As Berlin’s cultural and social life was largely shifted to the online domain in spring and summer 2020, the 20 Sunsets festival was a true ray of sunshine. The HKW team reacted to the months of cultural drought and isolation with a heart warming programme by Berliners for Berliners. Instead of Wassermusik (trans. Water Music), the traditional summer festival on the city’s nicest rooftop terrace, Berlin’s international artists and cultural creators were brought to the stage.
In all of their shimmering diversity. This year we can once again look forward to concerts, film screenings, readings and discussions on the roof of the “Oyster”. Over five weekends from 15.07. to 15.08.21 the HKW invites you to 21 SUNSETS. As with last year, partnerships with a range of Berlin cultural institutions have influenced the programme.
The Loser Mage project draws inspiration for its somnambulistic and ephemeral sounds from pop and club music, electronica and ambient. After a good decade of diverse activities – running labels, playing in bands, putting on shows as part of a collective and more – it’s entered a new phase. On three Aemong albums, most recently ‘Crimson’ for the Diskotopia label, Henrique Uba and Yu-Ching Huang have clothed pulsating industrial, spartan post-punk and wave influences in a scratchy veil of dub – with surreal and consistently eerie results.
The Auslanders have two common homes: in the legendary experimental music venue in Prenzlauer Berg and in open and collective improvisation. Experimental guitarist Julia Reidy, composer and double bassist Lisa Hoppe, songwriting improviser and drummer Mariá Portugal, writing artist and trumpeter Mazen Kerbaj and Datashock member Ruth Maria Adam on violin couldn’t be more different and are therefore perfectly suited to each other.
The ordering of the programme will be the same as last year: Thursdays literature, Fridays and Saturdays music with film screenings afterwards, and mixed programmes on the Sundays. The kiosk on the rooftop terrace will be open during the music events and Restaurant Weltwirtschaft will also be running for the sunsets on Sundays.
21 SUNSETS w/ Loser Mage, Aemong and The Auslanders
Haus der Kulturen der Welt | John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10 in 10557 Berlin-Tiergarten
Sunday, 1st August 2021
18:00 | Loser Mage
18:45 | Aemong
19:30 | The Auslanders
Open-air on the roof terrace. The event will be cancelled if poor weather is forecasted. The decision will be announced on the day of the even.
