We have to talk: Pop-Kultur 2017 presents diverse talk-, film-, and exhibition programmes

Dear Pop-Kultur audience,

Once again, Pop-Kultur looks forward to an extensive programme outside of our live concerts and new Commissioned Works. It’s about time that we introduce our talk programme and everything beyond that. The big themes are pop, culture, art, creative spaces, role models, future, and past.

The opening talk on August 23rd features Berlin’s cultural senator Dr. Klaus Lederer, Anke Fesel, and Christian Reckmann of the festival »Zurück zu den Wurzeln«. It will focus on the importance of the city’s creative free spaces. Aside from that, we’ll speak with Yeşim Duman, Hengameh Yaghobifarah (Missy Magazine), and shooting star Ilgen-Nur about the ever-current topic of gender, though from a special perspective. Diana McCarty, co-founder of the international art radio station reboot.fm and Mo Loschelder and Bettina Wackernagel of the festival »Heroines of Sound« are all too aware of the persistence of a »Gender Gap«, and they call for an urgent appraisal of this situation. Other topics in the talk programme address the relationship between religion and pop music, the pop-cultural significance of the vocoder, and, in a collaboration with Off-Kultur, the essential question: »Pop-Kultur – Is This Even Necessary, Anyway?«

Dr. Klaus Lederer, Ilgen-Nur, Sky Deep, Max Dax

More than any previous edition, Pop-Kultur 2017 is united through recurring themes that facilitate interdisciplinary exchange and new perspectives. A special installation will resurrect the Berlin club Antje Øklesund, which was sadly demolished in 2016. Pop-Kultur 2017 will also join forces with female:pressure to present the results of their now-third FACTS survey for the first time, and then together with journalist Christine Kakaire, researcher Annie Goh, producer & label owner Sky Deep, and curator Marlene Engel will discuss the steps that need to be taken next.

Fans of qualitative pop documentation will get a glimpse into the world of the  Sleaford Mods (in the film »Bunch Of Kunst«), the comeback of THE THE (in »The Inertia Variations«), and the colourful world of the female electronic music scene in Berlin (in »Raw Chicks.Berlin«). All film screenings will be followed by a discussion.

Sonic Youth (Kim Gordon) im Kino Sputnik, Wedding, 17.04.85 als Teil der Ausstellung »Keller – 80 Fotos aus den 80er Jahren« von Roland Owsnitzki

We’d also recommend taking a close look at our exhibition programme, which will  be presented on the grounds of the Kulturbrauerei. The photographer Roland Owsnitzki introduces his exhibition »Keller – 80 Photos from the 80s«, which gives a comprehensive glimpse into the concert culture of West Berlin before the fall of the Wall – crazy hairstyles and outfits included. In addition, an exhibition curated by Tim Tetzner about Hype Stickers awaits you in the gallery of the cinema. Right, exactly: those are the ones stuck on your record sleeves and CD cases – the things you were never quite sure if you should take off.

And there you have it. As you can see, plenty of variety awaits you. The complete Pop-Kultur 2017 programme can be found here . And you can buy festival passes as well as day tickets for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday right here.

Foto-Credits /// Klaus Lederer (SenKultEuropa), Ilgen-Nur (Pressefoto), Sky Deep (Alexa Vachon), Max Dax (Luci Lux)


Confirmed: Norbert Bisky, SPEX, Balbina!

We are beyond happy to announce a few more additions to our festival programme:

On Thursday, August 27, at Berghain’s cloakroom internationally renowned German painter Norbert Bisky and neurologist Dr. Tom Fritz will speak about the incredible effects music and composing can have on the human mind, creativity and his ability to recover, fighting diseases such as Alzheimer. The second part of this module will see this year’s German pop breakthrough artist, Balbina, read some partly still unreleased lyrics and poetry. Both, the talk and the reading will be held in German, though.

Tickets / Facebook event / more information and links

On Friday midnight at Schlackehalle Berlin-via-Cologne pop-cultural magazine SPEX will now ask you to join a very special session in the light of their 35th anniversary. The talk will focus on a problem that is older than the magazine itself: the still outstanding appropriate representation of female musicians and journalists in festivals, label-catalogues and in the music media. This talk will also be held in German.

Tickets / Facebook event / more information and links


New confirmations: Alec Empire, Sookee, and more!

A few updates. We regret to inform you that Tracey Thorn will sadly not be able to attend our festival because of private reasons. We are very sorry about this cancellation. But also we can now announce a bunch of new confirmations for our program:

With Alec Empire, Dieter Gorny and Anne Haffmans three very different experts will meet for a talk on Friday at Schlackehalle, how up-to-date copyright law has to work in 2015. The German Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection, Heiko Maas, will also attend this event.

German rapper Sookee and Will Bankhead (DJ-Set) (The Trilogy Tapes) complete our Friday night at Berghain and Panorama Bar.

Viv Albertine, among many other things very well known for being the guitarist of legendary punk outfit The Slits, will open the first module at Schlackehalle on Wednesday with a live reading of her autobiography. The second part of the event will see conductor Andŕe de Ridder meet once again with Matthew Herbert on stage for a common talk.

Michaela Meise will now accompany @NeinQuarterly with melancholic tunes on the accordion for his Thursday afternoon talk.