Akademie Talk:
The house is on fire. Art, crisis and democracy

The prominent social-liberal politician Gerhart Baum, who passed away in February of this year, left behind a short pamphlet entitled Besinnt Euch! (Reflect!), which was recently published by Suhrkamp. In it, he issues a powerful appeal to defend the values of liberal democracies, and to resist sacrificing them for the illusion of security.

In this Akademie Talk, Renate Liesmann-Baum, author Durs Grünbein and filmmaker Andres Veiel discuss the publication's pressing themes through a cultural-political and artistic lens with Manos Tsangaris, composer and President of the Akademie der Künste.

How are artistic developments shaped by society’s stark political realities – marked by the turbulence of a shifting world order, increasing militarisation and social division? What responsibilities arise from this tension? And how much greater must the safeguards of freedom of art and expression be in order for democracy, as Baum put it, to “continue to breathe”? Between the talks, excerpts from texts will be read and film clips shown.

An event in the context of “Widerstand der Ästhetik” (Resistance of Aesthetics)

At a time when the narrative styles of social media, short clips, fake news and AI are becoming a political power factor, a resistant, ultimately enlightening aesthetic is becoming a duty. However, it often unfolds its power precisely when it is not overtly political. How can resistance then succeed? The Akademie is devoting a series of events to this question.