Invitation to public panel talks as part of the two-days session

Aesthetics and Agitation - Art Academies after October 7

taking place on May 16 & 17, 2024 at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

Contemporary art and cultural production that considers itself as political, works towards social change by means of critical thinking and emancipatory practices. Accordingly, political perspectives and positions also play an important role in art academies. Many of their associates, teachers and students, engage in public debates through discursive and aesthetic practices and promote those debates at their institutions.

The events of October 7 and their consequences led to intensive discussions about the Middle East conflict at the art academies. For decades, the conflict served as a projection screen for a political left, which was shaped by the 1968 movement in the spirit of anti-imperialism and international solidarity. Supporting the Palestinian cause was widely taken for granted. Since the 1990s, the unambiguousness of this attitude has been critically questioned within the left, especially in the post-Nazi space. The debates and confrontations resulting from it have meanwhile reached the politicized art field as well as the art academies.

In order to better understand these debates and enable ourselves to conduct them more productively, we are getting together for a two-day event to exchange about what has happened at the art academies since October 7. We will reflect on the role repression and denial played in it, as well as aesthetics and agitation, racist and anti-Semitic world views, the fragility of alliances and the rejection of guilt and fantasies of redemption. Finally, we do not want to give up the hope that it will be possible again to develop practices of solidarity that are based on both, the critique of racism and the critique of antisemitism.

Public panel talk, morning session:

Art Academies after October 7

10.30 at Aula, Schillerplatz 3

Panelists: Jörg Heiser, Jakob Krameritsch, Sashi Turkof, Ruth Mateus-Berr

Moderated by Aylin Başaran

Jörg Heiser is an art critic and curator who teaches at the Berlin University of the Arts.

Jakob Krameritsch is a historian and teaches at the Institute for Art and Cultural Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.

Sashi Turkof studies art education at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and is active in the JÖH (Jewish Students Union of Austria).

Ruth Mateus-Berr is an artist and scientist, she teaches art education at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.

Aylin Başaran is a film and media scholar and contemporary historian. She teaches at the Institute for Theater, Film and Media Studies at the University of Vienna.

Public panel talk, evening session:

Denialism

19.00 at Aula, Schillerplatz 3

Panelists: Kübra Atasoy, Ana Hoffner, Isolde Vogel

Moderated by Livia Erdösi and Nora Sternfeld

Kübra Atasoy, is chairwoman of the NGO Asyl in Not. Ana Hoffner ex-Prvulović* is an artist, researcher and author. She teaches artistic research at the Mozarteum University Salzburg. Isolde Vogel is a historian and researcher on antisemitism, she works at the DÖW (Documentation Center of Austrian Resistance) in the field of right-wing extremism. Livia Erdösi is a social scientist and works at the Jewish Museum Vienna. Nora Sternfeld is a cultural scientist and art educator, she teaches art education at the HFBK Hamburg.

The two-days event is conceived and organized by Petja Dimitrova, Livia Erdösi, Eduard Freudmann, Nora Sternfeld

In addition two the panel talks it is comprised of a series of workshops:

Aesthetics of Agitation (Tatiana Kai-Browne, Hannahlisa Kunyik, Eduard Freudmann)

Unlearning Antisemitic/Racist Worldviews (Havîn Al-Sîndy, Nora Sternfeld)

Fragile Alliances (Sheri Avraham, Nora Hasan, Sophie Orentlikher)

Guilt: Imputation and Rejection (Simon Nagy, Karin Schneider)

Please beware that all workshops are fully booked and join us for the public panel talks!