COUNSEL OF THE MANY: TAKING ACTION AGAINST RIGHT-WING EXTREMISM
DIE VIELEN in cooperation with the Academy of Arts
and Burg Hülshoff – Center for Literature (CfL), German Stage Association, German Cultural Council, Fonds Darstellende Künste, Maxim Gorki Theater, GRIPS Theater, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Initiative Kulturelle Integration, Kampnagel, Kulturforum der Sozialdemokratie, Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss and MANY MORE
In view of the latest election results, how can die VIELEN that we are take action against right-wing extremism? What options to act do the arts and the constitutional state have, what impulses can culture provide and how can we as a society deal with the fact that some people are already sitting on packed suitcases, not just in a figurative sense? These questions are urgent and pressing – because not only democracy and its culture are vulnerable, but also the people at the heart of those.
The current electoral successes of the far right and the anti-democratic developments of recent years, as well as agitation, violence and new right-wing hegemonic strategies have brought, the COUNSEL OF THE MANY discusses options to act and to reconsider the responsibility of society, politics, culture and the arts: What freedoms does this society need, but also what protection and what prohibitions?
The COUNSEL OF THE MANY is going to create a space to reflect on these questions for one day, where we will exchange expertise, connections and practical knowledge. Together with the VIELEN, we are seeking answers to the question of how the future of democracy can be kept open with commitment.
Programme
10 am – 1 pm, Akademie der Künste, Plenary Hall
To start off, Turbo Pascal will invite all visitors to reflect on freedom and limits in a performative workshop. This will be followed by two keynote speeches, which will deal with the social power and freedom of the arts on the one hand and examine controversial options such as initiating the procedure of banning a party on the other. These positions will be discussed in the subsequent discussion.
2:30 – 4 pm, Akademie der Künste, GRIPS Theatre, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Humboldt Forum, Maxim Gorki Theatre
In the afternoon, the COUNSEL will set out and confer in decentralized working groups at five Berlin institutions, where experts and visitors will work together to develop concrete options to take action against right-wing extremism. At the Maxim Gorki Theatre, the focus will be on international perspectives, among others; at the Humboldt Forum, legal aspects of a robust democracy will be explored, the group at GRIPS Theatre will be developing possible forms of networking; at HAU Hebbel am Ufer, the focus will be on the relationship between law, art and politics; and at the Akademie der Künste, experts will be examining the “Art of democracy”. The selection of the working groups takes place exclusively in the Akademie der Künste on Pariser Platz.
5 – 8 pm, Akademie der Künste, Plenary Hall
Back at the Akademie der Künste, the performative reading “IN BETWEEN (If the majority feels comfortable, can you speak of dictatorship?)” by András Dömötör will ask when it will be too late to stop right-wing extremism in Europe. After an exchange between the working groups in the Open Space (5:30 pm), the COUNSEL will then gather for the final discussion: “Art meets politics”. From 6 pm, members of the German Bundestag, the VIELEN and other actors will discuss what action against right-wing extremism is needed now.