Dates:
Fri, 11 Sept 2026, 18:00–21:30
Sat, 12 Sept 2026, 18:00–21:30
This year, a red-lit area will be visible on the Maindeck in front of the STWST. The red area stands for all manner of dramatic expressions. It lies open like a huge, screaming mouth of blood, evoking both the current horrors of the wars plaguing the globe and the structural brutalities of capitalism: Even the concrete screams, to paraphrase Michel Houellebecq. And everything screams—everything that has been torn from life and fed into the current machinery of exploitation—into this new technocapitalist totalitarianism that has permeated even the smallest spheres of life, into this context in which—from hardware to software and wetware—even extracted life and algorithms scream.
On the red surface a takeoff takes place—a ritual ascent, a launch into space. A positive hauntology emerges within the negative: For Sun Ra on Saturn, with its statement in favor of divine creativity, also constitutes a statement against those forces that are destroying the planet. It is a commentary on the fact that the much-cited multiple crises are not calamities arising out of nowhere, but rather the results of calculation, strategies and fantasies of omnipotence.
Categories: Experience
Source: Event information supplied by Source: Ars Electronica Festival 2026; formatted by LocFeed..