Seit geraumer Zeit haben populistische Diskursstrategien Konjunktur und sind inzwischen vielerorts Teil der Regierungspolitik geworden. Zugleich haben sich die medialen Bedingungen von Öffentlichkeit grundlegend gewandelt und ermöglichen es auf neue Weise, rassistische oder sexistische Ressentiments zu schüren und die Grenzen des Sag- und Denkbaren nach rechts zu verlagern. Unsere Veranstaltungsreihe POPULISMUS KRITISIEREN fragt danach, wie sich gegenwärtigen Diskursverschiebungen nachhaltig begegnen lässt.

Das Margherita-von-Brentano-Zentrum für Geschlechterforschung (MvBZ) der Freien Universität Berlin realisiert dieses Projekt in Kooperation mit dem Institut für Kulturmanagement und Gender Studies der Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Wien (mdw) und dem Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE), Institute for Creative Enterprise (ICE), Universität Coventry.

Seit Herbst 2020 finden im Rahmen der Vortragsreihe regelmäßig Lectures, Workshops und Podiumsdiskussionen mit renommierten Expert*innen aus Wissenschaft und Kunst statt.

24.06.2021, 18-20 Uhr, Online Veranstaltung

Leonida Kovač (Academy of Fine Arts, Zagreb): »Incidental Evil«. Art and the Undoing of Hate Speech in Zagreb’s Urban Space

For a discussion on effects of the growing right-wing populism in Europe with a focus on the country where I live, I chose to appropriate a title of one art project. Incidental Evil is a title of recent research project of artist Tanja Dabo who documented, analysed and contextualized hundreds of graffiti written or drawn on building walls in Croatian capital Zagreb. It is a matter of graffiti that contain explicit Ustashi or cryptographed Nazi symbols, as well as different expressions of hate speech. The issue of my presentation is structural patriarchal violence inseparable from nationalism, that in Croatia has been normalized since 1990, from the moment when the first free elections took place. I will talk on the examples of misogynist, racist and homophobic discourse that culminated in so called »conservative revolution« that overtly happened immediately after Croatia became a member of EU in 2013. Accordingly, most of cases of hate crimes remain legally not sanctioned. I will contextualize art projects of Tanja Dabo titled Corrected Constitution of Republic of Croatia, Collection for Remembrance and Incidental Evil with such state of affairs.

Leonida Kovač is an art historian and theorist, curator and professor at the University of Zagreb, Academy of Fine Arts. Her work focuses on contemporary art, feminist and critical theories.

Further information on events at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw) can be found at: https://www.mdw.ac.at/ikm/populismuskritisieren/