Transmediale 2019
Spatial Concept for Transmediale, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, 2019
For the festival Transmediale 2019 the exhibition hall of the iconic Haus der Kulturen der Welt is turned into a platform for live events. Accommodating numerous different formats: performances, talks, concerts and study group discussions, the non-hierarchical set up of the space allows for multiple perspectives and vantage points. The border between audience and performer is continually re-defined.
All lights of the whole building are filtered through the shades of the color pink, giving a spatial and physically immediate dimension to the festival’s general theme of affective technologies. Superseding language, color radiates into our bodies through our eyes and its affective properties can not be controlled. In old English the color pink was called “incarnation”, from the Latin word for „flesh“, describing hues between „flesh-color, blush-color“ to „crimson, blood color“. To incarnate, as a verb, also meant "to take the shape of flesh" - today it means to embody, to manifest something, an idea, into a concrete form or a human body.
Accompanying the festival is the "Study Circle Library" - an reading room with a curated selection of books, ranging from theory, poetry to fiction, all relevant to the festival theme. Translucent curtains shrouded the library from the rest of the festival, creating a simultaneously intimate yet permeable space for the visitors. In lieu of bookshelves, the books were attached to cushions filled with the shredded remains of discarded books and old festival catalogues. Scattered across the circular carpet, they served as supports for repose and as soft repositories of repurposed information.
Photos: Laura Fiorio 2019