CTM 2020 – Liminal

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CTM’s 21st edition took place from 24 January – 2 February, 2020. 

Under the title Liminal, the festival considered liminal phenomena and liminoid states, or transitional phases in which a familiar order sees its values and symbols destabilised – when norms are suspended or turned on their heads. Liminality characterises spiritual practices and social rituals as well as aesthetic, psychedelic, and other transformative experiences. It marks technological upheaval and social, cultural, and political change. In music, boundary-disturbing experiences and acts of transgression are perpetually negotiated and re-negotiated, be it through the lifestyles and identities associated with music cultures, in practices of intoxication and of altered states closely associated with music, its transcultural hybridity and digital fluidity, or in the multisensory experience of sound itself. How do such experiences and practises affect political and cultural dichotomies? When do they merely serve to reinforce known power structures and when might they actually allow for gains in cultural freedom and permeability? Can transformative potential and the emergence of new ideas arise through liminal experiences, and if so, can they resist co-optation by market forces and political agendas? Can they aid nuanced self-awareness, reveal scope for action, or enable empathetic experiences? With Liminal, CTM 2020 threw itself into limbo in hopes of stimulating a critical discussion of our present and possible futures.

366 participants from 55 countries presented roughly 230 concerts, performances, DJ sets, presentations, discussions, workshops, exhibitions, and installations. 

Talks, workshops, panels, and film screenings made up the 8-day Transfer programme. The 8th edition of the collaborative MusicMaker’s Hacklab for music technology took place, as did the annual Research Networking Day, the annual Radio Lab commission, a new Kontinuum generative audio call, a Network Speed Dating session, a commission at Berlin’s Botanic Garden, and the yearly exhibition, titled Interstitial Spaces.

As always, CTM was held in parallel to and in collaboration with transmediale – festival for art and digital culture which took place at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt. CTM and transmediale also hosted the citywide Vorspiel initiative together with over 40 local venues and organisations.

»CTM continually pushes the club out of its comfort zone, presenting it in exciting new contexts.«
→ Resident Advisor, Maya-Roisin Slater

»As CTM moves beyond two decades in the game, the festival's output remains stimulating as ever. A Berlin institution established to ignite, inspire and entertain, it has never failed to deliver just that.«
→ CRACK, Steve Dores

»Considering the ugly political climate outside the festival, it's a beautiful thing that CTM's programme avoids any inward looking eurocentrism with a lineup that sprawls over continents.«
→ The Quietus, Claire Sawers

»CTM - Festival For Adventurous Music and Art has become so integral to the reputation of Berlin at the cutting edge of electronica, that the two are practically synonymous.«
→ ExBerliner, Damian Cummings

»Expect an extensive programme of talks, workshops, concerts, club nights and installations to both blow and expand your mind.«
→ CRACK Magazine