This blog section brings together interviews with creatives and my reflections on cultural communication. In my interview series with innovative festival founders, I speak with inspiring personalities about current challenges in the cultural landscape, their curatorial approaches, and the evolving role of cultural communication. Enjoy reading!
Drastic budget cuts, closures becoming the norm, and a growing climate of political pressure and control: The cultural landscape in Germany feels more tense than it has in years. Yet, as so often, moments of crisis in the arts reveal more than internal struggles. The two-day event series “New Allies” at Spore Initiative in Berlin-Neukölln was initiated in response to these fractures.
Dark, unrepeatable, somewhere in Berlin. Whether through the Lost Art Festival, which transforms almost forgotten places into immersive art spaces, or through the exhibition series The Dark Rooms Exhibitions, which takes place entirely in pitch darkness: with their unusual concepts, the four Berlin-based exhibition makers Clara and Sven Sauer, Jan Oertzen and Jan Häusler set their own rules.
Every summer, Stuttgart becomes an open-air gallery. Through the PFFFestival, international artists intervene in the urban fabric, replacing grey façades with colorful murals. A conversation about public space.
The Krefeld Pavillon originally opened as part of a Bauhaus exhibition. Just a few years later, the octagonal building attracts international top musicians such as Till Brönner. Intimate, cross-genre, and unexpectedly different.
MIRA Festival from Barcelona was built on a simple but powerful idea: music and digital art in perfect balance. Today, it has become one of Europe’s most influential festivals for audiovisual experiences. I spoke to Co-Director Marc Gomariz Díaz about the controlled chaos behind MIRA.
NORDWIND has become the leading platform for contemporary Scandinavian art in the German-speaking world. I spoke with artistic director Ricarda Ciontos about transdisciplinary curating and why current funding logics are holding the cultural sector back.
One festival, three days of music, nearly 30,000 visitors – and completely free of charge. The Obstwiesenfestival is one of Germany’s longest-running “free and open-air” festivals. How is this even possible?
