The interdisciplinary festival for electronic music, art, and politics will be taking place between the 1-5th of March in Graz. For the first time in its 13 year history the festival will be taking place at the beginning of the year, kicking off the Austrian festival season.
THE MUSIC PROGRAMME
The opening evening takes place in the Dom im Berg featuring a program developed in cooperation with the Spanish festival Sónar. The evening features the Austrian musician Sixtus Preiss and band, the U.S. electronic funk-pop duo Knower, the Viennese Zanshin, one half of Ogris Debris together with the video artist Alba G. Corral and the Berlin based Spaniard DJ Detweiler.
On Thursday evening things move forward in the Forum Stadtpark Keller and Parkhouse. In the Forum there will be a live performance from Peter Kutin and Florian Kindlinger. An experimental bridge between the discourse and music elements of the festival will be provided by the literary crossover format hoergeREDE with two self produced pieces: At the festival opening in Dom im Berg the young audio-visual poet ORAVIN will present two video works on the subjects City of Tomorrow and Algorithmic Regimes accompanied by live text. On Thursday evening in Forum Stadtpark the dramatist Natascha Gangl will premiere her live audio play “SUPERANDOME” with a four channel live installation from Maja Osojnik & Matija Schellander.
On Friday Jon Hopkins will be providing Graz with a particular highlight. The english artist whose award winning debut album was re-issued last year will be releasing a new album in May. In preparation for the release he will be performing as a few select shows as DJ. On the same evening Jenny Hval from Norway, the U.S. sound artist Tropic of Cancer and the Scottish newcomer Eclair Fifi will be performing together with FM4 veteran Slack Hippy.
The second floor of Tunnel will host live DJ sets ranging from dub to techno by the English producer Shackelton and the Dutch A Made Up Sound (aka 2562). The ex Tresor-Club resident Ancient Methods, who made a name with techno and post-industrial productions will be closing out the night. Another must-see on Friday is the Dungeon Floor with Warp records rookie Lorenzo Senni, the multifaceted artist SØS Gunver Ryberg and Lolina alias Inga Copeland, who will be presenting her new album.
Saturday evening brings the sound of Detroit to Graz. One of the founding fathers of techno, Juan Atkins, will be taking a prime time slot at the Dom im Berg with one of his very rare DJ sets. But the evening begins with Clara Moto from Graz who will present her new EP followed by a live analog set. After that the Viennese duo Pulsinger & Irl will drop some acid house and the enigmatic project Paranoid London will make their first live performance in Austria. The Tunnel Floor on Saturday evening is curated by Mumdance & Logos, who invited acts like FIS, Loxy and Conor Thomas to Graz.
For those who want more, the Afterhours in Parkhouse will be extending the party on Saturday and Sunday, and the Elevate Music Brunch can help get things going on Saturday with some vegan superfood in Greenhouse.
On Sunday the festival comes to an exciting end with the first Graz performance of Stephan O’Malley. The American, who is probably best known for his drone band Sunn O))) has his roots in black metal and industrial. A dark aesthetic that is still audible in his current works. Before him the jazz combo Hungtai / Maranha / Ferrandini perform and the Viennese cult band Radian will make the Graz stop on their current album tour.
Alba G. Corral (ES) | alllone (AT)| A Made Up Sound (NL) | Ancient Methods (DE) | Clara Moto (AT) | Conor Thomas (UK) | Dan Lodig (AT) | D.J. Detweiler (ES) | Eclair Fifi(UK) | FIS (NZ) | Hedonismus Hacienda Graz (AT) | Hungtai / Maranha / Ferrandini (PT) | India Jordan (UK) | Inou Ki Endo (AT) | Lolina (UK) | Jenny Hval (NO) | Jon Hopkins DJ Set (UK)| Juan Atkins (US) | Juju Love Records (AT) | Jung An Tagen (AT) | KNOWER (US) | Kutin/Kindlinger (AT) | Lorenzo Senni (IT) | Loxy (UK) | Markus Sommer (DE) | Mumdance & Logos (UK) | Opcion (AT) | ORAVIN (AT | Paranoid London (UK) | PSSPSSHOKAYHOKAY (AT)| Pulsinger & Irl (AT) | Radian (AT) | Rer Repeter (AT) | Rollo Royce (AT) | Sam Shackleton (UK) | Sedvs (AT) | Sixtus Preiss & Band (AT)| Slack Hippy (UK) | SØS Gunver Ryberg (DK) | Stephen O’Malley (US) | TCF (NO) | Tropic of Cancer(US) | Zanshin (AT) | ZSAMM (AT) | zøtsch (AT)
THE DISCUSSION PROGRAMME
Big data, quantification and algorithms are the big themes of the Elevate Festival 2017. Total surveillance and control, massive data collection by corporations and intelligence agencies, and the current debate about “fake news” have made it to the mainstream. But a fundamental discussion of the technical background and ethical issues surrounding the use of algorithms and the result power relationships are still mostly missing. The Elevate Festival has dedicated itself to addressing these issues and will be exploring a broad spectrum of these issues.
Several of the Discussion Sessions will be presented as part of the European-wide festival cooperation “We Are Europe” and have been co-curated by partner festivals. The Sonar Festival from Barcelona will be examining „Smart Cities vs. Sharing Cities“ in the podium-discussion. The Insomnia Festival from Tromsø, Norway will be looking at the quantification of nature, advancing climate change and it’s effect on indigenous people. This means renowned guests from Barcelona and Tromsø will be taking part in discussion in Graz for the very first time.
A preview of the discussion program will be part of the opening show on Wednesday the 1st of March, offering countless international guests an opportunity to get a glimpse of the upcoming sessions. Artistic performances and an opening speech from the best selling author Evgeny Morozov will round out the event. From Thursday until Sunday a number of lectures, podium-discussions workshops and documentary film-screenings will be taking place.
INSTALLATIONS
For the first time their will be installations on Elevate that will still be visible after the festival ends. The video installation Painted by Numbers from Konrad Becker (AT) & Felix Stalder (CH) will be in the Gothic Halls of the city of Graz (near the Graz museum) from the 4th to 10th of March. The installation Institute for Human Obsolescence from Manuel Beltran (ES) will be in the ESC Medienkunstlabor and Drone Shadow from James Bridle (UK) will be in a public space.
Links:
Elevate
Elevate 2017