Join the Goethe-Institut FREEPOST online debate on arts and politics

Since 2017, the Goethe-Institut has hosted a series of digital debates 'FREEPOST' involving artists, cultural activists, journalists and others. Currently the FREEPOST debate on ARTS AND POLITICS is ongoing - you can join the debate, leave your views and questions on social media.

How can artists position themselves politically? And how do they collaborate internationally?
In the new edition of our digital debate “Freepost”, which is taking place in cooperation with the Internationale Gesellschaft der Bildenden Künste, artists engage in a joint discussion about their role.

Contemporary art in Europe is socially relevant. But how does it shield itself from political appropriation? Joseph Young, sound artist, belit sağ, video artist, and Via Lewandowsky, visual artist, discuss this question – and you can join the debate! Leave us your views and questions: in the comments field on this page or on Facebook and Twitter using the hashtag #freepost.

The debate Moderator Geraldine de Bastion outlines some of the issues under discussion:

Artistic interventions like the grey figures of the G20 protests in Hamburg in summer 2017 have played an important role in such social movements. The correlation between art and politics is not a new debate, but a continuous question to be reflected on. It seems that the expectation that art should be part of a political debate is rising.

“If art doesn’t do politics, who will?”, Documenta14 curator Dieter Roelstraete asked his students in the summer of 2017. In today’s European society, how political can and should art be? How can art help break out of the polarization we are currently experiencing in our societies?

The current edition of our digital debate “Freepost” is being held in cooperation with the Internationale Gesellschaft der Bildenden Künste (IGBK).

Follow the discussions on previous Freepost debates