Mechanisms of Fascisation in Art and Culture. An Antifascist Summit.

Fascist movements are exerting an ever-greater influence worldwide, whether through government agendas, direct political measures, or cultural hegemony. This also includes art and culture. The aim of our summit is to explore how art and culture are affected by processes of fascisation, how these processes manifest themselves, how they can be identified—and, in turn, what they reveal about the new fascisms of our time. Based on recent research into fascism, we assume that these dynamics are particularly significant in contexts where liberal-democratic institutions and assumptions have historically been regarded as safeguards against authoritarian encroachment, but they are also evident in societies undergoing processes of authoritarianisation and intensified state control. Many of these movements characteristically place art center stage in their political pursuits. By this, art’s validity as an unalloyed ‘good’ force, as espoused by the liberal hopes of modernity and 20th-century postwar democracies, is being called into question. Thus, one of the central theses of Critical Theory is up for discussion: Whether artistic and cultural practices must mobilize the power of self-negation against their instrumentalization as tools of identity formation and national self-affirmation—while also using this power to track down internalized micro-fascisms that are subsequently perverted by right-wing extremists and turned against minority-oriented struggles for inclusion and justice. Together with colleagues across the fields of art and culture who have encountered and been affected by these processes—including participants from Hungary, Italy, Serbia, Turkey, Hong Kong, and Austria—we consider how artistic practices and cultural institutions are shaped by fascisation and how, in turn, they may reproduce, negotiate, or contest them.

To this end, we seek to extend the current research into fascism to encompass art and culture, whilst concurrently formulating anti-fascist practices. This focuses attention on replacements—already made or still possible—of authoritarian and exclusive notions of art and culture with non-hierarchical and pluralist aesthetics and concepts that can be linked to political solidarity beyond a divisive over-identification with particular interests—for instance, through common struggles for social rights and redistribution.

The antifascist summit featuring panel discussions, screenings, lectures, concerts, workshops and performances is organized by the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and the Institute of Art History at the University of Vienna.

Program:

DAY 1 / 8 October 2026
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (Akademie der Bildenden Künste Wien, Schillerplatz 3, 1010 Wien, Mezzanine, Room M13a)

9.00 INTRODUCTION

9.30 SCREENING & TALK
Spectres of Fascisation in Contemporary Austrian Cultural Politics: Peršmanhof and Lueger Memorial
with Martina Genetti, Alon Ishay, Elsa Logar/David Ressmann and Simon Nagy

11.00 COFFEE BREAK

11.30 DISCUSSION
Art and Culture in the Orbán Era: Lessons, Legacies, Futures
with József Mélyi & Kristóf Nagy

13.00 LUNCH

14.00 WORKSHOP
Serbia’s Cultural Sector under State Repression and in Solidarity with the Student Movement
with Miloš Janjić, Nenad Lajbenšperger & Tatjana Nikolić

15.30 COFFEE BREAK

16.00 PANEL DISCUSSION
Mechanisms of Anti/Fascisation from Turkey to Brasil
with Asena Günal, C&G, Ekaterina Shapiro-Obermair & Maurício Ianes

18.30 PERFORMANCE (Aula at Schillerplatz)
DOOMSDAYDUDES – Die letzte Survival-Show
with Nora Schön, Marie Simons & Team

DAY 2 / 9 October 2026
Institute of Art History, University of Vienna (Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Garnisongasse 13, Campus courtyard 9, Room 1 & 3)

9.30 PANEL DISCUSSION
The Space to Dissent: Art and Culture in Hong Kong and Turkey
with C&G and Asena Günal

11.00 COFFEE BREAK

11.30 LECTURE & SCREENING
Making Art in (Post)Fascist Times: Tracing the Lineage of Meloni's grip on Arts and Culture
with Alessandra Ferrini

13.00 LUNCH

14.00 WORKSHOPS
Songs of Resistance
with Jana Dolečki and other members of Hor 29. Novembar

Meme the Pain Away
with Anahita Neghabat

15.30 COFFEE BREAK

16.00 ROUNDTABLE
New Fascisms, Digitality and Gender
with Maja Figge, Nikolaus Kockel and Anahita Neghabat

18.00 CONCERT
HOR 29. NOVEMBAR – Antifascist, Resistant, Feminist — and, Above All, Loud

Please register by October 7 via email at registerakbild.ac.at.
Separate registration for the performance is required due to limited capacity.

Organized by Noit Banai, Laura Bohnenblust, Sabeth Buchmann, Isabelle Lindermann, Friederike Sigler and Ruth Sonderegger

https://www.akbild.ac.at/en/institutes/art-theory-and-cultural-studies/events/conferences/2026/mechanisms-of-fascisation-in-art-and-culture-an-antifascist-summit