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Discussion Series Art in Conflict – Gessnerallee Zurich

Wednesday, 14. May, 17.30h CET
Stall 6, Gessneralle 6, Zürich & Zoom

Social Art Initiatives Out in the Streets
with Vera Ryser live on site (founding member of the collective Das Wandbild muss weg! (The Mural Must Go!)) and Asida Butba online (SKLAD)

What can art achieve in regions affected by war? How do artists create opportunities for encounters and foster peaceful conflict resolution? Through its practice, artasfoundation is repeatedly confronted with these fundamental questions. The series Art in Conflict aims to delve into these questions by an exchange between practitioners and scholars. This series, presented as moderated table discussions by the artasfoundation team, explores specific topics grounded in practical experiences and theoretical insights.

Two projects in different political contexts are at the core of this issue of Art in Conflict. One is an initiative in Switzerland that deals with how to address a racist public mural (Das Wandbild muss weg! (The Mural Must Go!)). The other is the long-established project space SKLAD in the globally isolated region of Abkhazia¹. SKLAD seeks to be a place where international artists can engage with the local context, local artists can further develop their work, and the creative community can find space for exchange and discussion. Through these two civil society and artistic initiatives, the conditions for successful engagement are explored.

Spontaneous participation on site is always possible. Online participation is possible with prior registration. Free entry.

For the event on 14. May, please register here.

This event is part of a monthly series that is organised by the CAP, a joint initiative of artasfoundation and the ZHdK in cooperation with Theater Gessnerallee. Here you can subscribe to the current programme of Art in Conflict and stay up to date.

Supported by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia

Next Date

18. June, 17.30h
Theatre as Generator for Political Liberation
with Iman Aoun and Toni Shapiro-Phim
Zoom Registration

Living Room – A Space for Artists, Organisations and Communities

The Living Room is a connecting space for displaced communities from Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenian artists and international artists and cultural workers collaborating in varied social and artistic forms.

Besides the activities organised by artasfoundation, the space will also host other projects that simply need a space to work. The physical space is accessible for artists, organisations and communities involved in social transformation and looking for a space to practice, rehearse, gather, exchange, perform or simply meet.

Submit a request for booking the space

From 6. to 10. May 2025, the Living Room is organising the Art and Social Transformation Lab for the second time. We invite local artists, art educators, cultural managers and researchers engaged in art and social change. In a five-day laboratory, participants will develop project ideas and explore approaches to artistic engagement for social justice and a peaceful future.

Registration for New CAS Further Education Course Open!

The CAS Arts and International Cooperation focuses on the potential of the arts to support processes of social transformation and peace building. It emphasises fair and sensitive international and intercultural collaboration. The programme brings together an international group of participants. These include professionals in arts practices, peace building activists, project managers from internationally operating organisations and visionary people, all from different geopolitical contexts. Through a study-trip with field visits, the participants will gain an insight into actual art projects in fragile contexts. They will reflect on these projects based on tools and concepts from current literature and conclude with a mentored diploma thesis that relates to an individual project or work context.

The CAS is a cooperation project between Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and artasfoundation in the framework of the Center for Art and Peacebuilding (CAP) since 2016.

Further information and registration

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From the current circular

It’s October, and we have returned from three art projects in Armenia and Georgia – back to the reality of being overwhelmed by news, mounting tasks, non-stop meetings, and back to the virtual collaboration between our decentralised workspaces.

Our art projects frequently offer a different kind of summer pause, where the rest of life seems to stand still. These are moments we have been envisioning, planning and preparing for over a year. For us it is the pinnacle of our work, not a pause. We’re not switching off or stepping away; instead, we’re fully immersing ourselves. We use artistic expression to explore and practise a form of togetherness that transcends borders. These moments allow us to envision a future of interconnectedness, however small, that we strive to weave into reality.

Recently we have been using the terms “community” and “socially engaged art” extensively, promoting or rather offering the words to various communities, eager to see what they become; ready for their interpretations to surprise and inspire us. Therefore, with our projects we have been building frameworks for testing these terms, such as the International Summer School for Socially Engaged Art in 2023; Sharing Stories (hopefully taking place as you are reading this circular); and the Living Room, which is a physical art space dedicated to this topic. In August, the Living Room hosted the Art and Social Transformation Lab, where three local art initiatives found their starting point and will be realised in the coming months.

A current example where community is central is Tbilisi Crossroads, a 10-day residency, which marked a milestone for an ongoing project. Community is also an essential aspect of the Teachers Training, an advanced training programme for art teachers from the outlying regions of Armenia, who through the project become part of a wide network that connects art teachers all across the country.

We are interested in each other. We don’t want to live in parallel, we want to learn from each other, artistically and beyond. We also want to get into dialogue with you. Please join us in our Artas Community Event on 26. November as well as our discussion series Art in Conflict online or offline at Theater Gessnerallee Zurich.

As a small team, we want to create a big impact and to do this, we draw our strength from the realisation of our art projects. In the process, the precious moments that arise are thanks to you, our allies who dream along with us and support us by contributing artistically, practically, organisationally or financially to make these projects a reality.

¹artasfoundation would like to underline that its use of names and titles particularly in regards to conflict regions should not be understood as implying any form of recognition or non-recognition by the foundation or as having any other political connotation whatsoever.

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