A MAZE. / Berlin 2026

The exhibition at the Polish Institute Berlin gallery invites visitors into the world of the indie game Cubature, a new project blending art and puzzle gameplay by Polish studio Cyber Kids on Real. Its creators describe it as an interactive experience where space itself reacts to the player. The show recreates the game’s visual and narrative ideas in a physical, immersive environment using objects, video elements, sound, movement, and the game itself.
Cubature combines simple mechanics with complex design, featuring handmade film sets, DIY aesthetics, and a distinctive soundtrack. Instead of digital rendering, it uses filmed, real-world scenography built around a one-meter cube.
Players connect and move modular cells to build increasingly complex structures, experiencing how complexity emerges from simple elements—while being both an active player and the smallest unit in the system. In the gallery, visitors can play the game or step inside the installation and briefly become part of its world.
The exhibiton runs until June 26, 2026 

The opening hours of the gallery are :
Tuesday–Thursday 13–18 Uhr, Friday 13–17 Uhr

The event is part of A MAZE. / Berlin 2026 – the 15th International Games and Playful Media Festival.

Note: This is a satellite event at an external location. Register here.

Throughout Sybil’s Arc 2 program we have proposed the idea that the solo-dev - a  post-2000s neologism with roots in 1980s conceptions of computer programmers as savant whizz-kids and enlightened loners - could be emblematic of a third way in gaming: A different strategy for the game-maker that replaces hierarchical AAA studio assembly lines with small teams and more aesthetically oriented working methods.

What the myth of the solo-dev borrows from the traditional framework of “the artist” is the pursuit of self-determination. That is, a drive that is tied to a particular expression of an idea or a question in a practice, and this is what sets it apart from more commercially traditional strategies pertaining to both AAA and Indie-development. Part of this, is also understanding that the game industry is no-longer as off-limits to art driven developers and small scale teams as it once might have felt.

Panelists are: Alex Declino, Beth von Undall, Elliott Burns, Rico Norwood and Shuruq Tramontini.

No extra costs, but limited seats. Please register here. 

Satellite event at external location with regular admission and free entry with A MAZE. / Berlin ticket.

GAMERAUSCH - RELOOTED (Live cinegaming session with introduction by David Zabel (Popcultural Educator, Germany) and Q&A with Ben Myers (Nyamakop, South Africa) supported by Alexandre Suzanne (Playful, France)
RELOOTED (South Africa 2026, Nyamakop, approx. 120 min, original language with subtitles)

In recent years, there have been increasing efforts to return artifacts stolen during colonial times. Yet Western museums and private collections continue to exploit loopholes to retain these treasures. Rather than wait for justice, in the game RELOOTED, a pan-African group of friends decides to take matters into their own hands: they simply steal the artifacts back. RELOOTED is a platformer by South African studio Nyamakop. We play as Nomali and her crew as they execute elaborate heists in museums and private collections. What makes the game special: the studio has researched with great documentary care the real histories, cultural significance, and circumstances of theft for all objects featured in the game. Rarely has the complex issue of restitution been so successfully integrated into a video game. At the same time, the studio has invested tremendous care into the soundtrack, voice acting, and Afrofuturist aesthetic. RELOOTED is full of empowerment and ultimately poses the question: What if someone simply took back what was stolen?

As part of A MAZE / BERLIN, we'll play selected passages of the game together on the big screen. Guests will provide insights into the production history and contextualize the themes explored in the game

In Pixel Temple, the building blocks of early digital life become mythology.

Pixel Temple is the first European solo exhibition by Toyoya Li (born Li Fan), a Beijing-based pixel artist and member of Fenaki — China's leading independent animation collective, known for pushing experimental digital work outside commercial pipelines. The show brings together lenticular prints and large-format photography to build a dense, self-contained visual world with its own mythology.

At its centre are two archetypes of Li's own invention: Fútù (Fortune Rabbit) and Jīxióng (Machine Bear), figures that embody the twin poles of digital life: aspiration and algorithm, randomness and control. Around them, the material debris of early computing (floppy disks, arcade cabinets, CD-ROMs) is reassembled into ritual objects, stripped of nostalgia and granted new symbolic weight.

The result is an art world with its own internal logic, one that will feel immediately legible to anyone who thinks seriously about what games and digital culture can hold.

www.migrantbirdspace.com