Uncertain States – Affective Societies The Politics of Resentments.
Artistic and Scientific Positions against the Growth of Right-wing Populist Ideologies in Europe

Discussion between the artist Jochen Gerz, the philosopher Jan Slaby, the sociologist Nur Yasemin Ural and Johannes Odenthal. Presentation: Doris Kolesch.

There are right-wing populist ideologies presently circulating in many countries in Europe, not only in Germany. In a globalised world in a process of economic, social and technological change, they promise simple solutions to complex situations by drawing allegedly clear borders between own and other, and invoking categories such as peoples and nations. The discussion group gives a brief overview of this development today and enquires into the conditions behind its origins and effects. Why can those using fear, resentments and hatred be so successful in the political arena? Are emotions stronger than arguments? How can civil society, art and science oppose a politics of resentments and marginalisation?

As part of the lecture series "Emotions and their Effects. Affective Dynamics of Flight and Migration".

A cooperation between the Akademie der Künste and the Collaborative Research Center “Affective Societies” at FU Berlin.

What role does affectivity play in the social and cultural upheavals presently shaping our globalised world? How do emotions contribute to the impression of social stability and security, and how do they provoke insecurities, threats and marginalisation? Which affective dynamics accompany the loss of familiar environments, and which emotions promote or hinder arrival in a new life? How is emotion used to shape the political agenda, and why it is often so difficult to counter this by argument?
This series of lectures and talks looks at contemporary art as an outstanding location for investigating and reflecting on emotions and affectivity in the context of flight, migration and mobility. In the process, academics and scholars involved in the “Affective Societies” Collaborative Research Center at Freie Universität Berlin enter into a dialogue with the artists, works and topics in the Uncertain States exhibition.

The interdisciplinary “Affective Societies” research centre at Freie Universität Berlin is investigating the fundamental importance of emotions and affectivity for social life in the mobile, networked and mediatised worlds of the twenty-first century.