Amsterdam based audiovisual arts and music festival FIBER releases first names for their edition Fragments from 11 to 14 May 2023.

Music, Performances & Club: ABADIR (Hybrid), Assyouti (DJ), Alliyah Enyo (Live), Aleksandra Słyż, Judith Hamann & Gerard Lebik (Live), Happy New Tears (DJ), Hüma Utku presents The Psychologist (Live AV), LCY (DJ), Mbodj (DJ), Monster (DJ), Perila (Live), Shoal & Orah present Terugblik (Live AV), Signal Transmutations (Spekki Webu & Matti Vilho) (Live AV), Teqmun (DJ). Symposium: Helen V. Pritchard (Lecture), Jordan Edge (Lecture), Sean Cubitt (Lecture), Toby Kiers | SPUN (Lecture).

From 11 to 14 May 2023, the Amsterdam based FIBER Festival returns with a four-day multi-sensory festival programme spread over unique indoor locations in Amsterdam - the majestic Concertgebouw, the vibrant Oedipus Brewing, music & performances at the new industrial venue Noordwaards and a clubnight at Garage Noord. The two-day festival symposium takes place at the Flemish cultural centre De Brakke Grond and the festival exhibition will ground itself in the industrial sheds of the recently opened Door Open Space. What to expect? A wide selection of new developments in audiovisual art, digital culture and the experimental and deeper corners of electronic music by both international artists as emerging talents.

During this edition, FIBER explores the theme of Fragments. Carrying a duality between something falling apart while simultaneously offering a chance to rearrange and explore new compositions. Fragments invites visitors to reassemble a new understanding of our surroundings and identities, using different acts of listening, music, sound, sonic speculation, and magical worldbuilding as inspiring and critical media.

What new languages and thoughts arise from amplifying and listening to non-human forms of communication, from AI to animal entities? As we see the cartesian way of classifying the worlds around us fall short, what new realities should we, and can we, still construct? What voices have been pushed into the background while shaping a dominant view of history and the present? In times of crisis, can (not) listening create a resilient state or move us to act? Fragments acts as a collection of lenses, frequencies, vectors and objects through which we explore contemporary developments in art, music, technology, and ecology – all in relation to a technologically-disorientated human mind and precarious state of the world due to climate collapse. 

The first names on the 2023 line-up are released. During the kick-off of FIBER Festival on Thursday 11 May at Concertgebouw, Entrée and FIBER present an evening concert where classical and electronic music meet. Het Concertgebouw is considered one of the most important concert halls in the world due to its unparalleled acoustics and broad, high-quality programming. Alliyah Enyo (Live) will use sound as a meditative medium to embrace the power of rituals. Composer and performer Aleksandra Słyż (Live) – accompanied by cellist Judith Hamann and saxophonist Gerard Lebik – will play an extended version of her piece ‘Softness, Flashes, Floating Rage’. When listening closely to Perila (Live) her soothing sounds, you will discover a world built out of many sonic fragments gathered from field recordings. 

On Friday evening 12 May at Noordwaards, breakthrough artist ABADIR (Live) will host a powerful live-performance in which Arabic rhythms are merged together with influences from Jungle, Jersey Club, Reggaeton and Footwork. FIBER is honoured to co-present the premiere of Terugblik (Live AV) by Shoal & Orah – in collaboration with The Something Something, an audiovisual collaboration themed on looking back whilst creating the new. Signal Transmutations (Live AV) is a new mind-expanding project by Spekki Webu and Matti Vilho, which explores the questions of reincarnation by travelling through tribalistic transmissions. Hüma Utku will present her audiovisual performance The Psychologist (Live AV), using harmonious noise and harsh ritualistic rhythms as tools for storytelling.

On Saturday 13 May, FIBER and Garage Noord will join forces again for the festival club night. Assyouti (DJ) will surprise the audience with hyper-rhythms and noisy energy. Drawing inspiration from lore, speculative fiction, and literature, LCY (DJ) operates between dancefloor-oriented sets, sonic worldbuilding and experimental ambient releases. Mbodj (DJ) mixes different contemporary African genres together, resulting in a melting pot of experimental sounds, breaks, dancehall and bass. Amsterdam based Teqmun (DJ) brings his surprising sound, which balances between crisp organic textures and snappy driving drums. Happy New Tears (DJ) invites dancers to dissolve into her sonic world while creating a melancholic atmosphere. Monster (DJ) will play a euphoric and energetic set, combining old-school trance, breaks, techno and house with acid More names will be added!

On Saturday 13 May and Sunday 14 May FIBER returns with its two-day festival symposium, which offers visitors the chance to learn about urgent technological and ecological developments. During this programme, artist and performer Jordan Edge (Lecture) will roleplay a new understanding of hybrid species, non-human and queer/trans sonic narratives through multidisciplinary performance experiences. Media theorist and writer Sean Cubitt (Lecture) will give a keynote lecture on (among other things) his upcoming book Truth, about ecocritical approaches to media and society. Dr. Toby Kiers | SPUN (Lecture) introduces the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks; a science-based initiative dedicated to mapping and protecting Earth's underground mycorrhizal networks. Helen V. Pritchard (Lecture) their work addresses how computation and environmental practices configure the possibilities for life—or who gets to have a life—in intimate and significant ways. This is only the start, more to come!

The line-up for the Audiovisual Art Assembly and the festival exhibition will be announced within the coming weeks. The Audiovisual Art Assembly is a one-day programme on Friday 12 May at Oedipus Brewing, in which professionals and students will explore the boundaries of and the unique making processes behind audiovisual art. The festival exhibition will open on Wednesday 10 May and will be open for visitors during the festival in the 3000m2 big Door Open Space, showcasing new hybrid artworks by both leading and emerging artists.

With the 8th festival edition, FIBER invites you to fast-forward, skip through, or slow down with a programme of audiovisual art, sonic encounters, digital creativity, and daring conversations. Join FIBER Festival: Fragments from 11 to 14 May 2023 to meet a generation of artistic makers and thinkers who help ground us in the realities of our present and futures. Get your tickets via www.fiberfestival.nl. FIBER offers both passe-partouts as single event tickets.

Concertgebouw | Opening Concert | Thursday 11 May | 8 - 11 PM

Noordwaards | Music & Performance | Friday 12 May | 9 PM - 5 AM

Garage Noord | Club Night | Saturday 13 May | 11 PM - 8 AM

Oedipus Brewing | Audiovisual Art Assembly | Friday 12 May | 11 AM - 5 PMPublic programme: 5 - 9 PM

De Brakke Grond | Symposium | Saturday 13 May & Sunday 14 May | 12 - 6 PM

Door Open Space | Exhibition | Thursday 11 May to Sunday 14 May | View www.fiberfestival.nl for the opening times. Exhibition opening: Wednesday 10 May, 5 PM - 12 AM 

Tickets: now on sale 

Website: www.fiberfestival.nl

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Since its first edition in 2011 at club Trouw Amsterdam, FIBER brought together visual culture, electronic music and club culture. The festival builds bridges between art/music lovers, newcomers and an international programme of artistic makers, critical researchers, creative coders, DJs and live performers. Together, they experience the latest developments in digital culture and electronic music, with a special attention to emerging talent. FIBER Festival acts as a meeting place, while giving visitors tools to interface with our rapidly changing world. Through lectures, artist talks and interviews – that form the in-depth programme behind all art installations and music/performance programmes – FIBER focuses on the impact of technology on humans, and how technological developments are intertwined with the ecological reality of our planet.