Psychogeography investigates the influence of the urban environment on perception, psychological experience, and behavior. Psychogeographic research takes place at the intersection of the disciplines of art, architecture, geography, politics, and psychology.
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The Dr¡ft! Festival considers psychogeography in the context of contemporary urban thought.
In its first edition, the program focuses on the psychogeographical interrelations between Kiev and Berlin through lectures, discussions, presentations, performances, films, sound installations, and city tours (walks).
A total of 35 renowned international representatives of psychogeography, authors and artists will participate in the festival.
Among others: Roberto Ohrt, Martin Schmitz, Anastasia Ponomariova, Anneke Lubkowitz, David Wagner, Fabian Saul, Özlem Dündar, Nadire Biskin, Claudia Basrawi and Dan Voronov.
The initiators of the festival are Yuliia Kulish, a literary scholar from Kiev, and Jacek Slaski, a cultural journalist from Berlin, who met by chance in the small bar Makulatura in the Georgian capital Tbilisi. It quickly turned out that they were both fans of drifts and derivés, respectively, the psychogeographic explorations of cities, a crucial tool for understanding and developing psychogeography.
"It was the coincidence of this meeting and the topic itself and its topicality that gave us the idea to create this festival that brings together psychogeograf:innen from Germany and Ukraine," says Jacek Slaski.
The aim of the festival is to create a space where Ukrainian and German experts from the fields of urban history and planning, cultural studies, literature, photography, psychology and sound art can intertwine psychogeographic discourses.
Drift! is funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe, the Capital Cultural Fund. In cooperation with Kunstquartier Bethanien, Verbrecher Verlag and Matthes & Seitz Berlin. Media partner is the TAZ.
