Conflux Festival 2022 ‘Exit Human’ recap

Amidst a rapidly evolving world, Conflux Festival emerged in 2022 out of the necessity for multisensory encounters, urgent ideas, contemporary art, and experimental music to converge in the city of Rotterdam. The festival's inaugural edition unfolded over four days with a dense program that delved into the current state of the human race and its relationship with natural and technological environments under the theme 'Exit Human.'

Through artistic and cultural practices showcased in the form of exhibitions, performances, club nights, and conferences, the audience was confronted with questions revolving around humans and their relationship with the constant transformations within technology, ecology, society, and ultimately space.

What role will humans play in this future? Are we bound to exit stage left, or will we continue to adapt to our current cyborgian reality? These were some of the inquiries that artists, creators, and thinkers were invited to delve into. 

The festival took place from June 2nd to 5th across various locations in and around the center of Rotterdam. Exhibitions were hosted at V2, UBIK, Slash Gallery, V11, Plein 1940, Cinerama, WORM, and Arminius. The eclectic nature of the festival resonated in its meticulously curated programming of thought-provoking and genre-defying exhibitions, performances, conferences, and club night concepts.

 

The festival’s program kicked off on Thursday with the opening of exhibitions at V2, UBIK, and the adjacent Slash Gallery. These exhibitions showcased artworks and installations emerging at the intersection of science, art, and technology. For instance, ‘Drifting towards the Unknown’ by Carla Chan invited contemplation on aimlessness and directionlessness, while ‘Void’ by Cocky Eek and Joris Strijbos offered a fully immersive soundscape. ‘Cylinders’ by the Macular Collective explored the dynamic interplay of light and motion, and ‘Hidden Patterns’ captivated audiences with spinning optical designs translated into audible frequencies. Meanwhile, ‘The Open Loop’ by Marco Broeders and Julian Edwardes provided an entrancing journey into altered states of consciousness through synchronized audiovisual stimulation.

The festival’s first evening featured a duo performance by Mark Fell and Will Guthrie on the V11 boat, marking the official opening of the four-day event. Attendees were treated to immersive experiences such as ‘Issiz’ by Nikki Hock and a performance by Acidic Male against the backdrop of a projection by French visual artist and environmental activist, Joanie Lermercier, urging viewers to imagine a potential future, where little may remain of our planet. 

On the second day, Friday, conferences were hosted in Cinerama, where thinkers, artists, and performers discussed the festival theme: ‘Exit Human.’ These conferences collectively explored the transformative nature of society, reflecting on the latest social developments within art, technology, and science.

 

Friday and Saturday nights saw attendees flocking to WORM for ritualistic explorations of experimental music and live audiovisual performances. Another distinguishing feature of Conflux was its emphasis on club culture, providing a platform for dance rituals as forms of purification, liberation, or escapism, especially in the aftermath of the global pandemic. Names like Samuel Kerridge, Marsman, Mad Miran, Zohar and Umwelt heated up the dance floors, pushing the boundaries of conventional club culture and dance floor rituals.

On Saturday, Helm, a sound artist based in London, graced the stage of Arminius with a captivating AV performance,’ showcasing material from his album ‘Axis’  in collaboration with visual artist Tatsuya Fujimoto. Audiences were treated to an immersive auditory journey, as Helm’s experimental compositions intertwined with dense aural landscapes of blending industrial music with hallucinatory drones and various acousmatic phenomena.

As the festival drew to a close on Sunday, Anni Nöps and Marco Donnarumma delivered respectively a hybrid live set and an intimate body performance that left a lasting impression on those witnessing them. The concluding hybrid live set and experimental body performance, ‘Corpus Nil,’ served as poignant reminders of the resilience and adaptability of the human spirit in a world of constant change.

For full program of Conflux Festival 2022, check here.

All photos by Pieter Kers I Beeld.nu

Programme 2022

  • Performances

    Conflux festival offers a variety of innovative experimental music, live audio visual performances and performance art. Experience a cross-section of internationally renowned artists hailing from the front lines of digital culture and adventurous music.

