The »Institutions and Resistance – Alliances for Art at Risk« symposium brings together activists, artists of all genres, and representatives of institutions to resist the »Threats and Risks« faced by art, free creativity and thought and imagine alliances to strengthen the field in the turbulent global predicament.

[Day 2]

Where would you go if the world fell apart? What if your colleges and museums were hijacked? Militias and mafias ruled? Your friends and colleagues were hunted or killed?

This is not a test. It is a reality, right now, in several regions of the world. Its horrific face was vanquished in western Europe only 77 years ago. Will we see it again?

Institutions and Resistance – Alliances for Art at Risk is a two-day symposium on resistance and change, and how cultural institutions can be active agents in countering inegalitarian, anti-democratic, authoritarian and eco-destructive forces. New alliances, programmes and concrete policies are being sought to be imagined, conceived or developed, from a local to a transnational level, together with activists and movements. How can these alliances be activated in times of crises to resist or create pressure on governments, corporations and other power-brokers?

New alliances and forms of resistance are urgently needed in the times of existential risks. We are entangling manifold threats: societal, economic, ecological and other potentially catastrophic emergencies. Both at home and abroad, these are compounded by problems related to forced migrations and violent persecution in several geopolitical regions – from Afghanistan to Belarus, from Kazakhstan to China, from the Amazon to the African and Far-East Asian tropics.

This symposium brings together artists of all genres, activists and thinkers, and representatives of institutions over two days under three broad headings to imagine alliances to strengthen the field in the turbulent global predicament.

More information: ZKM