Join us at the opening night of the 2026 edition of TRANSEUROPA, Reclaiming the Cloud(s)!
Together we will start to imagine the commons, ways to reclaim public and digital spaces, and explore inclusive, feminist, ecological and participatory democracies.
Immersive activities, collaborative creations, musical performances and keynote speeches will give you a hands on introduction to this years program and festival community.
Guests will be invited to flow through the space and participate in kite-making, upcycling with dead.zion, discover diy air cooling constructions with Jon Goodbun’s Towers of Wind, creating sound through breath with Martin Simpson’s Open Organ, explore the digital democratic commons works, create perfume with AI, capture your imaginations with Parea Radio, and connect to bodies of water with Rivers of Democracy.
Throughout the evening there will be a selection of talks with presentations on the festival with Ségolène Pruvot & Billie Dibb, a keynote on literally reclaiming power with James Bridle, an exchange on transnational movements for migrants rights with Adla Shashati & Sami Ben Gharbia, and a call for ecological rights with Domenico Dentici & Irene Alonso.
And if that wasn’t enough, there will be performances of Cycles: Overtones and Glottis Attack by Janneke van der Putten and the Open Organ showcase by Martin Simpson.
Find the full timetable & descriptions below!
TIMETABLE
19h doors open, activities will be accessible throughout the evening.
19h30-40 festival launch with Billie & Segolene
19h40-20h James Bridle keynote
20h30-20h50 Cycles: Overtones and Glottis Attack performance by Janneke van der Putten
20h50-21h10 transnational movements for migrants rights exchange with Adla Shashati & Sami Ben Gharbia.
21h50-22h00 youth & ecology
22h00-22h20 Open Organ performance by Martin Simpson
22h20-22h30 closing with Billie & Segolene
SPEAKERS
James Bridle
James Bridle is a writer, artist, carpenter and technologist. Their artworks have been commissioned by galleries and institutions and exhibited worldwide and online. Their writing has appeared in magazines and newspapers including Wired, the Atlantic, the New Statesman, the Guardian, and the Financial Times. They are the author of ‘New Dark Age’ (2018) and ‘Ways of Being’ (2022), and they wrote and presented “New Ways of Seeing” for BBC Radio 4 in 2019. Their work can be found at http://jamesbridle.com.
Adla Shashati
Adla Shashati is the Director of the Greek Forum of Migrants and founder of Rootes: Migrants Memory Solidarity Collective. She brings extensive experience in migration, migrant communities, social inclusion, and combating racism and discrimination, with a strong track record at both national and European levels.
She has been actively involved in European networks and initiatives advancing migrants’ rights and racial justice, including serving as the Southern Europe representative at the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) in the past and currently as a member of the Steering Committee of Equinox: Racial Justice Initiative.
Adla is also a member of the Sudanese community in Greece and part of the Døcumatism collective. Through this work, she has contributed to the curation and coordination of collaborative artistic and community initiatives with migrant and refugee communities, focusing on strengthening visibility, representation, and meaningful participation.
Sami Ben Gharbia
Sami Ben Gharbia is a Tunisian human rights campaigner, digital activist, and freedom of expression advocate known globally for his pioneering work in using technology to combat censorship and support democratic movements. His career, rooted in his own experience as a political exile, is defined by a steadfast commitment to empowering citizen voices and building digital tools for transparency and dissent, particularly in the Arab world. He is the Founding Director of the Advocacy arm of Global Voices Online and is a co-founder of the award-winning collective blog Nawaat, a Tunisian citizen journalism website which supported the Tunisian Revolution.
PERFORMANCES
Cycles: Overtones and Glottis Attack by Janneke van der Putten
In an intuitive and physical way, Janneke van der Putten explores her voice as a sound texture. She has specialized in extended vocal techniques, producing two or more sounds simultaneously: basic tones, harmonics, interferences – like glottic attacks – and spatial reflections. Van der Putten uses architecture as a natural sound amplifier and as a trigger for echoes or other sonic effects. Wandering in space makes the sound move and generates a dynamic listening experience. Her rhythmic and conceptual approach to singing is inspired by the cycles of the breath, the body and the earth. Her performances are often performed without electrical amplification. In this way, she focuses on the exploration of space itself: how it sounds, whether it is lit or not, and where the audience is located.
More info: www.jannekevanderputten.nl
Open Organ by Martin Simpson
Martin Simpson is an artist and technologist based in Vienna. He builds experimental musical instruments that sonify their environmental dependencies (river organ, wind organ, open organ) and improvises place-based music with them.
Open Organ will be demonstrated & invite audience participation, a paraphonic analog synthesizer that offers tangible connections to its circuitry. Touch and moisture sensitive traces let the tunable voices flow into the shaping section. Filter, compressor, vibrato, and mixing modules are built in. Sound is also shaped by its power input, inviting musical interaction with the power source.
ACTIVITIES
Upcycling with dead.zion
Bring along an old garment or tote bag and give it another life with dead.zion. Through hands-on upcycling activities, you’ll be invited to reclaim, adapt and transform what you already own into something new.
Kite-making
Get hands-on and make your own kite as we reclaim the skies together. A playful invitation to build, create and imagine what it might mean to share the air above us as a commons.
Towers of Winds by Jon Goodbun
Discover DIY air-cooling constructions with Jon Goodbun’s Towers of Winds.
This ongoing research project explores zero-energy, passive, water-based evaporative cooling installations as a way of providing urban air conditioning. Reimagining vernacular cooling techniques through contemporary research, a series of temporary fabric structures tested at Latraac urban garden in Athens in summer 2024 produced temperature drops of around 10°C – from 35°C to 25°C – within 15 minutes, using zero electricity.
Beyond cooling, the structures can create clouds and contribute to improving air quality during colder seasons. Come and discover the constructions during the evening – or join earlier in the day and take part in creating them yourself.
Open Organ by Martin Simpson
Create sound through breath with Martin Simpson’s Open Organ.
Martin Simpson builds experimental musical instruments that make their environmental dependencies audible. Open Organ is a paraphonic analogue synthesizer with touch- and moisture-sensitive traces, inviting direct interaction between bodies, circuitry and sound.
During the evening, you won’t only hear the instrument – you’ll be invited to play with it yourself, using touch, moisture and your own breath to shape its sounds.
Democratic Digital Commons
Step inside the Democratic Digital Commons and explore how we might reclaim our digital spaces together.
The project asks who owns and governs our digital world at a moment when AI, surveillance and algorithmic systems increasingly shape everyday life. Through citizen assemblies across Europe, it brings people together to understand digital infrastructures, imagine democratic alternatives and build collective demands for technologies that serve the public good.
During the evening you can discover videos and reflections from the Prague assembly, explore our Panoramic AI – an AI tool designed around verified sources and questions of digital rights – and even experiment with creating perfume through AI.
Rivers of Democracy
Connect to bodies of water with Rivers of Democracy, explore stories and traces from gatherings along Europe’s rivers and discover how waterways can become meeting places for questions of ecology, democracy and the rights of nature.
You’ll also be able to find out more about the upcoming European Citizens’ Initiative for the Rights of Nature, add your support, and wear a temporary tattoo commemorating extinct and disappearing animal species.
Parea Radio
Capture your imaginations with Parea Radio. Based in Athens, Parea Radio is an independent, community-oriented online radio platform built around the idea of parea – a circle of friends gathered around sound. It creates a shared space for listening, exchange and documentation, rooted in presence, community and experimentation.
Drop by, listen in and add your own voice, thoughts and imagination to the festival airwaves.