The 18th edition of the festival shut up and listen! presents twenty-one performances, including several world premieres, as well as exhibitions, installations, and discursive events.
In times of unstable political conditions and uncertain prospects for the future, this year’s festival is dedicated to the thematic field of chaos, both in its original meaning of χάος as ‘the vast empty space’, ‘gap’, or ‘abyss’ and in the sense of today’s attributions of meaning such as ‘lack of order’, ‘confusion’, or ‘mess’. Chaos bears negative and positive connotations alike and can also be seen as an opportunity for social reorientation and creative new beginnings. We strive to explore the interplay of these semantic fields in concerts, participatory and transdisciplinary performances, as well as with sound and intermedia installations, media art, and discursive formats such as artist talks and a listening room.
Like last year, sual! 2023 will be presented as a ‘hybrid festival’ both via streaming and in the established format of collective experiencing on site.
Incidentally, let’s shut up and listen!
Bernhard Gál, Artistic Direction