(Non)curating the Creative City: From 100 Grad to Performing Arts Festival Berlin

Abstract:The independent performing arts in Berlin, counterpart to the established city and state theatre system, have undergone fundamental change over the last decades. As part of this change, the 100 Grad Festival, a crucial event for the scene for over twelve years, ended in 2015 and was replaced by the Performing Arts Festival (PAF), which addresses the city of Berlin as a whole. This paper will trace the institutional transition from 100 Grad to PAF by highlighting organizational continuity and differences, and by analyzing the discourse accompanying the shift in the field of Berlin’s independent performing arts. The point of departure for the paper are questions of curation, which both festivals reject, yet re-employ in different strategies, especially towards emergent artists. However, contextualizing the festivals within broader tendencies in city development – the governmentality of the ‘creative city’– shows that opposing strategies may equally fall in line with aesthetic capitalism, leading to a paradoxical outcome.