled capitalist logic of work and leisure in the stylistic choices of Yen Tech, Catnapp, Hyph11E, umru and more. Sunday’s very special “E-Waste” closing event, will feature a chilled and intimate DJ set from Laurel Halo high above Berlin on the 22nd floor of the Postscheckamt tower, and a performance by Geo Wyeth. An unravelling contemporary folktale formed from the reconstituted cultural sediment and rot of the soggy earth we have inherited will flow in the afterhours exhaustion of the end of the 3hd program.
Participants 3hd 2019: Fluid Wor(l)ds
Viviana Abelson, Monira Al Qadiri, Alpha Maid, manuel arturo abreu, Auco, bod 包家巷, Elvin Brandhi, Catnapp, CURL / Akinola Davies Jr, Lou Drago, Ruth Angel Edwards, Freeka Tet, Debby Friday, Wanda Gaimes, Roxman Gatt, Margaret Haines, Laurel Halo, Sarah M. Harrison, HellFun (Josefin Arnell & Max Göran), Kerstin Honeit, Hyph11E, KayaKata, Vika Kirchenbauer, Julian-Jakob Kneer, Steph Kretowicz, Göksu Kunak a.k.a Gucci Chunk / Laure M. Hiendl, Tarek Lakhrissi, Francesca Landi, Bianca Ludewig, Malibu, James Massiah, Magdalena Mitterhofer, mobilegirl, Shaun Motsi, Claudia Pagès, Qualiatik, James Richards, Michele Rizzo, Jen Rosenblit, Erica Scourti, Isabel de Sena, Ms. Carrie Stacks, umru, Laura Welker & Ehsan Morshed Sefat, Geo Wyeth, Yen Tech, x/o
