The 2026 Forecast Festival at Radialsystem presented a diverse array of new projects, inviting the public to engage with works in progress and showcases by the six mentors and their selected nominees. Following the Festival, each mentor has chosen one project to support through to completion. These final productions are set to premiere at partner institutions during the winter season of 2026–27.
Meet the six mentor-mentee tandems of this edition:
The Distant Mirror
Electronic music composer and sound artist Oleh Shpudeiko, professionally known as Heinali, has chosen to mentor singer Mariana Carrilho on her project Flor Do Ibo, which will premiere at Berlin’s CTM Festival in January 2027. Heinali said: “I understand mentorship as the transformation of potential energy into kinetic energy. In this spirit, I have chosen Mariana Carrilho, as her work stands to benefit most from my particular skill set and the deliberately out-of-place position of my artistic practice. Mariana possesses a clear awareness of both her strengths and her limitations, and she is unafraid to delegate processes beyond her expertise while focusing on what she does best. She is prepared to make a bold move into electroacoustic music—a territory she has not yet fully explored but which is essential for her artistic goals. Mariana seeks to cultivate a distinctive musical language through which she can engage meaningfully with history, tradition, and ancestral knowledge. Her work speaks from a position of non-belonging: between worlds, outside any fixed genre, tradition, style, or scene. She approaches these territories as tools for realizing her vision, unafraid of not fitting into established markets, scenes, or institutional frameworks. This artistic quality is exceptionally rare and harbors immense potential. I am thrilled to continue our work together.”
Playing With Risk
Comedian and writer Vidura Bandara Rajapaksa has decided to continue working with poet and performer Xabiso Vili on his one-man piece The Past Is in Every Direction. The final production will premiere at the English Theatre in Berlin in January 2027. Bandara Rajapaksa said: “In our week together thus far at the first stage of Forecast, it was an immense pleasure to see Xabiso’s process at work in real time. The way he is able to integrate and grow within a medium that is at once familiar yet foreign to him is truly astounding. It will be an immense privilege to (hopefully) aid him in the expansion to his already virtuosic practice I know this work can be.”
Introspective Futurism
Artist and body architect Lucy McRae will further accompany artist Lena Becerra as she develops her work Gestational Interface. McRae said: “I had the unique and rewarding experience to work alongside three extraordinary creators, who braved the opportunity to pivot: making new work, re-writing, and repairing, all within four days together. Naturally, the three became a team, cheerleading one another with genuine curiosity. Going from three nominees to one mentee is my least favorite Forecast role. Alas, this is the brief, and Lena Becerra is my choice. I’m curious about her exploration into so many in-betweens: conceptually, materially and in-between exhibition, installation, dance, and performance. I’m looking forward to discovering with Lena how a stage performance tethers to an exhibition of machines, membranes, and oozing liquids. I’m excited to see where she takes her ambitions with this project!”
Unruly Images
Multimedia artist Almagul Menlibayeva has chosen to mentor Poyuan Juan on the project Stanford Bunny and the Memorial Site. The final production will be unveiled at Savvy Contemporary in Berlin in late February 2027. Menlibayeva said: “I find this work a compelling effort to rethink mythology, archives, and political memory within a changing historical moment. Poyuan Juan draws on an archive documenting monuments connected to state propaganda, preserved by those in power. Rather than simply examining or reproducing this material, the artist constructs a new narrative in which archival images, a Russian fairytale, digital modeling, 3D printing, and spatial sculpture converge to create a new system of meaning. Poyuan does not treat mythology as something confined to the past, but as a tool for understanding the present. The fairytale becomes a political metaphor for struggles over power, territory, ownership, and the right to shape the future. The artwork itself remains in a state of transformation, mirroring the shifting historical reality the artist seeks to understand. The work thus becomes more than the sum of its parts. It is a statement about the present moment—a time of shifting power and emerging orders, in which a new generation is striving to define its place and construct its own images and narratives.”
Authentic Deception
Performance maker Tom Cassani has chosen to mentor Hsiang-Sheng Teng, also known as Shawn, as he further develops his performance project Liminal. The work will premiere at Ballhaus Ost in Berlin in April 2027. Cassani said: “I am impressed by Shawn’s exceptional technical skill and his ambition to interrogate what magic can become beyond its traditional forms. His practice is grounded in a deep respect for the traditions of conjuring while approaching them with intellectual rigor and a genuine curiosity to reimagine them. I can see that Shawn is actively seeking challenge, critical questions, and meaningful dialogue. We are both interested in taking highly specialized magic techniques and restaging them in new contexts, with new framings for new audiences. I see great potential for mutual challenge, sharing practical skills, and the exchange of academic knowledge. Shawn’s exploration of silk magic is already uncovering new artistic territory, and I am excited to see how Liminal develops. There is great creative potential within Shawn’s performance practice, and I look forward to supporting him in refining and strengthening his hybrid artistic approach while cultivating space for his own distinctive creative voice in relation to magicianship.”
Constructing Delusions
Artist and filmmaker Keren Cytter will accompany Mahesh Subramaniam as he develops his film project Tomorrow Morning, I’m Leaving. The work will be presented at the Berlinische Galerie in late November 2026 as part of the artists’ joint residency. Cytter said: “I chose Mahesh Subramaniam because of his story about a man who leaves mirrors throughout a city, with each mirror functioning as a device that captures the memory of the space it reflects. The premise recalls the work of Jorge Luis Borges in its exploration of recollection, space, and multiplicity. As the mirrors absorb the memories of different people, the narrative shifts across languages and landscapes, as if the mirrors were cameras recording the passage of time itself. Fittingly, the Hindi word ‘kal’ means both ‘yesterday’ and ‘tomorrow’, collapsing past and future into a single realm. This concept, together with Subramaniam’s openness to further developing the work, is what excites me about continuing to collaborate with and support him on this project.”
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