Art vs. the Right-wing
What do current artistic and curatorial strategies look like in dealing with past and present right-wing violence? What is the constellation of power, space and violence today against the background of the increase in right-wing extremist crime and (neo)fascist movements? Whether in relation to the continuities of right-wing terrorism from the attacks in Mölln and Solingen to the NSU murders to the attacks in Hanau and Halle, or in relation to structural discrimination and violence – for years it has been the arts in particular that have drawn attention to this violence and formulated resistance to the attacks on democracy from the right. In theatre, literature and in the fine arts, investigative practices are taught, spaces of remembrance are created and voices of resistance are raised.
Following her lecture, curator and art mediator Nora Sternfeld will discuss with theatre and film director Nuran David Calis, author Özlem Özgül Dündar and the visual artist Leon Kahane, who will each present excerpts from their works. The discussion panel will be moderated by journalist Aida Baghernejad.
Accompanying programme to the POWER SPACE VIOLENCE. Planning and Building under National Socialism exhibition.
Aida Baghernejad is a multi-award-winning freelance cultural journalist, podcaster and presenter. She publishes and speaks for all kinds of regional, national and international media on pop and food culture, though sometimes about both at the same time, for ZEIT Online, Musikexpress, Tagesspiegel or Deutschlandfunk Kultur, among others. She is especially interested in the political in sound, between the pages, on stage or on the plate. Mostly she lives in Berlin, sometimes in London, and mainly on the internet.
Nuran David Calis is a director, theater and screenwriter. He worked as a bouncer, studied directing in Munich and produced music clips for hip-hop bands. In 2008 his first feature film, Meine Mutter, mein Bruder und ich, was released, in 2010 he filmed Frank Wedekind's Frühlings Erwachen for ZDF and in 2012 Georg Büchner's Woyzeck. In 2011, his first novel Der Mond ist unsere Sonne was published. He has received numerous awards for his works and productions. He developed his latest play Die Lücke - Ein Stück Keupstraße (Schauspiel Köln, 2023) on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the nail bomb attack in Cologne's Keupstraße together with local residents and those affected. He lives in Munich.
Özlem Özgül Dündar writes poetry, prose, plays, radio plays, and essays. Her book of poetry gedanken zerren was published in 2018 by Elif Publishing House. Her radio play türken, feuer was awarded as radio play of the year in 2020. She performs with her collectives Ministerium für Mitgefühl (ministry for compassion) and kollektiv flexen (collective cutting) and is co-editor of the anthology Flexen - Flâneusen* schreiben Städte (Verbrecher Verlag 2019).
Leon Kahane creates conceptual video works, photographs and installations that focus on themes such as migration, identity and the confrontation with majorities and minorities in a globalized society. His artistic approach represents a form of cultural criticism. Again and again he draws attention to events and institutions in which contradictions inherent in history are expressed. They reflect historical, political and economic, but also biographical aspects, which he takes up and processes in his works.
Nora Sternfeld is an art educator and curator. She is professor of art education at the HfBK Hamburg. From 2018 to 2020 she was documenta professor at the Kunsthochschule Kassel; prior to that Professor of Curating and Mediating Art at Aalto University in Helsinki. She is also co-director of the /ecm - master's program in exhibition theory and practice at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, on the core team of schnittpunkt. ausstellungstheorie & praxis, co-founder and partner of trafo.K, office for education, art and critical knowledge production (Vienna) and part of freethought, platform for research, education and production (London). She publishes on contemporary art, educational theory, exhibitions, politics of history and anti-racism.