At the end of a deep Berlin tunnel, lies an exhibition that marks the cornerstone of this year’s edition of CTM festival in Berlin. We Found Our Own Reality examines the cultural, political, and post-colonial echoes of South Asia’s avant-garde sonic pioneers. This large-scale exhibition at Betonhalle, brings together architecture, furniture, textiles, and sound to explore India’s first electronic music studio, founded in 1969 at the National Institute of Design (NID)* in Ahmedabad. The exhibition curator – artist and musician Paul Purgas – also presents a new work from a collection of unheard recordings by five previously unknown Indian electronic composers.

Alongside the exhibition and vast research output by Purgas, is an in depth talks and events programme, including a great discussion on “Feminist Perspectives on Night Life and Music Scenes in India and its Global Diaspora” with Nabihah Iqbal and Dehli-based DJ Lush Lata, who went on to bring her legendary mix of influences Panorama Bar for Thursday evening’s CTM club night.

*”Founded after India’s independence, the NID was a multi-disciplinary facility to train a new generation of free thinking modern designers, animators, ceramicists, film-makers, and sound artists. The exhibition explores the technological and experimental ambition of the NID’s electronic music studio across its four year lifespan at a moment of unprecedented national transformation and cultural exchange between Western and Indian Modernist ideologies, narrating its dialogue with the international sonic and visual avant-gardes of Europe and the USA.”

Curated and created by Paul Purgas
More information: https://www.ctm-festival.de/festival-2023/programme/exhibition