    The program invites the audience to enter abstract and digital worlds through numerous screen setups and analogue light spaces. By presenting genre-defying performances the artists within this program will put our senses to the test and explore the relation between live audio visual composition and the festival theme: 'Exit Human'.

    Artists
    Klara Lewis & Nik Colk Void + Pedro Maia
    Helm
    (visuals by Tatsuya Fujimoto)
    Flora Yin Wong
    Mark Fell & Will Guthrie
    Animistic Beliefs & Jeisson Drenth
    CACHE/SPIRIT
    Lichun Tseng & Robert Kroos
    Ebb and Flow
    Dadub & FAX
    Hypersynchronous
    Marco Donnarumma
    Corpus Nil
    Dylan Cote & Pierre Lafanechère
    Earthsatz
    Nikki Hock
    ISSIZ
    BJ Nilsen
    Acidic Male
    Pinar Demirdag and Sofia Crespo
    Panspermia
  • Exhibitions

    The exhibitions show artworks and installations that emerge at the intersection between science, art and technology. In some of the works, technology is being used to give us a dark glance on how our future could evolve. Other works experiment with new forms of sensory perception and strive to activate the imagination that arises when encountering abstract fields of light and sound. These installations explore the limits of our senses by using fast rotating mechanisms, stroboscopic light and multichannel speaker setups.

    Opening times exhibitions at V2_, UBIK and Slash Gallery:
    Thursday 19:00h - 22:00h, Friday till Sunday 14:00h - 21:00h

    Opening times exhibition at Plein 1940:
    Friday till Sunday 22:00h - 00:00h

    Artists
    Carla Chan
    Drifting Towards the Unknown
    Joanie Lemercier
    View From the Moon
    Marnix de Nijs
    AOR-200 Autonomous Oil Reserve
    Cocky Eek
    Void
    Macular
    Cylinders
    Mariska de Groot
    Hidden Patterns
    Marco Broeders
    The Open Loop
  • Club Nights

    In a time in which our societal freedom is heavily under discussion, a space for escapism becomes more and more important. Since the dawn of time humans felt the need to immerse into dance rituals where sound and the human body interact. Club culture caters for this need and provides a space where escapism, trance and full body immersion in sound and light relate to technology.

    Conflux explores the current state of electronic dance music by inviting a few of the most innovative electronic and techno-driven musicians and local talents who experiment with the boundaries of club culture and dance floor rituals. With these nights Conflux strives to push the limits of the sonic pallet, combining the worlds of nocturnal sound with mind-bending visual experiments.

    Artists
    Pessimist
    Umwelt
    Samuel Kerridge
    Unit Moebius
    Mad Miran
    Genyten
    RAFF
    Marsman
    Das Ding
    Rita Maomenos
    Zohar
    Slick Chick
    Ruwedata
    Inge K
    Blondewednesday
    Acidic Male
  • Conference

    Thinkers, artists and performers reflect on the festival theme: 'Exit Human'. Through lectures, talks, and discussions the conference will focus on the transformation of nature and society by reflecting on current social developments within art, technology, and science.

    We are slowly but surely moving towards the post-Anthropocene. How will humans adapt to the constant changing world around us? What changes will we see on both a global level and on a biological level?

    Artists
    Stefan Sorgner
    Lisanne Buik
    Matthew Fuller
    Geocinema Network
    Visual Methodologies Collective
    Roel Dobbe
    Marco Donnarumma
    Klara Lewis & Nik Colk Void + Pedro Maia
    Dylan Cote and Pierre Lafanechère
    Cocky Eek
    Pinar Demirdag
    Jeisson Drenth
    Lawrence Lek's Sinofuturism
    Lawrence Lek's Geomancer
    Lawrence Lek's AIDOL
    Eric Parren
    Holly Dicker
  • Get your tickets

    tickets

    Discover more