The IMPAKT Festival has experienced a steady growth since its inception in 1988. Remarkably this growth has never translated itself into a continuously expanding festival. What began as a five day event dedicated to innovative audio-visual art will, in 1998 also occur in the same time-span.
This year, IMPAKT will once again present a programme which combines unexpected elements and obscure boundaries. Consider ‘Illuminated Baroque’, which explores and reveals the relationships between current ‘rave’ culture and 18th Century artforms. The theatre’s programme titled ‘Pornography’, which reveals the commercial attempts at sexual arousal, turn out to be a source of inspiration for remarkable amount of film makers and musicians. ‘Spiritworld’ propagates the Internet as the force that should bring about a more balanced relationship between Eastern and Western music cultures. The distinction between film and radio-play, between video presentation and musical performance disappears in ‘Voice-Image’. The project ‘couch.club’ upgrades the screening of film and video, normally speaking a relatively dull experience for an interactive event.