HYBRID Biennale 2022

The first edition of the HYBRID Biennale presents numerous international digital arts positions at the interface between analogue, performing and visual arts in installation, performance and music projects. The festival will open online on 20 October with the digital NFT project "The Spire. A Glimpse Into the Hybrid Promise", an exclusive pre-showing by dgtl fmnsm and an artist talk by Choy Ka Fai at the Japanisches Palais in Dresden.

From 21 October, numerous installations, concerts and performances can be experienced at the Festspielhaus in Hellerau: "Tragic Spirits" (21 October) by Choy Ka Fai, who is currently Artist in Residence at HYBRID and the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, or the new production "Cancelled" by Maria Hassabi (22 & 23 October) will give an exciting first impression of the audiovisual and performative stage projects of the HYBRID Biennale. Under the title "Beyond these fractured presents" (21-30 October), curator Yasemin Keskintepe has developed a concept for the presentation of installations and stage presentations for artists such as Cécile B. Evans, Polina Medvedeva & Andreas Kühne, Johanna Bruckner and Lamin Fofana as well as dancers from the Palucca University of Dance. The successful and central cooperation with PYLON will be continued with current works by Theo Triantafyllidis and Sophia Al-Maria, while Artificial Museum (ARM) from Vienna, dgtl fmnsm, LENSBASED, Objekt klein a and The Constitute are further important curatorial partners and projects in the programme. Another highlight of the festival is the MUTEK Collaboration Night (29 October), which, after several postponements and adapted streaming versions, will finally be able to celebrate artists such as Ryoichi Kurokawa, France Jobin & Markus Heckmann and Line Katcho with immersive VR installations and live audiovisual concerts in the Großer Saal of the Festspielhaus at HELLERAU.

At the beginning of the 20th century, HELLERAU was founded as a joint project of industry, research and art and as a response to industrialisation and changes in working and living conditions. Today, the world is facing new, exceptionally critical phases of global transformation processes. In HELLERAU, which is now regarded as one of the most important international centres for contemporary dance, music and performance, HYBRID is therefore establishing an experimental platform for the arts in the (post-)digital age. The concept of the hybrid will be discussed here in its technological, but also political and ecological dimensions, in the principle of "relatedness" (Donna Haraway) and its potential for diversity, and reflected on in artistic projects.