3hd 2019 is informed by the art of storytelling. In celebrating its fifth anniversary and contemplating its own legacy as a scene-defining cross-disciplinary festival, this year’s “Fluid Wor(l)ds” examines the social and cultural narratives shaping its own identity, and that of its audience and participants. Running October 22 to 27, the program differentiates itself from mainstream institutions with an alternative canon. It’s one where fluency, imagination and adaptability is valued above the impossible desire for the constant, the rational, the rigid.

In this raw, liquid state, 3hd moves fluidly between spaces to generate and distribute its hybrid histories across digital networks, and through music, performance and visual art. Surfacing at HAU Hebbel am Ufer’s theater, Trauma Bar and Kino nightclub and cinema, and Postscheckamt’s postal bank tower-come-temporary exhibition, as well as online, invited artists focus on the potential for positive social change, transformation and communication at the point where sound, text and the image intersect. These are new worlds built with novel words.

By offering a multifocal view of these myriad world-making practices, 3hd invites us to engage with these stories by staking a claim within (its changing relationship to the) world. The only question is, which one?

The “Fluid Wor(l)ds” program builds on 3hd and organizers Creamcake’s role in redefining community and shaping queer history by highlighting the fresh perspectives of its favourite online-adjacent artists. The series of concerts, club nights and performances; readings, installations, a film program and an exhibition runs over six days, along with the “Embedded Narratives” online anthology. The latter cross-platform project marks five years of 3hd Festival, allowing the URL and IRL to spill out across disciplines, spaces, media and time, by resurrecting past commissions and connecting them with new ones.