The second edition of the Oscillation festival will be held as a radio marathon of 48 hours. In the absence of project funding, this year’s edition will be a low-budget endeavour, which we take as a one-off opportunity to reflect on notions of value in regard to culture. Mayday will be an open laboratory for continuous broadcast; a reflection on communities of producers and listeners, on making do, doing-it-ourselves, doing-it-with-others, and using what is at hand.

Radio has long been a favourite tool for autonomous, DIY and experimental practices; in part because of its flexibility, relatively low cost, and capacity to host diverse forms of expression, and in part because its combination of local intensity and remote listening raises vital questions around community, audience, and access. The festival will draw on DIY methodologies and alternative systems of value determined in dialogue with its participants. However, as we realise that neither DIY nor radio are from nothing or for free, we see the event as a practical experiment in balancing responsible collaboration with an urgency to make things happen, and how we as a small institution position ourselves in regard to this.

But this is not a gesture of releasing politicians from their duty to fund and foster culture, or to suggest that making do with less is a sustainable model for the future. Instead of foregoing this year’s festival edition, we will use the circumstances at hand as an occasion to reflect on other available models of benefit. We’d like to remind ourselves that art is not primarily an activity to be reflected in gross national product, or a quantifiable return on investment, and that the discourse against cultural austerity will not be won with these arguments. Rather, we want to explore other means of valuation — for creatives, public and policy makers — as a way to generate and sustain community, to focus attention, to produce access, and to generate resilience against shifts in political winds. 

NOTE: in the light of the recent pandemic, the festival will take place as an internet radio-stream accessible live for 48 hours. Further planned elements, such as the listening lounge, live concerts and the record and independent publishers fare will take place only if we are able to offer a safe environment for them to do so.

With: Jonathan Frigeri, Julia Dyck, Diana Duta, Liew Niyomkarn, Inne Eysermans, planète concrete, Stijn Demeulenaere, martiensgohome, Kim Laugs, pali meursault, Elisa Ferrari, Olli Aarni, Sacred Realism, Lazara Rosell Albear, Gary Schultz, Anna Raimondo, Gea Brown, Roberta Miss, DJ Marx & Engels, Alhadi Adam Agabeldour, Marcus Bergner, Eleanor Ivory Weber, Lendl Barcelos, Mika Oki, BNA/BBOT, Meakusma, Jasmine Guffond, Gloria González Fuster, Teresa Cos, Stephanie Quirola, Caroline Profanter, Henry Andersen, Julia Eckhardt. More following soon.