With the festival theme of Instability we explore new ways of understanding and adapting to an age of planetary and societal changes. Linked to the urgency of climate change and ecological crisis, this year FIBER is looking for new insights, non-human ways of thinking and possible strategies in order to perceive our world in alternate ways. We ask: what opportunities are open to artistic making and thinking to contribute to this transformation?
Our living environment is often presented to us as stable and unquestionable. Landscapes, borders and technological infrastructures are considered static entities. Yet current crises now force us to transform the way we relate to our ecological surroundings. Extreme weather, droughts, wildfires and viruses are forces of nature that tear apart our Western way of living with far-reaching consequences.
It is impossible for many of us to get to grips with such vast developments, which often take place on non-human dimensions of time, scale and matter. Could art play a role in materialising the complex reality of our planet and this provide us with much needed new ways of thinking. The festival aims to seek artistic narratives, skills and sensibilities to prepare us for an alternative life in a period of uncertainty and radical instability.
