The net is tightening. What has long been a reality in other countries is also becoming increasingly noticeable in Germany – and not just in the east: new-right politicians are also gaining power in cultural policy, exerting pressure and threatening individual artists. For Amelie Deuflhard, director of the Kampnagel cultural centre in Hamburg, intimidation attempts by the AfD are part of everyday life. Theatre director Oliver Frljić has repeatedly provoked often violent reactions with his productions in Croatia, Serbia, Poland and Germany. Thomas Krüger, President of the German Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (Federal Agency for Civic Education), has been looking for strategies to counter the shift to the right for many years. Curator Joanna Warsza examines how the effects of eight years of national-conservative cultural policy in Poland are slowly being reversed following the victory of the opposition. The 28th edition of The Art of Assembly asks specifically what tactics and strategies we can learn from each other in dealing with far-right intimidation and political interventions.
