HYBRID Biennale 2024

12. – 27.10.2024 Festival for Digital Arts and Transformation

For some years now, the Free State of Saxony and the Smart City model city of Dresden have been recognised as important locations for the global semiconductor and software industry. In addition to large corporations such as Infineon or TSMC, numerous leading SMEs, renowned research institutes, e.g. in the field of robotics and AI, and the TU Dresden, one of the few German universities of excellence, can be found here.

HELLERAU, planned over 100 years ago as a creative and experimental place for an artistic avant-garde, is now using the international HYBRID Biennale festival to shed light on how these impressive and internationally significant scientific and technological competences, potentials and topics are reflected in innovative and artistic institutions and projects in the midst of extraordinarily critical phases of global and digital transformation.The HYBRID Biennale 2024 opened on 12 October with a keynote speech by Tina Lorenz (ZKM Karlsruhe) and a world premiere: the spectacular ‘ROBOTERSINFONIE’ by the Dresdner Sinfoniker, which was celebrated not only by the audience in the Great Hall of the Festspielhaus, but also by over 20,000 viewers worldwide with the support of DEUTSCHE WELLE online.

The second week of the festival, entitled ‘Who’s Your City’ on 18 & 19 October, brings together various productions that deal with the transformation of spaces in the digital age in a very unique way: the performance ‘NEW ILLUSION’ by Toshiki Okada, which does entirely without actors, the immersive game installation ‘Morphogenic Angels’ by KEIKEN and the subwoofer concert installation ‘B.A.S.’ by Stefanie Egedy.

The HYBRID Biennale will conclude on 25 & 26 October with the concert ‘SHIRO’ by NONOTAK and the performance ‘SPOTSHOTBEUYS’ by Silke Grabinger, as well as the international symposium Black Box White Cube XR (BBWCXR) curated by Maria Chatzichristodoulou and Bika Rebek. BBWCXR focusses on how spatial concepts for music, performing and visual arts can be newly and further developed and reach a new audience in the midst of radical digital transformation processes. The symposium brings together numerous artists, researchers and architects who will explore the opportunities and risks of ‘Extended Reality’ (XR), the relationships between human and non-human bodies and between space and technology in various discussion and presentation formats, workshops and installations.