Multipli-Cities: Exploring artistic research across places and practices.
Join us for two days of artist talks, installations, performances and presentations exploring the ever-evolving landscape of artistic research. Catalyst’s annual symposium showcases the work of our own Master of Arts students alongside visiting postgraduate students and special guest presenters, fostering critical discussion and creative exchange.
This year’s theme, Multipli-Cities, invites artists and researchers to consider how place, collaboration and experimentation shape artistic inquiry. Expanding beyond the traditional notion of the "city", we embrace a range of creative spaces—from urban environments to digital realms, communal hubs to personal landscapes.
We are excited to announce that our first guest presenter will be Berlin-based Indonesian artist, community catalyst and cultural practitioner Ariel William Orah.
Call for submissions
Submissions are now open to:
- Current postgraduate students in visual and/or audio fields who are in the final stages of their studies and will remain enrolled at the time of the symposium (27–28 May 2025).
- Recent postgraduates whose work aligns with this year’s theme.
Submission deadline: Monday 14 April, 17:00
Submit your research-in-progress here and take part in a vibrant exchange of ideas, feedback and collaboration.
Attend
Admission to the symposium and all events are free. Sign up to our newsletter or follow us on Instagram to receive updates when the programme is announced and tickets are live.
When: Tuesday 27 & Wednesday 28 May
Where: Catalyst, Funkhaus, Nalepastraße 18, 12459 Berlin
Artistic research at Catalyst
At Catalyst, our Master of Arts programmes in music and film are explicitly structured around a practice-based artistic research framework. But what does that really mean, and why is it important? How can research make our artistic work more developed, more powerful, more relevant and more alive?
Find out more about our postgraduate programmes:
See the programmes from past symposiums:
Original 2025 artwork by Oman Sounds.