Preview of Creamcake’s 3hd Festival 2024

by Mats Antonissen // Oct. 16, 2024

This weekend, Berlin-based interdisciplinary platform Creamcake kicks off the tenth edition of 3hd, their yearly music, performance and visual art festival. The three-weekend program is titled ‘The Shadows that Linger’ and sets out to explore how the uncanny manifests in today’s technology and culture, while simultaneously seeking to unlock the political potential of dread and discomfort. Until November 3rd, DJ-sets, live concerts, performances and screenings will be held throughout Berlin. For 3hd’s decennial, Creamcake collaborates with venues Berlinische Galerie, HAU, RSO and silent green.

Jas Lin & Hearthealer

The festivities commence Saturday October 19th with a performance and party double-bill titled ‘TECHNOSIS’ at nightclub RSO. The spiritual side of technology will be highlighted in artist Jas Lin and writer Hearthealer’s performance ‘NEMATOCYST,’ as well as during sets by musicians and DJs like Bassvictim, NEXCYIA, object blue and Evita Manji later in the evening.

Damsel Elysium, portrait // Courtesy of the artist

That same evening also marks the start of 3hd’s moving-image program at Berlinische Galerie and on online platform 3hdTV. ‘Spirit Pictures’ will feature work by artists Abdessamad El Montassir, Cihad Caner, Stephanie Comilang, April Lin and Micaela Durand and Daniel Chew. Titled after paranormal photography practices of the 19th century, this selection revolves around contemporary inquiries into collective psychology, memory and violence, and the ghostly part tech plays in these spheres. The films can be watched as late as November 18th at Berlinische Galerie or streamed on 3hdTV.

‘Goodnight Sweet Thing’ // Photo by Alon Sichermann

3hd’s second chapter, dubbed ‘See No Evil,’ similarly combines performance and party on Saturday, October 25th and Sunday, October 26th. Weekend two will take place at HAU Hebbel am Ufer and showcase ‘Goodnight Sweet Thing,’ a theatrical performance art piece directed by Christine Brache and Sigrid Lauren, with Emily Allan, Betsey Brown and Joshua Weidenmiller making up its cast. Based on Brache’s poetry, it consists of a 40-minute piece in three acts that scrambles wrestling, psychoanalysis and a 1950s American prom, contemplating morality and its relation to convention and norm in the same breath. Afterwards, multi-instrumentalist Damsel Elysium performs recent compositions made out of soundscapes, field-recordings and immersive audio. slimgirl fat plays Friday’s afterparty, while Alice Z Jones is on DJ-duty on Saturday.

Bassem Saad & Sanja Grozdanic: ‘Permanent Trespass (Beirut of the Balkans & the American Century)’ // Courtesy of the artists

Sorour Darabi, portrait // Photo by Clara Schleiffer

The festival’s closing night takes place November 2nd at silent green, where the ‘Underworld’ chapter continues 3hd’s focus on the various performing arts. The Betonhalle hosts performer Sorour Darabi who worked together with musicians Pablo Altar and Ange Halliwell on ‘FROM THE THROAT TO THE DAWN,’ a meditation on the promises and threats of the night as told from the perspective of Scheherazade, one of the protagonists of the classic ‘One Thousand and One Nights’ folk tale. Alongside this piece, musical contributions from The Fertile Crescent, Casey MQ and Yawning Portal can be enjoyed in the repurposed crematorium, as well as XTC IN THE XIV’s fusion of polyphonic choral arrangements and live electronics. Bassem Saad and Sanja Grozdanić join forces for ‘Permanent Trespass (Beirut of the Balkans and the American Century),’ a performative meditation on memory, mourning and catastrophe, while artist Yi Lin presents their video installation ‘Eternal Death.’ A multi-sensorial scenography by Shaly López accompanies 3hd’s final event.