Das Balance / Club Culture Festival versteht sich als Schnittstelle von progressiver Clubkultur und Gesellschaftskritik und findet seit 2018 in Leipzig statt. Mit seinem interdisziplinären Programm aus Musik, Kunst und Diskurs untersucht das Festival die politische Bedeutung von Clubkultur in der Gesellschaft, ihre Rolle in verschiedenen Communities und ihren Beitrag für technischen und kulturellen Fortschritt.
Nachdem das Festival im letzten Jahr kurzfristig als Online-Format umgesetzt wurde, findet das Balance / Club Culture Festival 2021 erstmals als eintägiges Event im UT Connewitz statt.
Die Festival-Edition 2021 geht unter dem Titel Re:Balance der Frage nach, ob und wie sich Clubkultur von der gesamtgesellschaftlichen Krise einerseits sowie den dadurch ausgelösten unterschiedlichsten individuellen Krisen andererseits erholen kann. Wie können wir trotz Covid und allem was damit verbunden ist, Clubkultur wieder in der Realität, mit echten Begegnungen und im direktem Kontakt miteinander erleben, neu denken, gemeinsam feiern?
Der Clubraum als solcher, als gelebte Utopie und Raum der Möglichkeit zur Dekonstruktion und Identitätsfindung, wie er unserem Idealbild entspricht, existiert in der Gegenwart derzeit nur begrenzt und von Unsicherheiten begleitet. Begegnungen, Erfahrungen und Gespräche sind selbst zu einer Utopie geworden. In ihrem Vortrag „Radical Nightlife Club Culture as a Strategy of Community Building“ wird Anjali Prashar Savoie sich Fragestellungen der Notwendigkeit von Communities und ihren Potentialen in der Clubkultur widmen. Im Workshop “Holding space - How to be kind to ourselves” mit Emotional Labor Queen wollen wir lernen, wie wir auch in Krisenzeiten Raum für Selfcare lassen und nachsichtig mit uns und unserem Umfeld sein können, um so Platz für neue Utopien zu schaffen (Anmeldung siehe unten). Der Workshop wird auf englisch mit möglicher deutscher Übersetzung sein.
Aus einer Kollaboration der visuellen Künstlerin, Filmemacherin und DJ Vanessa Opoku mit der Choreografin und Tänzerin Elle Fierce und der DJ und Musikerin AUCO (No Shade) entsteht eine Neuproduktion für das Festival, die an diesem Abend zur Premiere kommt. Die Konzerte der sexpositiven Rapperin mit der Punk-Attitüde, Myss Keta, und einer der most forward-thinking artists of clubbing, Lotic, mussten im letzten Jahr coronabedingt ausfallen. Nun kommen beide zum ersten Mal nach Leipzig für eine Show im Rahmen Balance / Club Culture Festival 2021. Komplettiert wird das Lineup durch die interdisziplinäre arbeitende Musiker*in Odete.
Das UT-Connewitz hat einen barrierearmen Zugang zum Venue.
Hygiene-Konzept 2G (Genesen, Geimpft)-Konzept. Alle Besucher*innen, auch genesene und geimpfte Personen, brauchen einen tagesaktuellen digital-nachweisbaren Test (keine Selbsttests). Covid-Tests sind am 2.10. noch kostenfrei.
Balance / Club Culture Festival sees itself as an interface of progressive club culture and social critique and has been taking place in Leipzig since 2018. With its interdisciplinary approach of music, art and discourse, the festival explores the political significance of club culture in society, its role in different communities and its contribution to technical and cultural progress.
After being implemented as an online format at short notice last year, Balance / Club Culture Festival 2021 will take place as a one-day event at UT Connewitz.
Focussing on Re:Balance, the 2021 festival edition explores the question of whether and how club culture can recover from the overall societal crisis on the one hand and the most diverse individual crisis triggered by it on the other. How can we, despite Covid and everything connected with it, rethink and celebrate club culture again, with real encounters and direct contact with each other?
The club space as such, as a lived utopia and a space for deconstructing identities and individual expression, exists in the present only to a very limited extent and accompanied by many uncertainties. Encounters, experiences and conversations have themselves become a utopia. In her lecture „Radical Nightlife Club Culture as a Strategy of Community Building“ Anjali Prashar Savoie will address questions of the necessity of communities and their potentials in club culture . In the workshop „Holding space - how to be kind to ourselves“ with Emotional Labor Queen we want to learn, how to make space for selfcare even in times of crises, as well as how to be kind to ourselves and our communities to make space for utopian ideas (registration see below). The workshop will be in english with optional german translation.
A collaboration of visual artist, filmmaker and DJ Vanessa Opoku with choreographer and dancer Elle Fierce and DJ and musician AUCO (No Shade) will result in a new production for the festival, which will premiere at the festival.
The concerts of the sex-positive rapper with the punk attitude, Myss Keta, and one of the most forward-thinking artists of clubbing, Lotic, had to be cancelled last year due to corona. Now both are coming to Leipzig for the first time for a show at Balance / Club Culture Festival 2021. The lineup is completed by the interdisciplinary working musician Odete.
