How to get ready for a protest (photo: Teasel Suhara Backer).

Raising Voices: Art, Protest, and Democracy

- CET
Panel Discussion
Polit-Forum Bern

STIMMEN ERHEBEN: KUNST, PROTEST UND DEMOKRATIE

Was sind Potenziale, Grenzen und Erfahrungen von Protest und künstlerischem Aktivismus heute?

Wir erleben derzeit tiefgreifende Umbrüche – politisch, technologisch, gesellschaftlich. Wissenschaft, Kultur und Journalismus geraten zunehmend ins Abseits: Förderungen und finanzielle Mittel schwinden, Debatten werden rauer, Releases und Publikationen verlieren an Reichweite. Wie können in Zeiten dieser Orientierungslosigkeit Stimmen gehört werden, die für Kultur, Vielfalt, Differenziertheit und Menschlichkeit einstehen?

Im Polit-Forum Bern diskutieren Emma Nzioka aka Coco Em (Pass Pass, Nairobi), Stella Nyanzi (Autorin/Aktivistin, Berlin/Masaka), Laurence Desarzens (Kulturstrategin, BEAM Network, Porteous Stiftung, Genf), Julien Fehlmann (Irma + Artas Foundation, Genf) und weitere Gäste darüber, wie und ob künstlerische Praktiken weiterhin Widerstand leisten und Veränderungen anstossen können. Moderation: Thomas Burkhalter.

Lesetipp: Stella Nyanzi Exiled for My Mouth: Poems from across Borders (DE Version).


RAISING VOICES: ART, PROTEST, AND DEMOCRACY

What are the potentials, limits, and experiences of protest and artistic activism today?

Academic research, culture, and journalism are increasingly being sidelined: funding and financial resources are dwindling, debates are becoming harsher, and releases and publications are losing their reach. In times of such disorientation, how can voices that stand up for culture, diversity, nuance, and humanity be heard?

At the Polit-Forum, Emma Nzioka aka Coco Em (Pass Pass, Nairobi), Stella Nyanzi (author, activist Masaka, Uganda), Laurence Desarzens (Cultural Strategist, Beam Network, Porteous Foundation, Geneva), and Julien Fehlmann (Irma + Artas Foundation, Geneva), and other guests will discuss how and whether artistic practices can continue to resist and initiate change. Moderator: Thomas Burkhalter.

Recommended Reading: Stella Nyanzi Exiled for My Mouth: Poems from across Borders (EN Version).


Stella Nyanzi Exiled For My Mouth
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Beteiligte Personen / Involved People

Biography

Emma Mbeke Nzioka is a multifaceted artist based in Nairobi, Kenya. Winner of the Cinematographer of the Year 2021 WIFA (Women in Film Award) and primary Director of Photography (DOP) in the award-winning feature documentary «No Simple Way Home» (2022), Emma is also an activist and educator. She is the founder of «Pass Pass», an initiative dedicated to empowering African artists, promoting free movement, global collaboration, and sustainable livelihoods, with a focus on restoring dignity to cultural practitioners. Emma works for Sim Sima and is a DJ and producer under the name Coco Em. Nzioka is the artistic director of the 13th Norient Festival edition in 2024. Follow her on Instagram, Facebook, X, Spotify, or SoundCloud, Localeur, and 500px.

Biography

Laurence Desarzens, cosmopolitan and active for over 30 years in the Swiss music scene, is passionate about musical and artistic countercurrents. Emerging from the punk and DIY movement, she programmed pioneering venues in Lausanne and Geneva, as well as the Rote Fabrik in Zurich and the Kaserne in Basel. In the 1990s, she was a trailblazer in using digital technologies to connect and co-create cultural networks. Today, she remains politically engaged, advocating for independent culture and contemporary music within the BEAM Network.

Biography

Stella Nyanzi, poet and activist, wields language like a weapon against power. Jailed in her homeland, Uganda, for calling out the president, she now continues the fight from her exile in Berlin. Her poetry does what power hates most: it laughs, it injures, it refuses to kneel. Her latest book Exiled for My Mouth: Poems from across Borders is a must-read. Follow her on Instagram

Biography

Julien Fehlmann is the director of the Swiss NGO IRMA (www.irma.ac), which mobilizes music for positive social change. Following his first career as an audio engineer and music producer (he founded Studio Mécanique in 2005), he studied International Relations and Development (LSE, Geneva Graduate Institute), and now combines these fields in his work. Follow him on Webbly