As we know, the best festivals are the ones that last the whole summer and are remembered without a hangover. Interdisciplinary __matter Festival 2025 meets both requirements. Running through October, it will transform Berlin into a living laboratory of material culture at the intersection of science, art and design. Initiated by the Cluster of Excellence Matters of Activity at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the event series focuses on a core theme: materials. What may sound abstract at first turns out to be far-reaching and deeply relevant because, ultimately, it’s about our ecological, social, and creative future. Eleven exhibitions. A rich program. Twelve venues — from Art Laboratory Berlin to the Späth Arboretum, from the Kunstgewerbemuseum to Silent Green Kulturquartier. More than 70 researchers from around 40 disciplines will contribute their expertise to reimagine the relationship between nature and culture, biology and technology, symbolism and materiality. In the Re:future Lab, for example, Rasa Weber dives into the depths of the Spree with a question: What if the Ocean Were a City? Her project, Syntopolis, is an immersive reef installation that transforms space into an urban underwater habitat. Here, boundaries blur between city and ocean, human and more-than-human communities. What if the Spree were a reef?

What would our shared life look like if we changed our perspective? At the Späth Arboretum — that fantastical hidden gem in the south of Neukölln — you can find out. The Vegetal Companions series invites you to encounter plants and trees as independent agents. The collective of flora becomes a source of inspiration for new forms of knowledge: soil as archive, philosophy as gardening, art as research. Here, humans are no longer seen as masters of nature but as participants in a polyphonic ecosystem. Fermenting Textiles at Art Laboratory Berlin also weaves anthropology, microbiology, and art to create a multi-sensory experience. Textiles are fermented in mud and plant material, a metaphor for collaboration between species, disciplines and traditions. The festival is a manifesto for the analog in a digital age. Materials are no longer seen as passive carriers, but as active, shaping forces — tools that define our world. We’re invited to rethink materiality as something that connects, transforms and determines the future. And what could be more satisfying than sharp ideas and fresh perspectives on the world, stretched across an entire summer?

Text: Hilka Dirks / Photos: Mathieu Kelhetter; Musée national d’historie Luxembourg; Aubin Woehrel

__matter Festival 2025

The entire program and all locations can be found here.

@mattersofactivity