Art in Conflict – Discussion Series

Art in conflict transformation often begins on a small scale, within a trusted circle of artists, in encounters with a community, in a school or other place that brings people together. However, this does not mean that such locally specific work is not sustained by the (moral) support of countless allies. The discussion series Art in Conflict explores this idea. The artasfoundation team initiates an exchange that allows the multitude of perspectives and work methods within the field to come together.

With experts such as Abdullah Alkafri, Chimène Costa or Tiffany Fairey, we have discussed peacebuilding through the performing arts or photography, with examples from Syria, Serbia, Colombia, Mozambique, Armenia or China, we showed how art can open spaces for dialogue, resistance, and new perspectives around the world. The series began in September 2025 with a conversation on initiatives at Europe’s borders between Jennifer Steiner from the WAV research collective and social anthropologist Kübra Zeynep Sarıaslan. 

How can more open forms of exchange be created in a world shaped by colonial legacies, through dance or literature, for example? What might collaborative photography look like? Which strategies are possible when visa processes complicate project work? And how can art create hope and open spaces for action in a refugee camp or in mediation processes between conflicting parties? What is the potential of digital exchange formats? And which experiences are helpful when dealing with authorities? These questions, along with insights into projects from Bangladesh, Georgia, and China, have shaped Art in Conflict since autumn 2025. 

Starting this season, the monthly discussions at Theater Gessnerallee have also been live-streamed to the Mediathek of the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst Basel, while continuing to be accessible live via Zoom. Since the beginning of 2026, Art in Conflict has been artistically documented on site by guest contributors.

In a corner of the former horse stables at Gessnerallee in Zurich, a small group of people regularly gathers to reflect on socially engaged artistic practice. Since September 2024, artasfoundation has expanded its discussion series Art in Conflict (formerly Jour Fixe) through a collaboration with Theatre Gessnerallee. 

The event with artist Diala Brisly and researcher Cindy Horst on 18. September 2024 marked the beginning of this new chapter. During an online preparatory talk, Diala shared experiences that illustrated the transformational power of artistic work – for example, how a child who had stopped speaking began to speak again after participating in a workshop in a refugee camp. Cindy emphasised that despite these stories, the building of trust and strengthening communities is increasingly being increasingly neglected by state institutions in favour of ongoing militarisation. In an effort to counter this development we bring these topics to discussion in the series Art in Conflict. Diala and Cindy shared with the audience that their collaboration had set in motion a continuous and in-depth process of learning – as a researcher in exchange with an artist, as an artist in dialogue with a community, and as human beings in dialogue with one another.

The discussuion in February 2025 was titled Voices of Culture in Times of Upheaval. We heard from artists whose work explores experiences of violent disruptions and reflected on what it means to act from exile. In conversation with the audience, Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing, Enas Ismail, and Liwaa Yazji also spoke about tireless protest and international solidarity. 

In this way, the small gathering among the iron feeding troughs has become a meaningful meeting place for people who, in a time of escalating wars and chauvinist politics, do not lose hope that art can inspire social transformation and justice – by creating bonds of solidarity and daring to imagine utopian futures.
 

In our work at artasfoundation, we are constantly confronted with fundamental questions: How can we act with care in conflict-affected societies? What role can the arts play in peacebuilding? What are the specific qualities of art in conflict regions and where are the limits of what is possible? To discuss these and other questions, the Centre for Art and Peacebuilding CAP – a joint initiative of artasfoundation and the Zurich University of the Arts ZHdK – invited people to the new event series Jour Fixe – Art in Conflict. Each Jour Fixe event started from a question, which was either explored through an input presentation on concrete approaches to art and peacebuilding or used as the basis for a text that the participants prepared individually and discussed with invited experts – or with the authors themselves.