Uncomfortable Voices

A day-long symposium explores the commonalities and differences of the current “culture wars” in Austria, Germany, and elsewhere in Europe. Why is it so easy to exclude uncomfortable voices? How did the logic of shitstorms lead to a new McCarthyism? How can cultural institutions navigate the new pressures of the day, and what are the strategies for the “day after”? How can we repair the damage done to the institutions and to public discourse?

In the first panel, The Day After?, Andreja Hribernik and Daniel Muzyczuk address the impact of the Right’s electoral victories on museums. How can they continue raising difficult questions under right-wing governance? How can museums recover once power changes hands again?

In the second panel, Austrian Apocalypse, Natascha Strobl and Ilija Trojanow discuss the situation in Austria, where a far-right politician is poised to become chancellor. How did the Right manage to convince such large parts of the electorate, and what, if anything, could disenchant the current fascination with authoritarianism?

In the third panel, Shitstorms and Staatsräson, Emily Dische-Becker and Eva Menasse look at the recent weaponization of antisemitism accusations by the Right in Germany and elsewhere. By what mechanisms are uncomfortable voices excluded from public debates? How to navigate social media shitstorms, and how to keep them from becoming toxic?

In the final panel, Uncomfortable Voices in Art Institutions, Nina Tabassomi and Antje Weitzel examine the impact of the new political and economic pressures on art institutions. How to orient oneself in the new political situation, how to deal with the pressure to comply, how to continue to confront uncomfortable truths?

The symposium also includes a first look at the exhibition and festival catalogue. This richly illustrated publication, designed by Grupa Ee and published by Hatje Cantz (ISBN 978-3-7757-6008-9), documents the program of steirischer herbst ’24. Edited by Ekaterina Degot and David Riff, it contains contributions by Kevin Clarke, Clemens Ruthner, Barbara Seyerl, Heidemarie Uhl, and Hans-Peter Weingand.

Schedule

10:00–11:00
Exhibition tour with senior curators David Riff and Pieternel Vermoortel

11:15–11:30
Greetings by Peter Peer, director of Neue Galerie Graz / Universalmuseum Joanneum, and Ekaterina Degot
Presentation of the Horror Patriae catalogue

11:30–13:00
The Day After?
With Andreja Hribernik and Daniel Muzyczuk
Moderated by Ekaterina Degot
In English

13:00–13:30
Sandwich break

13:30–15:00
Austrian Apocalypse
With Natascha Strobl and Ilija Trojanow
Moderated by David Riff
In German

15:00–15:15
Coffee break

15:15–16:45
Shitstorms and Staatsräson
With Emily Dische-Becker and Eva Menasse
Moderated by David Riff
In German

16:45–17:00
Coffee break

17:00–18:30
Uncomfortable Voices in Art Institutions
With Nina Tabassomi and Antje Weitzel
Moderated by Pieternel Vermoortel
In English

Followed by
Reception

Emily Dische-Becker is a writer, film producer, researcher, and curator. She worked as a cultural manager in Beirut and has contributed to Harper’s Magazine, Der Spiegel, and Die Zeit, among others. At Forensic Architecture and its sister agency Forensis, she investigates the role of state authorities in cases of antisemitic and racist violence in Germany. Dische-Becker is on the steering committee of the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism and the Germany director of Diaspora Alliance. She was an adviser for public programs at Documenta 15, Kassel, and co-organized the international conference Hijacking Memory: The Holocaust and the New Right (Berlin, 2022).

Andreja Hribernik has been the director of Kunsthaus Graz since January 2023. From 2013 to 2022 she was the scientific, artistic, and commercial director of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Koroška, Slovenj Gradec. Before that, she worked at Moderna galerija, Ljubljana, and Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leizpig, among others. In 2017, Hribernik curated Slovenia’s contribution to the Venice Biennale, The News Belong to Us! She completed her doctorate (dissertation topic: “The Museum as a Place of Utopia”) at the Institute for Humanistic Studies, Ljubljana, in 2016.

Eva Menasse is a writer and essayist. Her works include Der Holocaust vor Gericht: Der Prozess um David Irving (Siedler, 2000), Vienna (Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2005), Quasikristalle (Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2013), Dunkelblum (Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2021), and Alles und nichts sagen: Vom Zustand der Debatte in der Digitalmoderne (Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2023). Menasse was the spokesperson of PEN Berlin until November 2024. She has been awarded, among others, the Heinrich Böll Prize (2013), the Austrian Book Prize (2017), and the Bruno Kreisky Prize for the Political Book (2021).

Daniel Muzyczuk is the interim director of Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź. He has curated the exhibitions Sounding the Body Electric: Experiments in Art and Music in Eastern Europe 1957–1984 (with David Crowley), Notes from the Underground: Art and Alternative Music in Eastern Europe 1968–1994 (with David Crowley), The Museum of Rhythm (with Natasha Ginwala), and Through the Soundproof Curtain: The Polish Radio Experimental Studio (with Michał Mendyk), among others. Muzyczuk was cocurator of the Polish Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale (with Agnieszka Pindera). His monograph Twilight of the Magicians is forthcoming with Spector Books.

Natascha Strobl is a political scientist and journalist who writes for the Frankfurter Rundschau and the Süddeutsche Zeitung, among others. She can be found on X under @Natascha_Strobl. Her book Radikalisierter Konservatismus: Eine Analyse (Suhrkamp, 2021) was a bestseller and won the Recognition Award of the Bruno Kreisky Prize for the Political Book. Together with Julian Bruns and Kathrin Glösel, she also published Rechte Kulturrevolution: Wer und was ist die Neue Rechte von heute? (VSA Verlag, 2015).

​​Nina Tabassomi has been the director of Taxispalais Kunsthalle Tirol since 2017. Previously, she was the artistic director of Ludlow 38, the former art space of the Goethe-Institut New York. She also worked as a curator at the Fridericianum, Kassel. At Taxispalais, Tabassomi focuses on international artists’ first solo exhibitions in Austria and on exhibition trilogies that use art to deal with contemporary issues—such as the inadequate discourse on multiple affiliations in Western Europe—in a sensual and discursive way. She is currently curating Trilogie der Töchter, whose first chapter, Matriarchat, was on view in 2024.

Ilija Trojanow is a writer, translator, and publisher. Born in Sofia in 1965, he fled with his family via Yugoslavia and Italy to Germany in 1971, where they were granted political asylum. Trojanow has lived in Nairobi, Mumbai, and Cape Town, among others, and currently resides in Vienna. His best-selling novels such as Der Weltensammler (Hanser, 2006) and travelogues such as An den inneren Ufern Indiens (Hanser, 2003) have been awarded numerous prizes. Recently, Trojanow published the essay Nach der Flucht (2017) and the novels Doppelte Spur (2020) and Tausend und ein Morgen (2023) with S. Fischer.

Antje Weitzel is a curator and cultural manager. In October 2024, she assumed the role of artistic and managing director of Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin. Before this, she worked as project manager for the Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art from 2014 onward. Weitzel also co-ran and curated the project space Uqbar, Berlin, from 2007 to 2022. She has curated exhibitions at institutions such as Kunstraum Kreuzberg, Galerie im Körnerpark, nGbK, Maxim Gorki Theater, and the Akademie der Künste, all in Berlin. Her work reflects a profound understanding of the dynamics of the contemporary art world and a commitment to its ongoing development.