Festival für Selbstgebaute Musik 2021 at Holzmarkt / Sunday, 5.9.2021

Das Festival für selbstgebaute Musik (Festival for selfbuilt music) questions the default state: Who plays and who consumes? Who transmits, who receives? The festival undermines established categories and thus opens up worlds of sound where they are not expected. As a hybrid of music festival and forum for exchange, collaboration and knowledge transfer, sound installations can be played and instruments can be built under the guidance of the artists. Talks and participatory concerts offer not only ear-blowing input, but also the opportunity to find and discuss questions together. Why not do things differently than usual? The festival offers space for this explorative attitude, for the idea of collectivity and for playful self-empowerment:

On the main festival day on September 5, numerous sound installations and sound sculptures can be explored on Holzmarkt and at Säälchen, regardless of age and previous musical knowledge.

Artists such as Catrin Kaspar & Eeva Liisa Puhakka, Tina Tonagel, Hans Unstern and Simon Bauer, jörg heuer or Mélodie Melak will present their installations in the whole area, while other works by Kässrin Kelch, Lorenz Blaumer, Moritz Simon Geist or Brad Nath will be played live by the artists or can be played by all attendees as part of the exhibition in the Säälchen. There also will be numerous workshop stands, where everyone can tinker singing pencils or guitars out of tin cans.

In 2021, SGM-Festival finds unusual musical ways to explore the urban space: It declares the whole city a stage and an instrument – 100% coronasafe!

How does the city sound and how can it be played? A printed sound city map depicts Berlin as an urban resonance space. Intended, random and everyday overheard soundscapes are mapped: Train stations, facades and bridges show up as spots of self-built music. The festival visitors can go on their own listening-tour and discover the delay of an underground car park, the rhythm patterns of departing suburban trains or a handrail rich in overtones.