FIND THE FILE at Haus der Kulturen der Welt / 21.-24.03.2019

Collecting, saving, preserving, selecting – What happens to musical cultural heritage as the world becomes digitized? In many African countries there is an ongoing and robust discussion about how to preserve musical collective memory. How do the archival holdings of radio stations, record companies, or museums document regional and global history? What historical constructions are represented in collections, what cultures get passed down? Digitization seems to be the only way to save some archival materials from deterioration or loss. At the same time, we often experience the transformation of collected objects into saved files as an indiscriminate accumulation of masses of data. Who’s going to listen to all of it? How can we keep all these archived fragments alive? And who actually gets access to them?

These and many other questions will be addressed in the music and discussion festival FIND THE FILE. Over the four days of the festival the HKW and its guests will attend to the problematic of how to deal with our musical cultural heritage with a diverse and high-class program. The carefully assembled concert program maintains the balance between commissioned works, lecture-performances, and appearances by international stars. Installations, dance performances, and a discerning program of speakers will also be an important element of the festival.

Archive sampling meets live music, tradition meets electronic: Rwandan Records, a creation of Milena Kipfmueller and Jens Dietrich, is a video and sound installation, audio drama, concert, and engaging music theater. The Rwandan hip-hopper Eric 1key, working with the Berlin musician Klaus Janek, creates sonic worlds that reach backwards and forwards to a variety of time periods. Pre-colonial history is interwoven with experiences of the present and science fiction.

The concerts, performances, and installations are accompanied by a top-notch discussion program. On March 23rd the author Simon Reynolds (Rip It Up and Start Again among others) will take part in a panel entitled “The Infinite Archive”. On the same day Jace Clayton aka DJ Rupture will talk about life and death in the universal library. And on March 24th Brian Shimkovitz aka Awesome Tapes From Africa will discuss the topics of crate-diggers, selectors, and reissues.

Videoinstallation:
Renata di Leone, Armin Linke, Giulia Bruno, Giuseppe Ielasi: Fela Kuti and the Politics of Remembering
Videoarbeit: Cornelia Sollfrank Artistic Shadow Libraries
Begehbares Musiktheater: Milena Kipfmüller: Rwandan Records

Donnerstag 21.03.
17:00-20:00 Rwandan Records
20:00-22:00 Opening mit: Aérea Negrot, Tellavision & Derya Yıldırım, Bernadette La Hengst
pres. Liverbirds revisited, Olith Ratego & Chor der Kulturen der Welt
22:00-23:30 DJ Raph

Freitag 22.03.
17:00-20:00 Rwandan Records
19:00-20:20 Tanztheater Planet Kigali
Sublime Frequencies Labelnight:
20:30-21:30 Hayvanlar Alemi
21:30-22:30 Baba Commandant
22:30-00:00 Alan Bishop

Samstag 23.03.
13:30-14:15 Film: The Last Angel of History, R: John Akomfrah, 48 min, UK/GER, EN
14:30-16:30 Talks: Keeping Track(s): Saving Sonic Heritage
16:30-18:00 Talks: Piles of Files: The Infinite Archive
17:00-20:00 Rwandan Records
18:00-19:00 Lecture: Jace Clayton: Life and Death in the Universal Library
19:00-20:00 Lecture-Peformance: The Moving Archive
mit Guillermo Lares und Stefan Schneider (anschließend Installation)
20:00-22:00 Dur-Dur Band International
22:00-00:00 DJ /rupture (Jace Clayton)

Sonntag 24.03.
14:00-15:30 Film: Searching for Sugarman 83 min, Schweden/GB
15:30-17:00 Panel: Informal Archiving: Crate Diggers, Selectors, Reissues
17:00-19:00 Talks: Enter and Revive: Conditions for Accessibility and Reuse
17:00-20:00 Rwandan Records
19:00-20:00 Konzert, Lecture
Mbira: A Diversity mit Stella Chiweshe, The Zonke Family, Stefan Franke
20:00-22:00 Femi Kuti & The Positive Force