Participating artists:Organisators: Anne Dietzsch, Harriet Meyer, Benjamin Meyer-Krahmer
With Diana Arce, Miriam Camara, Silvia Gardini, Camilla Goecke & Marieke Helmke, Delphine Bedel, Action against Rape Culture
Venue:online:
https://hgb-leipzig.webex.com/meet/hgbPartner:The project is supported by the Support Office of the HGB Leipzig.
Futher information:
https://www.picuki.com/profile/machtmissbrauchkunsthochschule
Awareness-concept of the event
January 14th
10 am - 1 pm
Basics & Inputs (german)
Abuse of power
Miriam Camara, Camilla Goecke & Marieke Helmke, Diana Arce
2-5 p.m.
Workshop (german)
Empowerment strategies for sexualized violence (open to all except cis men)
Collective Actions Against Rape Culture (Birte Opitz, Lilian Schwerdtner)
limited to 20 participants, please register at fragen@hgb-leipzig.de
Workshop
Discrimination-critical teaching and studying
- delayed, new date tba -
January 15
10 am - 1 pm
Inputs & Discussion (german & english)
Abuse of power at art academies
Silvia Gardini & Delphine Bedel
2-4 pm
Workshop (german)
Networking
Francesca Romana Audretsch, Hagen Verleger (Netzwerk Diskriminierungskritik an Kunsthochschulen),
Anne Dietzsch, Benjamin Meyer-Krahmer, Harriet Meyer
If you have any questions or comments, you can reach the three of us via this mail address: fragen@hgb-leipzig.de.
A new conversation about - or at least a renewed conversation about - abuse of power has begun at many art academies. Four years after 2017's #MeToo became a global movement (and 15 years after "Me Too" was first used in the context of making sexual abuse and harassment public), initiatives are emerging at many art colleges to raise awareness and sensitivity to abuse of power, but most importantly to achieve structural change. We aim to support this momentum through two events that will allow us to share experiences and acquire knowledge to advance changes in structures as well as the establishment of a more respectful, appreciative space. This is a challenging process that can only succeed if as many faculty, students, administrators as possible participate in its implementation.
One starting point is to address the question of what constitutes abuse of power. We can only raise awareness of abuse of power if we better understand what we actually mean by it. Power-free spaces and institutions do not exist, nor do those without discrimination or other forms of disadvantage. For this reason, it is essential to address the question of what kinds of interactions and behaviors, what forms of communication we are talking about when we refer to them as "abuse of power" or "discrimination". Dealing with these questions is a process and should be integrated into everyday life at institutions. This is the only way to overcome taboos and fears that still exist and prevent us from speaking freely about experiences.
For January 2022, we are organizing a two-day event on the "basics", in which we will approach the diverse questions and topics in different ways. One of the workshops will be designed for students only, in order to facilitate a safer space for sharing experiences, as well as learning empowerment strategies that can help in addressing/coming to terms with their own past and future experiences. We also want to offer students assistance in coming to terms with their own boundaries. What are my boundaries? How can I communicate them and what can I do if they have already been crossed? What complaint channels exist and should there be in the future? What dependency relationships exist and how can we counteract the abuse of power that potentially accompanies them?
Ultimately, the question is what kind of university we want and to be able to answer this question as freely as possible. Both events should enable us to try out equal, appreciative, respectful ways of speaking and dealing with each other and to uncover structural abuses.
The project idea is based on a networking of different university initiatives that deal with power structures at universities. This networking and the resulting knowledge exchange, as well as production, will continue beyond the symposium and will be captured in an interactive website that will be developed during the symposium. It will help current and future generations of students, faculty and staff in different ways to acquire knowledge or empowerment strategies and to demand appropriate changes from institutions.
