Line-ups, playlists, online magazines, feeds: whoever curates them determines who is given space, who is seen and heard. In other words, curation is also power. In Central Europe, this power is often still used, even in 2022, from a classically heteronormative perspective. People who conform to the supposed “norm” are at an advantage – white, heterosexual, cis males in particular are played, booked, pushed.

Besides music journalists, curators and other gatekeepers, platforms like Spotify are also responsible for many decisions. Algorithms determine what gets through to the user and what doesn’t.

For twenty years, the global network “Norient” has stood for a different approach and advocated for a fair, diverse cultural landscape: for new avenues in curation, new forms of collaboration between curators, journalists and artists from different backgrounds.

The founder of Norient, Thomas Burkhalter, joins a panel discussion with curator and ethnomusicologist Rim Jasmin Irscheid. One part of her doctoral thesis deals with the curation of post-migrant cultural productions. The discussion will be led by German author and music journalist Philipp Rhensius.

In collaboration with Norient

This conference will be held in German, with simultaneous translation into French.