Europe’s approval of the rapid backlash: this is the turning point (Zeitenwende). Anti-Semitism, racism, misogyny, anti-queer and anti-democratic attitudes have not been normalized – they are the people’s will.
Remembrance culture and the politics of remembrance are inseparably connected to this turning point of societal backlash. Societal learning is intended to be made possible by the remembrance of historical failures of humanity, of destruction, war, and suffering. Remembrance should be used as a method for exercising humanity, justice, and solidarity. This is the societal function of remembrance, at least when one takes the oft-repeated slogan “never again” literally. The fact that reality is increasingly approaching a point of “again and again” raises the question of what actually remains from this promise made in recent years.
What results from this crisis of trust in remembrance culture? The turning point of the societal backlash must follow a new remembrance culture of resistant civic society. A remembrance culture that will be the expression of a will to shape things, also against an increasingly authoritarian political sphere, if necessary.
For the European Congress 2025, the Coalition for Pluralistic Public Discourse will dedicate itself to the European turning point of the backlash and discuss new paths for a remembrance culture of resistance.
The following events will be part of the European Congress:
“…The Times They Are A-Changing’. The sustained European Backlash, Societal Consent, and resistance”
14 March | 7 pm | Studio Я at Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin
On 14. March 2025, the Coalition for Pluralistic Public Discourse will dedicate itself to the European turning point of the backlash and discuss new paths for a remembrance culture of resistance in Studio Я.
A cooperation of the Coalition for Pluralistic Public Discourse (CPPD) with the Maxim Gorki Theater.
Participants: Max Czollek, Cátia Severino, Noa K. Ha, Gilda Sahebi, Jo Frank, Johanna Korneli and others.
With artistic contributions by Ricardo Domeneck and Zselyke Z. Tarnai.
Further information about the event can be found here.
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Opening
Dynamic Memory Lab »Cycles of Decolonisation«
15 March | 4 pm | Villa Elisabeth, Berlin
The Dynamic Memory Lab »Cycles of Decolonisation« invites its visitors to consider a central topic of our remembrance culture: European colonial history and decolonisation. In an immersive as well as interactive exhibition, the visitors will be confronted with the legacy of European colonialism as well as its contemporary manifestations. The exhibition places a special focus on structures of dehumanisation that are effective in the present. The exhibitions seeks to lift the invisibility associated with the dehumanisation and place the human at the centre of our attention.
»Cycles of Decolonisation« was developed under the curation of Cátia Severino and André Soares, with contributions by European artists, activists and academics of the CPPD. The curators direct our gaze to the continuities of European colonialism. Using delivery drivers as an example, they show us the contemporary manifestations in which the legacy of European colonialism exists in the present.
»Cycles of Decolonisation« lets the visitors hear for themselves from delivery drivers how their everyday lives are determined, what burdens they have to bear, and which hopes they carry. By directing our gaze to an example of lasting exploitation dynamics, the exhibition opens up a space in which the visitors can come to terms with their own social status as welll as with painful memories. In doing so, they are able to recognise that colonialism is not simply an historical event, but instead works as a persistent structure of inequalities and hierarchies within European society.
»Cycles of Decolonisation« makes clear how contemporary economic systems can repeat colonial dynamics, also without the direct violence and territorial occupation that is associated with historical colonisation.
With contributions from Clara Laila Abid Alsstar, Muhammet Ali Baş, Dekoloniale. Erinnerungskultur in der Stadt, Ibou Diop, Jonas Weber-Herrera, Eşim Karakuyu, Cássio Marowski, Dan Thy Nguyen, the next now and more artists from the CPPD network.
Please find further information on the Dynamic Memory Lab “Cycles of Decolonisation” and its opening times here.
Here you can listen to a background conversation between the curator Cátia Severino and Jo Frank.
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Network Meeting
15 March | 11 am | Villa Elisabeth | Invalidenstraße 3 | 10115 Berlin
After the federal election and in light of the developments in recent months in Germany and Europe, we are facing new questions – at the center of which is this one: What is needed for a resilient, pluralistic culture of remembrance? That is the question for our joint work. The network activities of the CPPD will provide crucial impulses in this regard. Now more than ever, it is essential to know and experience that in Germany and Europe, many actors are working together on the plural “we” of our society. Therefore, special attention will be given to exchange, joint reflection, planning, and collaboration within the framework of the network meeting.
Further information about the event can be found here.
