Amsterdam | Forum on European Culture 2025
From 25 until 29 June 2025 Forum on European Culture will bring together 30+ programmes, 40+ international artists, writers and thinkers, art installations, film screenings, talks and more at De Balie in Amsterdam.
With the theme ‘Art Against the Tyrants’, this 5th edition asks, who’s afraid of art? Now that tyrants are on the roll and more and more people in the West seem to be falling for the autocratic alternative, the Forum on European Culture brings together international artists, writers, and thinkers to celebrate the subversive power of art and literature such as Anne Applebaum, Nino Haratischwili, Marietje Schaake, Laurent Richard (Forbidden stories), Open group, Arnon Grunberg, Adam Phillips, Ece Temelkuran and Iswanto Hartono.
The strongest weapon of the tyrant is apathy. The belief that nothing can ever change; that the strongmen will get their way anyway. The Forum 2025 curates works of opposition that challenge this culture of resignation, showcasing the work of artists who have endured times of war and depict their experiences in profound, sometimes playful works of art. The Forum invites writers who tell the histories autocrats want to erase and imagine the futures autocrats fear.