Thank you! Thank you for visiting Pop-Kultur 2017 and for making the Kulturbrauerei even livelier than it already is. Thanks for jumping up and down at Little Simz, for starting a mosh pit at IDLES, and for making music together with Erobique. Thanks to ABRA for her hypnotic dance with a specially designed avatar, to Arab Strap for the power of nostalgia, to Evvol for a truly unique commissioned work, and to Lady Leshurr for delivering the amount of female power that is needed these days. Thanks to the Berlin label institutions Shit Katapult, Karaoke Kalk, and Monika Enterprise, which despite celebrating their cumulative 60th birthday party SKM60 at Pop-Kultur have stayed fresh and young. We’d likewise like to thank all the artists in the programme for the music, the exchange, and the open hearts and ears.

Thank you for the exciting conversations about gender quotas, vocoders, religion, depression, krautrock, and even about the importance and unimportance of our festival itself. It was a compelling struggle for new perspectives and ideas. Thank you to all of the collectives that agreed to show their work in the context of Pop-Kultur: ausland, We Make Waves, Berlin Community Radio, and Antje Øklesund.

‘The event remains one of the most carefully curated in Germany.’

(Süddeutsche Zeitung)

Thank you to the State Minister of Culture Prof. Monika Grütters and to the Mayor and Senator for Culture and Europe Dr. Klaus Lederer for finding clear words in light of the recent boycott attacks against »Pop-Kultur«. We also thank everyone once again who has engaged in dialogue and continues to believe in the unifying power of art, creativity, and culture beyond all borders. That was never as important as it is today, and we will continue to emphasize its importance in the future. In the arena of gender equality, the slightly better but still-unacceptable results of the new FACTS survey by female:pressure confirms that there is still much work to be done.

Last but not least, we’d like to say a very special thanks to the 250 participants of our »Pop-Kultur Nachwuchs« programme, all of whom have made us excited about the future with their unbridled spirit of discovery.

Pop-Kultur will return in 2018, once again different and surprising but with the same aspirations, values, and hopefully once again with you. Stay in touch via social media and newsletter, and don’t forget to celebrate pop for the other 362 days of the year, too. We’ll be doing that, in any case.

See you soon,
Your Pop-Kultur Team

Additional photos can be found in our press area.

17.08.17

The international BDS (»Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions«) Movement has identified Pop-Kultur as one of the targets of its global campaign. The goal of the movement is wide-reaching boycott against collaboration with Israeli artists and intellectuals as well as boycott against any artistic performances in Israel.

We have Israeli artists in our festival programme, just as we have artists from Tunesia, Syria, Russia, Poland, the UK, and other countries. The culture department of the Israeli Embassy in Germany contributed a 500 (five hundred) Euro grant towards travel costs for artists. For this reason, the embassy is listed on our website, as are the rest of our cultural partners.

The BDS campaign has put an enormous amount of pressure on all the Arabic artists in our line-up. At this point, four artists from Arabic countries have cancelled: Abu Hajar, Emel Mathlouthi, Islam Chipsy & EEK und Hello Psychaleppo. Artists from Germany, other countries in Europe, and the USA have also reported that they have received emails, Facebook comments, or Twitter messages from BDS activists. We therefore assume that all artists or their agents have been or will be contacted. The BDS Movement claims that Pop-Kultur has been »co-organised« or «co-financed« by the Israeli state, which is not true.

We believe that the only way to deal with conflict in this world is through critical discourse and dialogue. As artists and cultural workers, we in particular have the responsibility for building relationships and networks across borders, even if we disagree on certain points.

UPDATE 17 – 20.08.17
Annie Goh and Iklan featuring Law Holt have cancelled their performances at Pop-Kultur 2017.

UPDATE 23.08.17
In the meantime two more bands have cancelled their performance at Pop-Kultur: Oranssi Pazuzu and Young Fathers.

A list of the cancelled artists can be found right here.