KIKK Festival

This 7th edition of KIKK Festival is exploring the realm of invisible narratives.

From oral traditions found in early civilisations to printed, online press or virtual reality, storytelling has extended itself to representing history, personal narrative, political commentary and evolving cultural forms. This year, our interest focuses on modern storytellers using new media to share tales about the invisible, the unseen. They are secret keepers, guides, healers or thinkers putting emotions into motion, creating an alternative reality, revealing what is impossible to see with the naked eye.

We live in the paradox of a world characterized by dematerialisation and yet the infrastructures enabling it have never been so ubiquitous but concealed. Technologies in orbit, subterranean network cables and over protected data centers form an impenetrable and imperceptible fabric surrounding our planet. The birth of those complex systems have created an unpredictable world, in which, our faith is increasingly determined by the machines taking the place of an almighty god. Questions of agency or equality are raising. From human emotions to nature and technology, KIKK will scrutinize the invisible and delve into the diversity of its stories.

KIKK is an international festival of digital and creative cultures. Its interest lies in the artistic and economic implications of new technologies.

The event gathers people of all backgrounds from all around the world. They are designers, scientists, makers, entrepreneurs, artists, architects, developers or musicians. They come to KIKK to tell you their personal anecdotes, to share professional experiences and innovative ideas, to present an artwork, a project or a product. You return home full of inspiration with plenty of contacts and new passions.

This year, through a program of conferences, exhibitions and workshops, KIKK Festival will analyze how art and science collide in contemporary culture with new waves of artists exploring the physical phenomenons of light, radio, acoustic, magnetic, water or matter waves interferences. Interfering also means to come into opposition. Numerous activists, critical designers are scrambling systems to denounce intrusive practices or policies, others condemn mass surveillance and question privacy issues. Design and economy are also concerned by the subject: a disruptive product, practice or market, can be first seen as an interference before being considered as a new model of disruptive innovation.

Founded in 2011 in Namur, Belgium, KIKK is an non-profit association that promotes digital and creative cultures. We create bridges between art, culture, science and technology through the organization of event and educational projects as well as the production of artworks and support to creative projects.

The association organizes KIKK Festival every year. An event that has become well renowned on the international digital & creative scene. The organization is also founding partner of TRAKK, the Creative Hub and Fab Lab of Namur, as well as of the Smart Gastronomy Lab of Gembloux, the first belgian living lab to explore gastronomy in the light of technology.

The creative people that orbit the KIKK galaxy are working in a collaborative environment that favours openness, exchange and discovery. Our goals: to explore, question, experiment, compare, in cross-disciplinary way, the multiple uses of new technologies to prefigure the challenges of a world in motion.