A new series of events at Platoon starts on Saturday under the banner ‘Digital Peace.’ Held to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Franco-German Friendship treaty, the evenings and weekends aim to highlight the borderless nature of digital art forms that are flourishing in France, Germany, and South Korea.
Comprised of conferences, film nights, and parties, the participants have been picked for their association with some of Europe’s most informed and vibrant cities for electronic music; most notably Paris and Berlin.
Things get kicked off this Saturday with a night of audiovisual electronic music. French duo Radiomentale will be performing a live VJ set using a ‘mix of music videos from the best German, French, and Korean electronic music labels.’ The pair first started playing techno parties in their native Paris in 1992, and have since regularly played on French indie radio station Radio FG. Now focused on art installations, movie soundtracks, and sound sculptures, they’ve had their work exhibited across the world. It’s safe to say they probably know their stuff.
DJ DeWalta will be performing with Korean VJ Lala. Berlin-based, DeWalta played the influential Watergate club there last weekend, and has also performed at Barcelona’s Sonar festival and London’s Fabric club in the last 12 months. As a recent promo mix for Fabric showcases, we can expect deep and shifting house from his set.
Seoul’s own DJ Soo Lee will be collaborating with German visual art crew Individualists. Soo Lee holds down the distinction of being the first Asian Ableton certified trainer, as well as organizing the regular Less n Less parties, which until recently took place at Quadro. Platoon resident DJ Akiyuki Tanno will be warming things up.
The Digital Peace series will continue with three more events in 2013: A night of cinema on April 13th, conferences on May 11th, and a final party on June 22nd. The closing night will feature Ricardo Villalobos, one of the biggest names in minimal techno. He’s famous for DJ sets that mix a sparse, percussive drive with subtle melodies that border on the psychedelic. In an autobiographical feature that gestures towards the overarching theme of the Digital Peace series, Villalobos left his native Chile in 1973 to escape the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. With 20 years of releasing records, it’s hard to summarize the career he’s held down since. His ‘Fabric 37’ mix CD remains a definite landmark, and was the first of the long compilation series to feature 100% new work from the DJ. He’s also remixed Depeche Mode and was voted #1 DJ in the world in both 2008 and 2010 by the Resident Advisor website.
Digital Peace 2013 starts this weekend at Platoon Kunsthalle, which is also where we’ll be hosting our Future Shorts pop-up film festival at the end of March. See the for more details.
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