Reflexes & Reflections. On the Future of Debate Culture
A three-day focus at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele, curated by Saba-Nur Cheema and Meron Mendel. Opening panel with Jeffrey Goldberg and Alice Hasters. With a dance piece by Emanuel Gat, a video installation by Hito Steyerl, Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze and Miloš Trakilović, and a late-night programme with Enissa Amani and Max Uthoff.
With “Reflexes & Reflections” the Berliner Festspiele will spend three days from 6 to 8 March focussing on the future of debate culture. The second edition in this series of programmes will again be curated by the political scholar Saba-NurCheema and the historian MeronMendel. The full programme is published on the website and tickets go on sale today, 15 January at 14:00 h.
After a successful inaugural event in June 2024 entitled “7 October, the war in Gaza and the debate in Germany,” in the second edition of “Reflexes & Reflections” the curators will continue to explore the possibilities for constructive debate in the face of polarisation and populism. Based on the observation that public discussions are increasingly conducted in a heated and antagonistic manner while confidence in state institutions as mediators is also in decline, their programme assesses the current state of affairs: why is today’s culture of debate failing? What roles are played in this by social media, inequality and ideological conflict? And how can a lively praxis of public debate be encouraged?
The programme combines analytical and artistic perspectives: to open the discursive programme on Thursday, 6 March, American journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, explains how the increasing polarisation of the public arena led to the re-election of Donald Trump. Author and journalist Alice Hasters will respond to his argument with her own theories on the future culture of liberal debate. ZEIT journalist Yasmine M’Barek investigates various reasons for a potential collapse of liberal democracy in conversation with experts on tax, racism and politics. On Friday morning, experts will analyse specific problems in individual areas of debate in conversation with the audience. Hasnain Kazim, Gilda Sahebi and Mithu Sanyal talk to Stefan Niggemeier (Übermedien) about the power of personal testimony in public discourse and Elke Buhr (Monopol Magazin) discusses the dangers for artistic freedom posed by boycotts and state regulation with Deniz Yücel, Nora Sternfeld and Emanuel Gat.
As part of “Reflexes & Reflections” at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele, choreographer Emanuel Gat will show his latest work “Freedom Sonata” on two evenings in which, working together with a group of dancers of diverse heritage and styles, he re-examines the form of the sonata. In relation to music the music of Beethoven and Kanye West he develops complex scores which the dancers make their own live on stage. Here freedom is neither anarchy nor consumerism, instead it comes from playing by rules that have been negotiated collectively.
The increasing erosion of public debate is explored in the work “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: BELANCIEGE” by Hito Steyerl, Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze and Miloš Trakilović: referencing the fashion labels Balenciaga and Vetements, the artists investigate how data analysis practices within the fashion industry are used in targeted advertising on social media. In doing so, the artwork raises questions about the future of democracy if the public sphere can be bought and sold and flooded with promises based on identity politics. In his opening speech at the vernissage, curator, author and journalist Kolja Reichert elucidates the importance of this artwork against the background of the re-election of Donald Trump. The video installation is freely accessible for the entire duration of the 3-day focus in the Upper Foyer of the Haus der Berliner Festspiele.
Alongside the serious questions discussed within “Reflexes & Reflections”, there has to be some humour. Therefore, shortly after the 2025 German federal election, “Reflexes and Reflections” invites two stars of the German stand up and cabaret scene to sum up the results: Max Uthoff, political cabaret artist and host of the ZDF programme “Die Anstalt”, teams up with Enissa Amani, comedienne and activist, whose own production “Die beste Instanz” won the Grimme Online Award for 2021. They will both comment on the election results and ask themselves: What’s left to laugh about?
The programme is published on the website and tickets go on sale today, 15 January at 14:00 h.
Please send your requests for accreditation and/or interviews with the curators, participating speakers and artists to Leonard Pelz leonard.pelz@berlinerfestspiele.de.
Up-to-date photos of “Freedom Sonata”, “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: BELANCIEGE” and portraits of the curators are available to download from the Berliner Festspiele press section.
The panels and workshop will be held in German and English, with simultaneous translation offered into both languages. The late-night programme will be in German without translation. “Freedom Sonata” is a non-verbal dance piece. English is used in the video installation “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: BELANCIEGE”.
A Berliner Festspiele production
Curated by: Saba-Nur Cheema & Meron Mendel
Dramaturgy: Moritz Frischkorn
“Freedom Sonata”
Emanuel Gat – Choreography, Scenography, Lighting Design
“MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: BELANCIEGE”
Three Channel HD video, colour, sound, installation, 47:23 min, 2019
Written and Co-produced by Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze, Hito Steyerl, Miloš Trakilović
Press Contact for “Reflexes & Reflections”
Leonard Pelz
Leonard.Pelz@berlinerfestspiele.de
+49 30 254 89 276