A clear, tasteless, and almost colorless liquid that falls from the sky. The rain that forms from H2O is vital to the existence of all life on earth. It’s a chemical compound whose state responds to the conditions of its environment, becoming liquid, solid, even gas. Water’s mutability makes it as unpredictable as it is untameable. Creamcake’s four-part concert, performance, installation, and moving-image series “Is it cold in the water?” dives into the depth and expanse of said solvent, examining both its representations and real-life effects crossing fluidity, permeability, and dissolution. A reference to SOPHIE’s 2021 song of the same name, the program title conveys a certain hesitation, a fear of change at the point of transformation, while signaling a curiosity and joy in opening up space for possibility and potential. The series aims to explore the constantly-shifting modes and forms of individual and collective activations responding to the innumerable, unfathomable crises of modern life, as well as to promote more limber ways of thinking.
Events break the surface of Berlin’s cultural calendar from May to July, starting with performances by Hayden Dunham, Simon(e) Jaikiriuma Paetau, LI YILEI, and Saint Precious around the urban spa pool of Kreuzberg’s Liquidrom, an infusion by Julianne Lee, and a reading and talk session around hot water onsen pool led by Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju, with Savanna Morgan, Luzie Meyer, Nadia Marcus, and Jazmina Figueroa.
ÆDEN opens its halcyon doors to create their own flowing club utopia with fifteen invited artists who inundate the venue’s two floors with a heterogeneous approach to music, sound, and movement, from Lyzza, Windowseeker, and Sevyn 0000 to LA TIMPA, Cõvco, and River Moon, among others. There’s a live performance from Chuquimamani-Condori, whose DJ E album sees forty bands play the melodies of water ceremonies simultaneously. Francesca Heart navigates the aquatic ambiences and primordial memories inspired by Mediterranean sea mythology, while DJ Shahmaran draws inspiration from the enchanted half-serpent woman of Kurdish folklore. KMRU, Sausha, Mama Yha Yha, YUI, JASSS, and quest?onmarq all surge along the late-night tide.
Five films by five artists and collaborations reflecting on the entangled historical, political, social, and cultural implications of screen at 3hdTV. AbuQadim Haqq, DeForrest Brown, Jr. & Dopplereffekt, and Seba Calfuqueo, Davi Pontes, Emilija Škarnulytė, and Rita Macedo together address existential issues of colonial extractivism, capitalist ecocide, and environmental collapse, with water as the catalyst.
The curated selection will also be open to view IRL in the gallery of the Hošek Contemporary ship, while Chris Williams and Lester St. Louis-led improvisatory, liquid, third space installation HxH present “In Residence” with Chienne De Garde, Gemma Ushengewe, Louise Trueheart, and Nikima Jagudajev on its stage.
Overlapping the same weekend two presentations at Kleiner & Großer Wasserspeicher shows Adham Faramawy’s “And these deceitful waters” video work, and Yen Chun Lin & J. G. Biberkopf present their “Shell Sea Spiral Scry” sound installation. One tells the migration stories of the river Thames illustrating the co-optation of land and water for projects of dominance and destruction, the other embraces fluid consciousness and parallel ways of knowing in an interdimensional spiral of memories of the ocean, rhythmic murmurs of dreams, and waves of wind that wash time.
Soft, hard, and gaseous, both acidic and alkaline, water has the potential to create, maintain, and destroy. Helin Şahin expresses the equal parts illusory and essential nature of this life-giving liquid with her “Is it cold in the water?” artwork and visual identity that accompanies the program. Rain, rivers, and reservoirs; storms, floods, and tidal waves, this most vital, yet ubiquitous thing is the single most resonant force to all known living forms, as it softly implores: “don’t be so fixed, or you’ll stagnate.”
