Academy Discussion:
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 Academy Discussion, 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.