A guide through the narrowing corridors of freedom of expression
Event in German without translation. Questions and contributions to the discussion following the lecture can also be asked in Arabic and English, we will translate to the best of our ability.
The accelerated, ubiquitous and relentless assault on all our senses through news, online media and daily encounters with world events relentlessly influences our perception of social interaction. Jolting towards armament and global conflict, the conditions and speed at which political participation must take place are shifting.
We invite you to step back from the current events for a moment and explore the tensions together – between the hegemonic, authoritarian language and symbolism that increasingly characterise our days and people and movements that semantically and intellectually oppose these developments.
Drawing on their experiences in the academic and artistic fields and as active participants in democratic and emancipatory processes in Europe and the SWANA region, the speakers of this Ibn Rushd Lecture, Dr Simon Strick, Caram Kapp and Nora Al-Badri, will explore the terrain of propaganda, protest and subversion.
Dr Simon Strick will examine right-wing media landscapes that have become overpowering and blatant in numerous democracies around the world, Caram Kapp will look at the worlds of imagery and meaning associated with the Palestinian anti-genocide protests in Berlin, and Nora Al-Badri will discuss her project ‘The Post-Truth Museum’, in which she critiques the role of museums in the dissemination and preservation of colonial and imperial narratives.
What are the similarities of authoritarian communication worldwide, where are the differences? What lessons can people in Western democracies draw from the resilience and resistance of people in the Global South? How will the experiences of the revolutions in the Arab world known as the ‘Arab Spring’ reverberate in Europe in 2025?
Join us in developing ideas and strategies with which we can defy and survive the multifaceted attack on equal social and political participation, possibly sometimes in a subversive way, but necessarily always in a way that makes sense to our assaulted selves.
About the speakers
Simon Strick is scholar of culture and media and author of the performance collective Panzerkreuzer Rotkäppchen (PKRK). He has published extensively on contemporary fascism and the extreme right. His book ‘Rechte Gefühle: Affekte und Strategien des digitalen Faschismus’ (2021) has been reviewed as a fundamental study on the current technopolitical constellation. He is currently working on the research project ‘Digital Blackface’ at the University of Potsdam. With PKRK, he is working on the political abysses and the emotional consequences after 1989 in Germany. PKRK’s next event on 26 April 2025 will be the theatrical installation ‘Ekel II’ on performance art of the GDR in the Stasi document archive.
Nora Al-Badri is a multi-disciplinary and conceptual media artist with a German-Iraqi background. Her works are research-based as well as paradisciplinary and post-colonial. She lives and works in Berlin. She graduated in political sciences at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt/Main and is a lecturer at the Eidgenössische Hochschule (ETH) in Zurich. Her practice focuses on the politics and the emancipatory potential of new technologies such as machine intelligence or data sculpting. Al-Badri’s artistic material is a speculative archaeology from fossils to artefacts or performative interventions in museums and other public spaces, that respond to the inherent power structures. She has exhibited in many places, among others the Viktoria and Albert Museums’ Applied Arts Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia, Design Biennal Istanbul, ZKM Karlsruhe, Science Gallery Dublin, and Ars Electronica. Al Badri’s work was featured in media such as The New York Times, BBC, Artnet, Wired, Le Monde Afrique, Arte TV, Smithsonian, Al Ahram, Vice, Hürriyet, Dezeen, Polska, La informacion, De Volkskrant, Gizmodo, and The Verge.
Caram Kapp is a documentarist, independent cultural researcher and interdisciplinary artist. His work focusses on in-between spaces in which cultures come together, on working with children and young people and on examining the political mechanisms of the production of media, art and culture. He is best known for the ‘Homeland Hack’ and artworks in Berlin’s urban space. His works have been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, the Academy of Arts in Berlin and the Design Museum in London, among others.
Event in German without translation, hosted by Cora Josting, Ibn Rushd Fund
Questions and contributions to the discussion following the lectures can also be asked in Arabic and English, we will interpret as best we can
On Thursday 24 April 2025 at 7 pm
In the Lettrétage at Acud, Veteranenstraße 21, 10119 Berlin
U8 Rosenthaler Platz
TRAM 50 M1 M8
Bus 142 N8 N40
S1 S2 S25 S26 Nordbahnhof
Admission free, donations are encouraged, as is registration (link)