The way we perceive sound—one of the most subtle, refined, and complex ways we perceive space—sits at the heart of the festival. Across the most iconic rooms of Funkhaus, we are building our largest 4DSOUND installations to date.
With no traditional stage and no best seat, the boundary between audience and artwork dissolves. The entire Funkhaus becomes the instrument.
Most works will unfold in total darkness, offering a rare chance to step away from the noise and fragmentation of screen-based life. Instead, listeners are invited into a spacious, immersive experience—rooted in sound and space in their purest form.
Friday 12.09 - from 13:00 to 23:00
Saturday 13.09 - from 13:00 to 21:00
Saturday 13.09 - Richie Culver's Late Night Sessions (special ticket required)
Sunday 14.09 - from 13:00 to 23:00
Friday 12.09, Saturday 13.09, Sunday 14.09
SPATIAL Festival presents
VIDEO BARNUM
Paulin, Paulin, Paulin
with MONOM in 4DSOUND
Design heritage meets experimental sound practice in this collaboration between Paulin, Paulin, Paulin and MONOM. Together, they will reimagine Saal 1—the largest recording studio in the world—as an instrument for embodied spatial listening.
Saal 1, built in the 1950s as the crown jewel of the GDR’s Funkhaus broadcasting complex, was designed for the recording of full symphony orchestras. Its architecture—vast, resonant, and acoustically perfected—has hosted the sonic experiments of generations. a fully spatialised environment that connects tactile vibration to an omnidirectional holographic sound field through 4DSOUND.
At the heart of the installation is Video Barnum — conceived by Pierre Paulin in 1985 for the Grand Palais and brought to life in recent years by Paulin, Paulin, Paulin. Originally envisioned as an immersive environment integrating architecture, object, and image, it has never before been experienced as a work of pure sound. For this first sonic transformation, MONOM replaces the visual focus of the original with a spatial audio architecture, allowing the work’s iconic form to become an instrument in itself.
The piece will integrate Video Barnum’s internal sound system with 4DSOUND’s spatial audio software and a layered loudspeaker array, replacing the original video imagery with holographic sound fields to create a virtual sonic reality. Experienced without external visual stimulus, the work invites the audience to generate their own inner “films,” unfolding entirely within the mind’s eye—creating an environment where sound moves as freely as light does, above, below, and around the listener, dissolving the boundaries between audience and artwork.
›Polyphonic Views‹
curated by PASSAGE
›Polyphonic Views‹, explores the intersections of sound, technology, and visual art.
In line with PASSAGE’s curatorial identity, each of the over 30 artists is presented through a stand-alone installation, creating a parcours of immersive encounters across the Funkhaus complex.
Polyphonic Views embraces multiplicity, giving form to a layered, resonant experience that reflects the many voices of contemporary practice. The exhibition runs for three weeks, with a series of events and activations held in collaboration with SPATIAL Festival.
From paintings and sculptures to performances and sound works, the exhibition unfolds within the Shedhalle of Funkhaus. Today, this space serves as a site where echoes of the past meet the pulse of the future.
Funkhaus
Funkhaus, the ex GDR broadcasting centre, now,
a massive recording studio facility, and event hall in Berlin by the river spree. Home to the largest recording studios in the world, these rooms within rooms, offer unparalleled acoustic perfection and total separation from the outside world.
MONOM Studio
Shedhalle
Sound Chamber
Saal 1