Art in Times of Culture Wars

Art in Times of Culture Wars

23 November 2023
9:30 – 17:00
UAP, Atrium (29 Marcinkowskiego Ave.)

This workshop invites artists and scholars from Poland who are concerned with the country’s ongoing culture wars about issues such as e.g. abortion or blasphemy laws, LGBT rights, migration, freedom of speech, role of the church. The aim is to present and discuss their respective works and methods with a view to ethical as well as practical questions: Is it possible to transform culture wars peacefully through art and culture? If yes, how and to which extent? Which approaches are appropriate and in which contexts? When to provoke, when to negotiate? When to escalate, when to moderate? How do art and popular culture intersect when it comes to activism, protest, and social engagement? The presentations and discussions will be documented on video and made available to the general public.

The workshop is part of the international research project “Contemporary Part, Popular Culture, and Peacebuilding in Eastern Europe”, headed by Prof. Dr. Jörg Scheller, Zurich University of the Arts, and funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Further sub-projects of the research explore conflict transformation through art and culture in the Republic of Moldova and Armenia.