This year based on Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, 3hd sets out, not unambitiously, to consider the “limitless notion of ‘space’”. Its title – ‘Life, the Universe, and Everything’ – perplexes yet further. Apparently the universe wasn’t quite enough.
Overwhelmed already? That may be the whole point – but, cosmic and infinite as it may brand itself, the joy of this year’s 3hd is in the details. A stunning, stunt- based performance from choreographer Kianí del Valle brought the crowds flocking; meanwhile experimental films by Shang Li, Agnieszka Polska, Alice Bucknell and Josèfa Ntjam show at Berlinische Galerie. Also worth checking out is 3hd’s group exhibition, ‘Don’t Panic’, a collision of the political and personal, physical and digital installed at Tempelhof’s soft power until November 20th. JAZSALYN, creator of black beyond, uses AI to excavate the colonial history of source materials from the African collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Tianzhuo Chen (you might know him from Instagram as asian_dope_boys) reworks his previous maximalist performances into a glitchy, kitschy, overstimulating exhibit, brimming with incomprehensible blockchain wizardry. And there’s lots more besides.
…the month-long series of queer-feminist events and exhibitions around Berlin is as abstract as ever.
So, with a mind-boggling premise and an eclectic range of work, what brings 3hd together? What makes the Creamcake festival… well, Creamcake-y? Jared Davis, who works on the programming team and who shows me around ‘Don’t Panic’, tackles the question: “For me, it’s more of a loose scene, a network. In a sentence, I’d say it’s an investigation into how digital culture and the internet has shaped our ways of music making, image making, and club culture.” 3hd fits the bill. There’s more to come, too: you can still get down to ‘Don’t Panic’ or see a performance night of “doomsday debauchery” by duo 33 at Trauma Bar und Kino on Thursday 27th . Also at Trauma, and set to be a highlight, is the closing event on Saturday 29th. Kicking off stiff-collared and serious with a series of talks and performances, the club night starring hyper-feminine pornopop act BABYNYMPH will eventually descend into queer rave – where Creamcake started, and what they arguably still do best.
- Creamcake festival at soft power, Teilestraße 11-13 Hof 2, 3.OG, Aufgang C, Tempelhof, 20.10 – 20.11.22
