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Tagged: Art

Old photograph of a boy, above it a rubber stamp.

Witnessing Witnessing – On the Role of Art and its Audience in Times of Violence

By Judith Sieber. With the thematic focus “Witnessing Witnessing”, the European Media Art Festival (EMAF) 2025 took up the question of second degree witnessing “to explore the role of witnesses today, how testimonies – like statements, documents, individual objects or entire archives – shape our view of the world and how they can influence political reality.” This text is not a review of the festival – both the plurality of approaches and the political discussions that took place were far too complex. Rather, it is an attempt to think along the line of three of the films shown and to try to explore the meaning of witnessing in the current moment. The author takes a look at three films – “Das falsche Wort” (English The Lie, 1987) by Katrin Seybold and Melanie Spitta, “Empty Metal” (2018), a feature film directed by Adam Khalil and Bayley Sweitzer, and “Vents Violents” (Two letters to Chantal Akerman) from 2025.

Plural Temporalities: Theories and Practices of Time

Lena Bader reports on “Plural Temporalities: Theories and Practices of Time,” the fourth Transregional Academy of the German Center for Art History (DFK Paris), which took place in Bogotá from 24 September to 2 October 2022. It was organized in co-operation with the Universidad de los Andes and the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History in Rome (BHMPI) and with the support of the Forum Transregionale Studien.

The Birth of Culture from the Spirit of Revolution

Vasyl Cherepanyn in conversation with Kinga Lendeczki. The head of the Visual Culture Research Center (VCRC) talks about the previously unwalked path the Kyiv Biennial followed since 2015, touching upon topics such as the legacy and influence of the Maidan revolution(s) on the Ukrainian cultural and artistic field, the specificities of being an artist or a cultural practitioner in Ukraine, the future perspectives of the European cultural field, and how East Europe can earn a new subjectivity for itself.

Women and a Multiplicity of Life Forms in El Meya’s Paintings: An Interview

Interview with El Meya by Katarzyna Falęcka. The artist Maya Benchikh El Fegoun (El Meya) was born in 1988 in Constantine, Algeria. Her paintings, often populated by women, respond to different visual legacies that include Orientalist images and the iconography of the Algerian War of Independence. El Meya is interested in the interiority of women, their dreams, desires, sins, life forms, and sociability.

Before the Invasion: Conversation with Vasyl Cherepanyn

Interview with Vasyl Cherepanyn by Inga Lāce. I sat with Ukrainian curator Vasyl Cherepanyn on the afternoon of Thursday, February 18 for a conversation via Zoom. The situation in Ukraine was already tense because the Russian army had strengthened its forces on the Ukrainian border and there was constant, alarming media focus on the threat of invasion.

“I’m Staying in Ukraine to Understand What is Happening” – Interview with Artist Alevtina Kakhidze

The artist Alevtina Kakhidze lives not far from Kyiv. She was active in the Maidan protests, and her performance for Manifesta 2014, in St. Petersburg, focused on the war in Eastern Ukraine. She speaks about the role of artists in conflicts, what happens to morality during war, and when it is acceptable to be a pacifist.