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Art in Conflict Discussion Series
Gessnerallee Zurich

Wednesday, 16. September 2026, 17.30–19.00 CEST
Stall 6, Gessnerallee 6, Zurich & Zoom
Live broadcast to the media library of the Academy of Art and Design Basel, Freilager-Platz 1, Münchenstein, 8th floor

From Design to Solidarity

Artistic practices in crisis regions face challenging questions. In this series of discussions, various actors come together to reflect on their experiences. This time featuring Futuress (an international feminist publishing and educational platform working at the intersection of social justice and design) and Xaraxura (a community space and publishing collective in Tbilisi).

How can design and its aesthetics shift perspectives and offer a critical view of existing power structures? Does design shape reality, or does reality shape design? Is every design political? And if yes, what responsibilities do designers carry? And how do new visual languages emerge through collaboration, ones that account for friendship, solidarity, and resistance? This conversation with the Futuress collective from Germany/Switzerland and the Xaraxura collective from Tbilisi, Georgia, explores design as a collective practice and asks how forms of community publishing not only communicate knowledge, but actively co-produce it.

Futuress will be present on site, and Xaraxura will join online.

Spontaneous participation on site is always possible. Online participation is possible with prior registration. Free entry. The event will be held in English.

For the event on 16. September 2026, 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.

Next Dates:

21. October 2026, 17.30 CEST
Shifting Power Through Storytelling
with Maša Hilčišin and Tamar Yarom

11. November 2026, 17.30 CET
„LOSING.IT.“ – Youth Share Their Stories
with Simon Labhart and Markus Strobl and young participants of the theatre production ICH.KRIEG.DIE.KRISE

9. December 2026, 17.30 CET
Hijacked Information
with !Mediengruppe Bitnik and Karena Avedissian

20. January 2027, 17.30 CET
Divided and Shared – Collective Writing
with Ulrike Ulrich and Sandra Hetzl

New programme: Art in Conflict Discussion Series

This autumn 2026, Art in Conflict returns to Gessnerallee Zurich with a rich programme, featuring guests from our regions of focus, Georgia and Armenia, as well as voices that are often missing from public debates: For the first time, young people will take part as experts on the panel, speaking about growing up in a time of war, crisis, and increasing political and social polarisation.

Together, we will discuss design as a political practice, film as a medium of memory and storytelling, and literature as a collective form of working and connecting. At the centre are artistic strategies that make power structures visible, challenge dominant narratives, and create spaces for solidarity.

The urgent issues of war and militarisation run through several of the conversations, as does the question of how we, as cultural workers, can position ourselves and take action in a time of global crises.

Sign up for the Art in Conflict newsletter here to receive the monthly invitations.

*!Mediengruppe Bitnik, “Computer Says No”, installation view Kunsthalle Osnabrück, 2025. Courtesy of the artists. Photo: Lucie Marsmann*

Frontlines of Engagement –
An Assembly on Art in a World Shaped by Conflict

11. February – 13. February 2027 at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK)

Frontlines of Engagement brings together around 120 artists, researchers, peacebuilding practitioners, cultural workers, and representatives of international cooperation. Organised by artasfoundation in partnership with Artlink and the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), the Assembly is situated at the intersection of art, peacebuilding, humanitarian action, international development, and cultural research.

At its core is the exchange of practice-based knowledge and experience. Together, participants explore the ethical, aesthetic, and political dimensions of artistic work in contexts of conflict and crisis. The Assembly provides a space for transdisciplinary encounters, collective reflection, and the development of new perspectives on the role of art in a world increasingly shaped by conflict and social shifts.

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From the current circular

Twice a year we send out a circular to share what we have been working on. This one is no different: it brings together artworks, stories, relationships, and a poem. Our circulars often pose open or challenging questions, an invitation to act, reflections on art in peacebuilding, and at times a statement on our political positioning in response to global developments.
We live in a violent world, despite the peaceful efforts of millions of people gathered within communities, collectives, institutions, activist groups, political movements, and among citizens everywhere. The image of a peaceful existence is fragmented and challenged in many ways. We want to come together again and reassemble this image from its fragments.

We invite you to save the dates 11.–13. February 2027 for Frontlines of Engagement: An Assembly on Art in a World Shaped by Conflict.

The assembly brings together artists, researchers, peacebuilders, and development institutions, including participants from conflict-affected regions, to explore how art operates within and across divides. It creates space: not for simple answers, but to trace the complex relations between art and peacebuilding, how artistic practices shape relationships, engage with ethics, and carry political weight over time.
Through panel discussions, workshops, presentations, and collective dialogue, Frontlines of Engagement aims to build relationships and forms of knowledge that help us shape concrete responses to today’s fractured world.

The assembly is a collaborative project with Artlink, Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), and other partners. We hope you can be part of it and join us in this conversation.

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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From the current circular

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