Uncivil Society

This year, 2021, marks the tenth anniversary of the videotaped confessions by the German neo-Nazi terrorist group “National Socialist Underground” (NSU) as well as the massacre on the Norwegian island of Utøya. This string of right-wing extremist murders has continued ever since, and investigative research gives us a rough idea of how vast and far-reaching these tentacular networks are. Against the backdrop of ongoing right-wing violence and terror in countries all over Europe, the Goethe-Instituts in Brussels, Budapest, Milan and Oslo have joined forces with various partner organizations to launch “Uncivil Society,” a project to address the Europe-wide scourge of right-wing terror. As a part of this programme the Goethe-Institut Brussels presents in November 2021 the exhibition Open Trial and a conference including among others a keynote by Didier Eribon.

Exhibition: Open Trial
The point of departure for this exhibition is the National Socialist Underground (NSU), a Neo-Nazi terrorist network that murdered ten people in Germany in the 2000s. The exhibition begins with the history of immigration and of resistance to right-wing and racist violence, and uses a “living memory” approach to bring marginalized perspectives into focus. It also takes aim at various forms of structural and institutional racism.

Featured artists
Hito Steyerl, Harun Farocki, Želimir Žilnik, Forensic Architecture, Pınar Öğrenci, Thanh Nguyen Phuong, belit sağ, Sefa Defterli, Initiative 12. August, Anne König & Nino Bulling, Ulf Aminde & Initiative Herkesin Meydanı, Ülkü Süngün, Alex Gerbaulet & Mareike Bernien, the “Offener Prozess“ Project Team and Máté Fuchs
Curators: Ayşe Güleç & Fritz Laszlo Weber

Opening: November 18, 2021, 6pm
With contributions by: Gamze Kubaşık, Thanh Nguyen Phuong, Hannah Zimmermann, Hito Steyerl & Ayşe Güleç.
A collaborative exhibition with the Offener Prozess project under the auspices of ASA-FF e.V. and LaVallée Brussels.

Conference: Uncivil Society
Keynote by Didier Eribon: “Violence et passion, de la fascination pour le fascisme”

The conference brings together people working in research, culture and the arts, and politics to discuss their contributions to the fight against right-wing terror and racist violence. The object is to develop collective approaches to this ongoing struggle to ward off the emergence and spread of right-wing extremist structures and shore up European civil society in the process. The conference will explore the multi-layered complexity of racist practices, the ongoing history of racist violence, and the networking of right-wing structures in Europe and beyond.

Other speakers include, among others: Wilhelm Heitmeyer, Tore Bjørgo, Manuela Caiani, Serpil Temiz Unvar, MEP Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana

November 27, 2021, Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles, Bld Emile Jacqmain 115, 1000 Brussels

Uncivil Society online artist talks with: Forensic Architecture, Henrike Naumann, Bence Fliegauf, Pia Maria Roll, Kaoutar Harchi

A programme by the Goethe-Institut Brussels, curation of the programme in Brussels: Aloña Elizalde & Julian Volz.

In collaboration with: ASA FF. e.V., LaVallée, Paola Pisciottano, Projekt Offener Prozess, Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles