Images by Camille Blake
Video by Stephan Talneau
In winter 2022, creative practitioners from around the world answered an open call and submitted their proposals to work with one of six mentors shaping Forecast’s seventh edition: investigative journalist Alia Ibrahim, artist Ana Prvački, comedian Daliso Chaponda, choreographer Florentina Holzinger, artist and filmmaker Laura Huertas Millán, and vocalist Rully Shabara. Active in a variety of disciplines, the mentors in the 2022–23 edition all share a common engagement with practices characterized by immediate encounters, either with the work’s subject matter or its audience. In a climate defined by impersonal, screen-based interactions, Forecast seeks to forge audacious paths forward for practices that thrive and rely on corporeal, unmediated situations.
Reading a total of 600 applications from over 100 countries, the six mentors invited 18 nominees to participate in the Forecast Forum in July 2022 at Radialsystem, Berlin. At the event’s conclusion, the mentors each selected one mentee and accompanied the development of their respective projects until their premiere at the Forecast Festival. Over the course of eight months between the Forum and the Festival, one-on-one mentorships took place, in which each of the six mentees went on an individual work-stay with their respective mentor. This time was a condensed period of creative exchanges, finetuning, and concrete mentoring ahead of the Forecast Festival.
Having reached the end of their mentorship period in March 2023, the mentees Mia Štark, Tom Cassani, Hamza Baig, Luciana Decker Orozco, Peny Chan, and Alexis Guillier unveiled their productions in the two-day Forecast Festival, and brought their projects to life in concerts, performances, installations, and conversations. The six mentors also offered insights into their own work, and the topics that inspire and move them. The entire venue was buzzing with boundary-pushing contributions by the mentors and mentees including stand-up comedy, deconstructed magic, cinematic explorations, and vocal experimentations.
