HYBRID Biennale 2022

There is hardly a phenomenon changing the arts as fundamentally as digitalisation. With the aid of AI and algorithmic processes, not only is digitalisation creating new aesthetics, it is also envisioning scenarios beyond the reach of the human imagination. With its new festival series “Hybrid Biennale” on art in the digital age, HELLERAU hopes to build a bridge between the analogue and digital realms, and between the performing and visual arts. The ten-day programme in October 2022 will not only serve as a platform for extraordinary international artists and productions at the cross-over of media art, dance, performance and music, it will also be the starting point for a series of new productions, discussion formats, and residencies, and as a catalyst for a “community of practice” for the digital arts.

The festival will kick off with Cécile B. Evans’ eco-feminist adaptation of the ballet “Giselle” from 1841. Featuring elements of 16mm film, microscopic images, animations and AI-generated visuals, the piece sheds light on new forms of cohabitation in hybrid ecosystems and realities. Maria Hassabi is developing a new live installation in which she explores and reflects on silence and deceleration in a hyper-medialised world. In a large-scale animation, as artist in residence the artist Choy Ka Fai presents his cosmic wander series.

The central partner of the biennial is the international festival network MUTEK. Other collaborations with local artists and institutions are planned, e.g. with the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Dresden State Art Collections), the PYLON-Hub and the Dresden Club objekt-klein-a. The project also plans to create artist portraits and stage an awards ceremony in cooperation with the Stoschek Collection.

Director: Moritz Lobeck
Curators: Yasemin Keskintepe, Julia and Thomas Schmelzer (PYLON)
Artists: Cécile B. Evans, Maria Hassabi, Choy Ka Fai, Ryoichi Kurokawa, Holly Childs & Gediminas Žygus, Theo Triantafyllidis, Sophia Al-Maria and others

Festival: HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts, Dresden: 20–30 Oct. 2022