Public Programme
Wednesday, 30.09.2026, 6:30 pm
Freedom of Information at Risk – On the Right to Ask Questions and the Duty to Respond
Talk with Melek Bazğan (FragDenStaat) & Jacob Svaneeng, moderated by Lisa Deml
Freedom of information is a democratic instrument for holding political processes to account. For 20 years, the Freedom of Information Act (Informationsfreiheitsgesetz, IFG) has provided insight into government activities – establishing civil society’s right to ask and state authorities’ duty to respond. In doing so, it helps to expose corruption and abuses of power and to strengthen transparency and participation.
Yet this right is coming under increasing pressure. In Berlin, far-reaching exemptions introduced in spring 2026 have already hollowed out the Freedom of Information Act. At the federal level, too, the IFG is at risk: the reform planned by the German government would severely restrict free access to government information, with consequences for the freedom of the press, academia and culture. These plans have not yet become law.
We will discuss how the right to information can be exercised in our work and everyday lives with Melek Bazğan, Junior Officer for Democracy at FragDenStaat, and Jacob Svaneeng, who has many years of experience working in cultural administration in Berlin. Against the backdrop of the scandal surrounding the unlawful allocation of public funding for projects combating antisemitism and repressive measures against pro-Palestinian expression, Svaneeng used the IFG to investigate political influence and lobbying in the cultural and educational sectors. In conversation, we will consider what is at stake when access to public knowledge is denied and how freedom of information can be defended against authoritarian tendencies.
The conversation will take place in German.
Bios:
Melek Bazğan is Junior Officer for Democracy at FragDenStaat.
Jacob Svaneeng has initiated and directed major cultural and educational projects on behalf of Berlin’s cultural administration, in collaboration with other public authorities and government ministries. For this work, he was awarded first place in the Berlin Public Administration Award. Against the backdrop of the scandal surrounding the unlawful allocation of public funding for projects combating antisemitism and the debate on the treatment of voices expressing solidarity with Palestine, he used the Freedom of Information Act (IFG) to investigate political influence and lobbying activities in the cultural and educational sectors.
Friday, 02.10.2026, 10:00-12:30 am
I would like to follow you
Workshop for cultural institutions and initiatives by Víctor Fancelli Capdevila
Many people are turning their backs on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X & Co. and moving to the Fediverse – a decentralised social network that gives users more control over their content and offers an alternative to Big Tech’s extractivist business model.
The Fediverse has grown up quite a bit by now, but something is still missing: institutions and initiatives from the fields of art and culture remain few and far between. Many would like to join but don’t know where to start – or worry about having yet another social media channel to maintain.
This workshop is for cultural institutions and initiatives that want to make their content accessible without tying their audiences to commercial platforms. Together, we will explore the Fediverse and share practical tips for making the move – from setting up an account to publishing a post.
The workshop is part of the #publicactivityactivitypub, #wirziehenzusammenum and #+1 campaigns, which support institutions and collectives in making the move to the Fediverse.
No previous experience is needed – just a little curiosity. If possible, bring a laptop, tablet or smartphone and register at workshop@aftermemory.net
The workshop will be held in German or English, depending on participants’ needs.
Víctor Fancelli Capdevila [any] works as a Digital Curator in the project Digitale Souveränität für Kunsthochshculen. Before was a digital archivist at the Open Resource Centre (ORC) in Karlsruhe, the university archive of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe. He organizes workshops and discussions about autonomous digital literacy and is part of the organisational team of Sobtec, Congrés de Sobirania Tecnològica in Barcelona, is behind KeepKarlsruheBoring.org and PublicActivityActivityPub.net.
Friday, 02.10.2026, 18 am
Curatorial Tour, DE
Saturday, 03.10.2026, 7 pm
A Prelude to Drylands
Thiago Leiros Costa & Pedro Oliveira
A meditation on ecological finitude and political collapse. A sonic and affective mapping of dryness across continents, linking Mediterranean environments with longer histories of environmental extraction in the Americas. The performance connects the artists’ shared backgrounds in arid biomes of Brazil such as Cerrado and Caatinga with the increasingly arid landscapes of Southern and Central Europe, reinterpreting the aesthetic traditions from the drylands of Brazil as living vocabularies using a mixture of acoustic and electronic instruments, field recordings, and voices.
The conversation takes place in English.
Photo: Andrea Piramidal
Bios:
Thiago Leiros Costa is an artist, psychologist, neuroscientist and educator based in Milan. Born in the northeast coast of Brazil, he has been working at the intersection of academic, psychological and artistic research, developing multiple performative and conceptual expressions of such explorations. He currently works as a researcher and professor at the Politecnico di Milano and Milano-Bicocca Universities, studying attention, perception and the psychology of art. As a musician he uses voice, stringed instruments (classical or prepared) and electronics, exploring concepts around Latin American folk, American ancestral guitar, free improvisation, sound design, noise and Pauline Oliveros’ Deep Listening. His current aim as an educator and performer is to merge scientific and artistic practices and to encourage a critical look at normative institutional practices.
Pedro Oliveira is a researcher and sound artist working across performance, installation, and poetic-theoretical writing. His work investigates how listening reconfigures relations between identity and difference through technological infrastructures, specifically in relationship to histories of migration. Currently he is part of the guest faculty in Sound Studies and Sonic Arts at the Universität der Künste Berlin. He holds a PhD, also from the Universität der Künste Berlin.
Sunday, 04.10.2026, 12 am
Curatorial Tour, CAST
Sunday, 04.10.2026, 12 am
Curatorial Tour, EN
Sunday, 11.10.2026, 3 pm
To Begin Here
Gathering with Maria Thereza Alves, facilitated by Nathalia Lavigne
Let us meet up, go outside nearby, and spend some time looking precisely around us. Let us introduce ourselves to the place and wait for the place to introduce themselves to you. To begin to be in the place. We shall drink some tea and share some pastries with here.
Tea and pastries will be provided. In the event of bad weather, the event will take place indoors.
The conversation will take place in English.
Image: Maria Thereza Alves, On the Need of Remembering Here before the Onslaught of There Began, 2022. Photo: Nick Ash. Courtesy of the artist and Michel Rein Gallery.
Bio:
Maria Thereza Alves has participated in major international exhibits, including documenta fifteen and 13, and biennales: Sydney, Toronto, Sharjah, São Paulo, Lagos, Helsinki, and Klimate Biennale Vienna. Recipient of Vera List Prize for Art and Politics (2016–2018). Recent books include Seeds of Change (2023) and Thieves and Murderers in Naples (2020).