XIX: Safe vs. Brave? Art Between Sanctuary and Confrontation (Miriam Ibrahim, Edit Kaldor und Ingo Niermann / Army of Love & Florian Malzacher)

Inspired by People’s Tribunals such as the one organized by philosopher Bertrand Russell in 1966 to investigate American war crimes in the Vietnam War, as well as by artistic traditions like Brecht’s learning plays and the agitprop theatre of the early Soviet Union, civic courts have developed as both a theatrical form and a political tool.

How could our cities look if they were not still mainly designed around the needs and imaginations of Western white men? What if urban planning began with the perspectives of children, the elderly, migrants, and those who are usually planned for — but rarely listened to?

What kind of assembly is a neighbourhood? Partly choice, partly coincidence, partly shaped by market forces, class and politics, we find ourselves living in proximity to people we often, if at all, barely know. And yet, there is an expectation embedded in this closeness: the neighbourhood helps construct a sense of home, it is part of our social environment, it is even symbolically charged – a synonym for social care as well as social control. What responsibilities does it entail? What possibilities for shared agency does it offer? And how can artistic strategies contribute to the constantly shifting constellations it comprises?

What kind of assembly is a neighbourhood? Partly choice, partly coincidence, partly shaped by market forces, class and politics, we find ourselves living in proximity to people we often, if at all, barely know. And yet, there is an expectation embedded in this closeness: the neighbourhood helps construct a sense of home, it is part of our social environment, it is even symbolically charged – a synonym for social care as well as social control.

What is considered an acceptable opinion has been increasingly narrowed down in recent years. The 30th edition of The Art of Assembly asks where the limits of freedom of expression lie, what we have to listen to, how we can combine the need for safe spaces with the need for agonistic spheres – and when the state should intervene. Looking at the history of the Enlightenment, philosopher Susan Neiman doubts that the explosive current debates in Germany, for example, are really about freedom of expression. The historian Aziz Al-Azmeh profiles Arab and Islamic topoi present in Germany today and juxtaposes considerations of universalism with an intensified discourse of culturalism and cultural difference. Following the cancellation of this edition at short notice due to an intervention by the City of Munich against the list of speakers, Villa Stuck has together with The Art of Assembly and the participants have decided to hold the event as planned nonetheless.

Water is a main protagonist of all human mythologies, a metaphor for life itself – and at the same time subject of countless, very concrete and rapidly growing conflicts. The 29th edition of The Art of Assembly asks how water can be considered not as a commodity based on concepts like ownership and exploitation, but rather as a common good or even as a partner: Erena Rangimarie Omaki Ransfield Rhöse, member of the royal family from the Waikato tribe, opens the conversation with her intimate knowledge about the connection of the Maori people with the Whanganui in Aotearoa (New Zealand), the first river worldwide that was granted legal personhood. Indigenous activist, writer and scholar of legal anthropology Edson Krenak Naknanuk shows how the legal imagination of indigenous people offers a different idea of ownership not only for the Amazon. In her play The Water, writer Kathrin Röggla reflects on how a mixture of fear and repression, actionism and bureaucracy, empty political promises and personal interests are preventing targeted action against the climate crisis. The artist and philosopher Elisabeth von Samsonow is fascinated by the bifunctionality that separates water as a symbol of life and its disciplining in technology and industry.

The net is tightening. What has long been a reality in other countries is also becoming increasingly noticeable in Germany – and not just in the east: new-right politicians are also gaining power in cultural policy, exerting pressure and threatening individual artists. For Amelie Deuflhard, director of the Kampnagel cultural centre in Hamburg, intimidation attempts by the AfD are part of everyday life. Theatre director Oliver Frljić has repeatedly provoked often violent reactions with his productions in Croatia, Serbia, Poland and Germany. Thomas Krüger, President of the German Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (Federal Agency for Civic Education), has been looking for strategies to counter the shift to the right for many years. Curator Joanna Warsza examines how the effects of eight years of national-conservative cultural policy in Poland are slowly being reversed following the victory of the opposition. The 28th edition of The Art of Assembly asks specifically what tactics and strategies we can learn from each other in dealing with far-right intimidation and political interventions.

For years, theatres, museums and other art institutions have been trying to broaden their audiences – with limited success: the (Western) art field still mainly assembles a white, urban middle class by protecting its borders through distinction and offering cultural capital to those who find access. The 27th edition of The Art of Assembly takes an intersectional look at persistent exclusions and privileges: Author and psychologist Glenn Bech, who used to be ashamed about his working-class roots, confronts a homophobic society as much as an urban arts scene that seeks to appropriate the gay writer from the provinces. Theatre-maker Sahar Rahimi raises the question of why classism is rarely openly discussed in the cultural sector: Is her work more determined by her working-class background or her refugee biography? Julia Wissert, the first Black director of a German city theatre, tries to turn Schauspiel Dortmund into an open, safer, and diverse space – backstage, onstage, and in the auditorium.

Acoustic spaces play a part in defining borders and creating communities. While they fundamentally influence the shaping of public space, their ideological underpinnings, power structures and implications are often unacknowledged. The 26th edition of The Art of Assembly investigates how reconfiguring sonic environments and practices might lead to new modes of listening and the questioning of cultural hegemonies. Sound theorist Brandon LaBelle engages notions of social equality and acoustic justice, pointing out ways in which listening norms and conventions affect community-building and social participation. Architect and musician Fabio Cervi discusses his work as assistant audio investigator at Earshot, an agency founded by artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan. Earshot conducts sonic investigations for communities affected by corporate, state, and environmental injustice. Xenia Koghilaki examines crowd rituals and intensity in concerts and other musical situations, exploring collective movement as a means of resistance. Arts journalist and DJ Atiyyah Khan digs up lost histories of how South African jazz musicians mobilised communities and unconventional venues during apartheid, creating spaces of political resistance and joy..

Theatres regulate space and time for their audiences and demand collective engagement. Other kinds of venues – like museums or libraries – are designed to separate and isolate even large crowds and promote liberal ideas of emancipation. Everyone decides for themselves how long they want to stay and engage. The 25th edition of “The Art of Assembly” looks at artistic approaches to assemblies in cultural places not originally intended for performance. Choreographer Mette Edvardsen looks for soft spaces where her discrete performances become a porous part of the environment, where performers and audiences are in more than one space at the same time. Artist Tino Sehgal has been working with the DNA of museums and the liberal assemblies created by exhibitions, which he uses for his constructed situations – thin lines that direct attention and gazes, choreographing the paths of the audience.