SOMA Exhibition & Festival 2026

SOMA: Happiness as Anesthesia.

THE CONCEPT

Dystopia as a lens through which to view the present.
SOMA takes its name from the drug in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World: a state-issued euphoric drug that erases all forms of suffering in exchange for social stability. Read alongside Orwell’s 1984—the inspiration for Eric Oder’s previous work, *Memory Hole*—dystopian literature becomes a key to understanding the present.

Control today no longer operates through fear, but through pleasure.
Where Orwell described the manipulation of truth and the rewriting of history, Huxley described the opposite, mirror mechanism: anesthesia as a form of power. SOMA poses the question that follows. Faced with a flood of events that outpaces our ability to process them, the mind defends itself by dimming thought—and that dimming is already a form of anesthesia. If dystopia anesthetizes, ritual re-sensitizes.

For two weeks, SOMA takes over two halls at Kunstfabrik HB55, a former margarine factory in Berlin-Lichtenberg. One hall becomes a temporary art gallery: a contemplative journey through works by various artists, spanning graphics, photography, sculpture, masks, and installations. The other serves as a space for live performances and workshops. The program spans two weekends, arching from anesthesia through distortion to awakening.

Two halls, one passage
Two ground-floor spaces: Corazón de Robota, Electronic Anarchy—DIY synths (July 26); Aumary art gallery: a contemplative journey through the work of seven artists—the place where you look. The other is a space for live performance, ritual, and workshops—the place where you take part. Between them runs a single arc: from anesthesia, through distortion, to awakening.


Exhibition (Mon–Thu 4:00 PM–10:00 PM + Sat–Sun 10:00 AM–12:00 AM)
Durd · Liliana Lietz · Luca Arcamone · Claudia Virginia Vitari · Leon Emanuel Blanck · Fade Out Label · Valentina Berthelon

Live & Performances
July 23 · Pareal, ritual opening · Luca Arcamone feat. Marta Scherillo, ritual dance (starts at 8:00 PM)
July 24 · Coquinati feat. Casual Treatment (starts at 9:30 p.m.)
July 25 · Bam Bam’s Boogie · Corazón de Robota (starts at 9:30 p.m.)
July 31 · MATTAM (starts at 9:30 p.m.)
Aug. 1 · Marco Bruno feat. Pareal · Eric Oder · Lucio Vidal (starts at 9:30 p.m.) 

Workshops
Corazón de Robota, Electronic Anarchy - DIY Synths (July 26)
Aum Garden Project, Sound Ritualism, Shamanic Sound Healing (July 30)