Art with the State – How does the state imagine art?
28. Jan.
Staatskunst und Staatsräson
Conversation Series
28. Januar 2025, 17 Uhr, Kunstraum der Leuphana Universität
Art with the State – How does the state imagine art?
w/
Christoph Möllers, Lehrstuhl für Öffentliches Recht, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Zoe Claire Miller, Allianz für Kritische und Solidarische Wissenschaft
The last two years have seen a remarkable renegotiation of the relationship between the arts and the state in Germany. From instances of outright censorship to the ongoing discussion around particular provisions for public art funding, often in the name of anti-antisemitism, cultural producers and workers across disciplines have been forced to reckon with the ambivalent legacies of a self-proclaimed culture-nation (Kulturnation). What seemed like rapid and imminent interventions into a formerly smoothly organized apparatus of cultural funding in the name of democracy have raised some broader questions about this very apparatus. Have there always been prefigured interests and motives that determine how parliamentary democracy supports art and culture? Or are the restrictions a more recent strategy by right wing forces? The constitutional right to Kunstfreiheit seems to clash with other, less juridical principles of the state such as Staatsräson and a specific understanding of democratic conduct. This reconfiguration of who and what would be supported in producing art has led to a broad reevaluation of the spaces that are accessible and trustworthy to artists. The series of conversations aim to get a critical hold on recent developments vis-á-vis a more long-term legislative and historical perspective. How does the state respond to shifts and transformations in the political sphere in terms of its support for the arts? How may we preserve and defend institutional spaces, paradoxically maintained by the state while in regular opposition to it?
The conversations will be conducted in English. The conversation series will be continued in the summer semester. The event is a collaboration of Kunstraum and Transformation Lab.