"What is a music festival, what is an art exhibition? Why are these categories so fixed? Should they be?"
"One thing we've been obsessed with is attention: how people experience things in the moment. A lot of what happens at the festival is created on-site, in the space, often at the very last moment. It's alive and chaotic in a good way."
"You just feel extremely small, and the music feels really big."
"I love to work with space as an instrument itself in my work."
Berlin Atonal collapses conventional festival and exhibition categories by centring experimental sound and its interaction with industrial architecture. The programme operates more like a rave than a white-cube exhibition and refuses a unifying curatorial theme. Recognition as a biennial rooted in music and sound coincided with Berlin techno culture entering Germany's UNESCO heritage register in 2024. Sold-out tickets on Resident Advisor signal strong public demand and a need to dissolve art, music, and film boundaries. Programming prioritises attention and on-site creation, with many works realised in the space at the last moment. The decommissioned Kraftwerk power station amplifies the work, making attendees feel small while the sound feels expansive, and artists deliberately treat space as an active instrument.
Read at The Art Newspaper - International art news and events
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