neue Gesellschaft
für bildende Kunst

Solidarity in the Art Field – More than just a Gesture

Panel discussion with Susan Azizi (Fellowship Weltoffenes Berlin), Lara Habboub (Bard College), Marc-André Schmachtel (Goethe – Institut im Exil), JK (FATA Collective), Irina Novarese (Hier & Jetzt: Connections)

Welcome: Eylem Sengezer (nGbK), moderation: Natascha Nassir-Shahnian (Projektfonds Kulturelle Bildung)

The event will be held in German with simultaneous English translation.

Amidst today’s crises, appeals for solidarity are being heard more and more often, including in the art world – as recently seen in the context of the war in Ukraine or the social upheavals in Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey. Fundraisers and events are organized, artists and cultural producers who have been forced to flee are “welcomed” with new programs of financial aid. But are these short-term measures sufficient? And how sustainable are they? Are they more than just a gesture of solidarity?

It’s worth looking back: What has changed in the way artists and cultural producers are treated in the context of displacement and asylum since the so-called “summer of migration” in 2015? Which lessons from the measures taken in the cultural sector at that time can be applied to the current situation?

Self-organizing initiatives, displaced artists, and institutional projects offering safe spaces for cultural producers in exile discuss how sustainable structures can be established and how solidarity can be translated into lived practice, beyond a purely theoretical understanding. The discussion will focus in particular on ways of overcoming one-sided dependencies, hierarchies of power, and paternalism.