Symposium: Postpopulismus - Von Polen lernen?

In the organizer's words:

Democracies are under threat worldwide, authoritarian actors are on the rise and increasingly dominate the affective field. In the struggle for hegemony in times of multiple crises and uncertainties in late neoliberalism, right-wing populist actors offer simple answers and stir up retrotopian longings for a revival of "better" times in the past. Today, Poland is one of Europe's most vibrant laboratories for democratic reawakening. After eight years of authoritarian populism under the Law and Justice party (PiS), Polish civil society has embarked on the complex and unfinished task of re-democratization - reclaiming institutions, restoring trust and reshaping collective agency.

This process, which has only just begun under a new government, shows that the restoration of democracy is not a moment of triumph, but an ongoing practice of resilience, vigilance and care. Although these events and their contexts are deeply political, they also have a profound cultural dimension: they show how imagination, collectivity and care can become transformative civic forces. The first years of the renewed democratic experiment in Poland show both the fragility and the strength of redemocratization. They show how easily democratic energies can be depleted by compromise, how quickly populist structures can re-emerge in new forms, and how important it is to stay focused, practice what you preach, and closely monitor the actions of so-called allies. Resisting the temptation of the "lesser of two evils" becomes part of the cultural task of preserving democratic integrity - reminding us that redemocratization is as much a moral and aesthetic process as it is a political one.

What can we learn from Poland's collective resilience? What mechanisms can sustain a democracy after populism?

Redemocratization is not only a constitutional, but also a cultural and imaginative act. The symposium invites us to rethink how art practices can contribute to reactivating the instituting social imagination: the shared ability to imagine what lies ahead. In this sense, the symposium examines post-populism not only as a political situation, but also as a curatorial, dramaturgical and organizational challenge. How can we produce, present and curate differently after populism? How can art institutions "care" (in the etymological sense of curare/care) for the contexts in which artworks and audiences meet?

The panel discussions will explore curation as care and construction, the role of social imaginaries in democratic renewal and the collaborative potential of the live encounter as a temporary but important building site for alternative social worlds. Against the populist neoliberal rhetoric that reduces art to private consumption and economic value, this symposium affirms the public, constitutive role of art - not by reflecting reality, but by being part of the social fabric and shaping the way communities think, act, feel and imagine.

13.2.26 - WHY NOW? THE CHESTERTON FENCE PRINCIPLE

Normally it pays to tear down fences and walls. But Chesterton reminds us: before you do that, you should find out why you are standing here. Understanding the causes of the current situation is a prerequisite for smart, effective change - we should not ignore history, but our task is first and foremost to ensure that the future is more important than the past.

With Jean Peters (investigative journalist, Correctiv), Elzbieta Korolczuk (sociologist on anti-gender movements, activist), Evelyn Annuẞ (University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Director of the Center for Gender and Performativity)

14.2.26 - LESSONS FROM POLAND

Using current examples, we ask what forms of solidarity and imagination can keep democratic energies alive today and reflect on counter-strategies arising from social and cultural transformations in Poland (and other countries).

With Anton Ambroziak (journalist), Magda Szpecht (director, Cyber-Elf), Olga Brzezinska (deputy director for programming and strategy at the Adam Mickiewicz Institute), Yuriy Gurzhy (musician, author, DJ), André Leipold (Center for Political Beauty, musician)

Yuriy Gurzhy will DJ after the panel. He was born in Kharkiv in Ukraine and lives in Berlin. He is active as a musician with his band RotFront, among others

15.2.26 - RECLAIMING THE FUTURE: THE POWER OF IMAGINATION

In view of the right's "retrotopian" longings for an idealized past, it is crucial to reclaim the future as a point of reference and to ask about its "conditions of possibility".

With Elisabeth Finger (performance artist), Maurice Conrad (queer hip hop artist), Ania Nowak (performer)

Price information:

from 15 € / reduced from 7 €