INTRO
For its third edition, PACE Festival moved into Rechenzentrum Potsdam. From 19 to 21 September 2024 it ran under the theme “Diffusion”.
The theme meant letting boundaries dissolve: musicians meeting painters, media artists meeting performers, people meeting “organic networks, artificial intelligences and vital materials” (Rechenzentrum). The venue is a former GDR administration building that now houses hundreds of creative professionals.
XENORAMA coordinated the edition together with Galaxaura and Max Engelhardt and took on concept, setup and visuals, the technical setup and the stage design (Xenorama).
Highlights
Three rooms, from Kosmos hall to cellar
Artists from five countries and Potsdam
Live visuals on the courtyard façades
THE COURTYARD
Outside, the courtyard façades carried a live projection by media artist Naz Yigiter, made in collaboration with XENORAMA. Her generative visuals were played as a live set and reacted in real time to the music, turning the courtyard into what she calls “a dynamic visual and sonic environment” (project page).
The media art exhibition opened on 19 September at 19:00 and spread across three very different rooms: the Kosmos hall, the ground-floor corridors and the Heizkeller, the building's heating cellar. Artists from Chile, India, China, Sweden, Argentina and the Potsdam region showed work there alongside XENORAMA.
The main day, 20 September, brought concerts, performances, info stands, food and an experimental cinema. Twenty-two performers played over the weekend, among them Annika Hippler, Bison Rouge, Lucas Grey, Malika Alaoui, Robert Seidel and the Potsdam DJ collective SNNF. On 21 September the festival closed from 22:00 with a set built around Potsdam's own club history.
CREDITS
Festival: PACE Festival, coordinated by Xenorama
Visuals: Naz Yigiter