After two years of interrupted cultural activities, a long-awaited return to "normal" rightfully excites artists, organizers, and audiences alike. This excitement, however, threatens to mask the existential questions that the ongoing pandemic has been raising for the cultural sector and society at large: the fragility of human co-existence in times of rapid technological advancements, climate catastrophe, and global health crises.

COVID-19 has shown that the adaptability of festivals working in the digital creative realm makes them uniquely positioned to address these questions. This is not achieved through a false sense of "solutionism" but through shifting perceptions and generating new understandings. This session invites artists, curators, industry professionals, and the wider public to jointly imagine the changing role of the festival beyond a platform for artistic practice towards a vehicle for critical investigations of the existential questions of our time.

Project Team:

• Maurice Jones

• Meaghan Wester

• Marek Blottiere