The venue is accessible. More infos @UT Connewitz
Hygiene Concept „2G“ (Recovered, Vaccinated)-Concept. All visitors, including those who have recovered and been vaccinated, need a daily digitally verifiable test (no self-tests). Covid tests are still free of charge on Oct, 2nd 2021.
Team
Franz Thiem, Anja Kaiser, Sarah Ulrich, Ulla Heinrich, Peter Hermans
Website Coding
unfun
DE Im Workshop mit Emotional Labor Queen wollen wir lernen, wie wir auch in Krisenzeiten Raum für Selfcare lassen und nachsichtig mit uns und unserem Umfeld sein können, um so Platz für neue Utopien zu schaffen (Anmeldung siehe unten). Der Workshop wird auf englisch mit möglicher deutscher Übersetzung sein.
EN In the workshop with Emotional Labor Queen we want to learn, how to make space for selfcare even in times of crises, as well as how to be kind to ourselves and our communities to make space for utopian ideas (registration see below). The workshop will be in english with optional german translation. Workshopregistration (for free) via balanceclubculturefestival@gmail.com
EN The market-driven commercial nightlife industry clashes with the idea of genuine community formed through clubbing. Clubbing is still dominated by white artists, DJ tours contribute to quickening climate catastrophe, careless promoters prioritise money over safety, and raves colonise and invade spaces without regard for their local environments. In this sense, clubbing might not lead us to the kind of utopic community it‘s sometimes thought to unlock. While smaller scenes are celebrated for social inclusion and progressivism, the language of community and social justice is easily co-opted. When industry becomes conflated with community systems of capitalism and white supremacy at the core of the industry become masked, covert and self-perpetuating in the very cultures thought to oppose it.
Given this context, what is left for clubbing as a path towards community building? Can we still create meaningful collective worlds through clubbing? Can clubbing lead us to new forms of collective participation that last beyond the temporary timeframe of a party, or confined space of a club? What can we learn from the pandemic? How can we create a future for clubbing different to what we left behind?
Taking learnings from queer racialised communities who have historically organised through clubbing, this lecture attempts to rethink clubbing in its current formations. As nightlife becomes increasingly marked by commodification and governed according to economic priorities, exploring practical ways to build community becomes ever more important.
Lecture
EN The Portuguese multimedia artist Odete works between writing, music, performance, film and visual arts. Her body of work is explicitly autobiographic and combines the political with the spiritual from a radical queer persepctive and through transitioning. Her Live Shows are ranging between anime soundtracks with lots of reverb, pitched voices narrating a tale of heartbreak, opera singing with her very own technique and the music of her friends.
depart.one is member of SHAPE Plattform and presents Odete at Balance Club / Culture Festival. Co-financed by Creative Europe / European Union.
EN Lotic, the experimental club music project of J’Kerian Morgan, is one of clubbings’ most forward-thinking artists for nearly a decade now, merging pop music hooks, hypnotic vocals, visual magic and the lineage of Black club culture. Lotics’ new EP “Water” will be released at the end of October and we are even happier to invite this extraordinary artist to Leipzig for the first time.
EN Sex-positive performer with a secret identity and feminist rapper with a punk attitude: Milan-based M¥SS KETA is probably the next big thing and a club kid like you and me at the same time. M¥SS KETA sets the stages of the biggest festivals and clubs of Italy and Europe on fire in a jubilation of techno, house, dubstep and rap. We are looking forward to her first gig in East Germany ever!
EN A collaboration of visual artist, filmmaker and DJ Vanessa A. Opoku with choreographer and dancer Elle Fierce and DJ and musician AUCO (No Shade) will result in a new production for the festival, which will premiere at the festival.
Be prepared for a stunning visual impression by Vanessa A. Opoku. Vanessa is a visual artist and DJ, living and working in Berlin. By means of film and photography, animation, 3D scanning and AI, her work explores the borderlands of mixed reality. Her first solo exhibition at Synnika Frankfurt has just opened, where the artist not only asks questions about identity, but also answers them with self-empowerment by placing the statements generated by the AI in a context that gives rise to a decided stance.
Elle Fierce, a trans-non-binary, jamaican-irish artist, performer and activist born in Great Britain connects radical political claims and experiences of being a black trans body with methods of dance in their provocative, engaging and highly skilled work. Elle has been a professional ballet and modern dancer performing on stages all over the world, now working as a freelance artist with a residency at Akademie der Künste der Welt (ADKDW), DEMASK Kollektiv und Integrationshaus e.V. in Cologne.
Auco is a Berlin based DJ whose sets bring heat to every stage they play at. Their style is a genre-bending deconstructed club music experience influenced by Gqom, Jersey club, as well as old-school Jungle, Garage, and Ragga, paying tribute to their South London roots. Together with Neana, they are hosting a monthly show on cashmere radio called “infinite quest”. Special excitement: At Balance festival, they will present their new EP for the first time.
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