Article by Sarah Messerschmidt // Jan. 18, 2019
CTM festival has been a mainstay of Berlin’s experimental electronic music scene for some 20 years, with a history that traces back to the ripe end of the 1990s, the decade that arguably laid the foundation for contemporary electronic music as it exists today. With a devotion to the sonic and the experimental, CTM describes itself as “the festival for adventurous music and art”, and it certainly lives up to this promise with a steady 10-day programme of club nights, concerts, performances, screenings, installations and exhibitions to celebrate its 20th birthday this year.
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CTM 2019 Persistence
Continuing from last year’s theme, turmoil, this year’s festival structures itself around the theme of persistence, leaving space for a broad interpretation of the concept. Not only has CTM persisted for 20 years amid a growing and changing underground experimental art and music culture, the culture itself has persisted—and with strength—in a world that often finds little space for artistic experimentation. The ‘Persistent Realities’ exhibition at Kunstraum Kreuzberg / Bethanien strives to address these notions of persistence, working with the idea that society is constantly grappling with the push-pull tension between tradition and progress, continuity and change. The exhibition brings together several distinguished artists and curators, whose work collectively addresses the conditions of a society in which “a myriad of trajectories and momentums create a restless world”, effectively inviting its audience to consider what it is to endure, fight, and persist. Running concurrently at Kunstraum Kreuzberg / Bethanien is Brendan LaBelle’s ‘The Other Citizen: Archive’, an experimental archival project that considers the notion of citizenship outside nationhood. At Halle am Berghain, Nik Nowak’s The Mantis takes on sound as a weapon, with a colossal two-tonne sound sculpture/war machine that recalls the sonic battles between East and West Germany, an absurd sonic conflict that persisted for four years between 1961 and 1965.
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Fatima Al Qadiri // Press photo by Fijla Nabeel, Courtesy CTM Festival.
CTM’s live performances are no less boundary-pushing. DJ AZF, Sote, venetian snares and The Black Madonna take over Berghain/Panorama Bar on February 1st, with high energy performances under the title ‘As If We Had Power / As If We Were Loved’. Fatima Al Qadiri makes a Berlin debut next to Deena Abdelwahed and Lecken at SchwuZ on February 2nd, delivering a powerful performative rejection of transphobia and sexual conservatism. The closing concert at Heimathafen Neukölln features the label and collective CURL (Brother May, Coby Sey and Mica Levi); the soulful, R&B influenced Tirzah; as well as the eponymous Yves Tumor, known for his unpredictable live performances and relentlessly provocative yet smooth sound.
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Yves Tumor // Press photo by Jordan Hemingway, Courtesy CTM Festival
A curious twist to the 2019 edition of CTM is ‘Eishalle’ at Halle am Berghain, which runs beyond the duration of the festival, from January 25th to February 10th. Set to a soundtrack of ever-eclectic and experimental DJ sets, festival-goers are invited to bring their skates (or rent a pair) and test out their “ice-dancing skills” to the sounds of Freak de l’Afrique, Skatebård, Kyoka, Robert Lippok, Grischa Lichtenberger, Mieko Suzuki and many more.