transmediale 2013

For its 26th edition on Jan 29th to Feb 3rd 2013, and at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, transmediale; Berlin's festival for art and digital culture, boldly goes BWPWAP (Back When Pluto Was a Planet). Through a week of exhibitions, performances, screenings, conferences, and workshops, visitors will be able to explore the thematics of this crisis generating reclassification.

In the festival, the demotion of Pluto to “dwarf planet” status, is used as a metaphor for the constant shifting of knowledge paradigms, that drive the creation of new cultural imaginaries.

True to transmediale’s ideal of integrating theory and practice, international thinkers and practitioners in the field of art, culture and media, will explore new ways to engage with the histories, practices, and futures of familiar objects that have been declared somewhat obsolete. With this, we prepare them for renewal through artistic intervention.

Throughout the geography of the HKW, visitors will engage with Octo, a reenactment of Berlin’s Rohrpost pneumatic mail delivery system, and 3d parody of a social network. Three conceptually connected but independently effective exhibitions will be presented under The Miseducation of Anya Major, and include the works of generative artist Sonia Sheridan, and an Evil Media Distribution Centre by the artists Graham Harwood and Matsuko Yokokoji known as YoHa.

Two world premieres and live performances will accompany keynote discussions, and include audiovisual artist People Like Us’ Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another), and cross gender performer Diane Torr’s new stage show that confronts identity and classification stereotypes.

The festival’s significant film programme with screenings, will include Eija-Liisa Ahtila’s contemporary remake of The Annunciation, which begs the audience into experiencing the unfamiliar in the familiar.

transmediale is funded as a cultural institution of excellence by Kulturstiftung des Bundes.