IMPAKT presents On Populism, New Religious Conservatism and LGBTQ rights in Europe

On populism, New Religious Conservatism and LGBTQ Rights in Europe

IMPAKT Foundation

November 24, 2021, 8pm impakt.nl Facebook / Instagram / Twitter Join us on Wednesday November 24 at 8pm for an online conversation about populism, new religious conservatism and LGBTQ rights in Europe. We talk about these contested issues with our EMAP 2021 resident artist Liliana Zeic and researcher Malgorza Misniakiewicz, both from Poland. They will be joined by Hungarian artist Szabolcs KissPál. The conversation will be moderated by Lisa Peters, who has published articles about the topic in among others De Groene Amsterdammer magazine. Register for the online panel here. Over the past decade populism, religious conservatism and far-right movements in Eastern Europe have grown in influence and power. Their narratives are increasingly occupying mainstream public media, social media and online platforms, creating an intolerant and hostile atmosphere against racial and gender minorities, including LGTBQ+ communities. Why is the rise of these sentiments so strong in countries like Poland, Hungary and Slovenia? What are their narratives and what has made them become so influential ? Who are the key players and who is financing them? How are religious and political power structures intertwined in these countries? What role do the media play? What can be done by NGOs, activists, LGBTQ groups, journalists and artists? In this panel we delve into these questions with: Liliana Zeic is a visual artist and activist with a PhD in fine arts. In her artistic practice she analyses social issues from the feminist-queer perspective and draws on her experiences of being brought up in the region of Central/Eastern Europe. Read more about her EMAP/EMARE residency at IMPAKT. Szabolcs KissPál is a Hungarian artist based in Budapest. His work engages with the social and political circumstances in the post-communist world. IMPAKT recently exhibited his work in 2020 in Abducting Europa, an exhibition about the political power of myths and stories. An online version of the exhibition is available here. Dr Małgorzata Miśniakiewicz is a curator, researcher, art historian and academic lecturer connected to the Courtauld Institute of Art (London). The panel is moderated by Lisa Peters, journalist focusing on gender, emancipation and inequality. The panel is organized in collaboration with transmediale Berlin. It is the culmination of Liliana Zeic’s artistic research project in the context of her EMAP/EMARE residency at IMPAKT [Centre for Media Culture] to explore the online rhetoric and reactions of the far-right in Poland. EMAP/EMARE residency The panel is part of Liliana Zeic’s research project produced during her EMAP/EMARE residency at IMPAKT: “Gently Running Downwards.” The work consists of a two-channel video installation, a webproject and a reader to examine the mechanisms of exclusion, structural violence and punishment that have emerged from far-right strategies of stigmatisation in recent years. The online reader that is part of the webproject presents texts gathered by the artist during performative meetings, secondary research, and interviews. Zeic utilises traditional children’s games,nursery rhymes, online tropes and conspiracy related memes  -such as a duped tigress feeding masqueraded piglets—to expose the exclusionary, anti-immigration and fear-mongering tactics of right-wing politicians and the far right and alt-right on the Internet. You can find the online version of the video installation and  the reader here. “Gently Running Downwards” is a partnership between IMPAKT [Centre for Media Culture] and transmediale. The work was produced within the EMAP-programme, co-funded by Creative Europe. EMAP is a residency programme that brings together 11 European Media Art organizations. The EMAP 2017–2021 programme offered yearly residencies to artists working in the fields of digital media. Read more about the programme here.