New narratives for a world of the many
By Elisabeth Wellershaus
At the Ratschlag der Vielen (Council of the Many) on November 28, 2024 at the Akademie der Künste on Pariser Platz in Berlin, many questions were raised, but some momentum was also created. The general consensus: society needs new narratives of diversity, but art must not be appropriated for this without any restrictions. After all, doesn’t its power to unleash new worlds lie precisely in its freedom? In these times, that would perhaps be the most political statement in the negotiation of democratic public spheres.
The political facts are well known. They affect many of the artists who have come to the Akademie der Künste for the Ratschlag der Vielen/Council of the Many on this gloomy Berlin winter's day. As so often in these times, the event is supposed to be about the big picture: about artistic freedom and budget cuts, about the increasingly rapid rise of far-right forces and about restricted rights. These are topics that are as disturbing as they are devastating. And above all, they demand constructive solutions. So, in her welcoming address, moderator Prasanna Oommen kindly invites us to join her in the search for forms of encounter and organization that will enable us to remain capable of action. Because how well-fortified democracies might look exactly, what freedoms, protective spaces – and possible prohibitions – they would need, is something that urgently needs to be discussed.
The room where we gather at around 10 a.m. is a subtle vision in pink. A huge heart-shaped balloon hangs in front of the large windows in the plenary hall like a visual embrace. Almost all the seats are taken, and most of those present appear highly motivated. The audience keeps largely to itself, with academic, primarily white participants from the cultural world filling the rows in front of the podium. But perhaps, despite the lack of visible plurality, insights will emerge during the course of the day: perhaps those who are present will become even more aware of the urgency of keeping the ever-narrowing social and artistic spaces as open as possible.
The theater and performance collective, Turbo Pascal, starts things off by trying an open-ended game of questions. The audience responds with disarming perplexity. “At the moment I feel…” is one of the many questions. And the answers range from “exhausted” and “heavy” to “motivated and aimless.” The latter seems to describe the state of mind of many of those present, who have to defend themselves with ever scarcer means against the helpless “instrumentalization of art,” the appropriation by political agendas and austerity measures.
Harsh reality and gentle radicalism
The writer and columnist Jagoda Marinić addresses the topic very clearly. She says she stumbled out of her hotel that morning to the sound of a fire alarm and plunged headlong into the disillusioned cultural life of the capital. In her keynote speech, she immediately returns to the image: the shrill ringing, the startling entry into the brutalized present. But she mainly refers to her latest book, “Sanfte Radikalität” (Gentle Radicalism), when she reflects on cultural policy decisions and far-right dangers. She describes the concept of radicalism that is the subject of her book as a communally conceived one that does not fuel one's own actions through alarmism or agitation, but rather that explores the possibilities of connectedness. Among those present, an understandable reflex is currently making itself felt due to current existential fears, she says, which revolves a lot around justifying one's own artistic actions. But Marinić believes that art is most effective and political these days when it returns to itself.

She’s not only addressing representatives from the cultural sector. After all, politicians are also responsible for some questions and decisions. The idea of banning the far-right AfD is a good example. It is taken up by Turbo Pascal in the dialogue game to capture the mood among those present. But then the organizers immediately pass the topic on to the lawyer and author Bijan Moini, who explains the complexity of the ban issue with a PowerPoint presentation. He explains the democratic legitimacy of a ban based on unconstitutional behavior. And that it will be difficult to prove that the AfD is in the process of undermining the free democratic basic order. He explains the dangers of rushing a motion that could be rejected and the urgent need to gather material in order to actually get the motion approved. But the question of why the decisive political will to act is lacking at this point cannot, of course, be answered in this context. The woman sitting next to me tells me that she recently attended a political event with young people at which around 70 percent of those present supported banning the party.
It is above all for them, the young, that the older generations in politics, culture and academia should not only take the social fire alarm that is blaring this winter more seriously. We also need to work on new narratives to counter violent far-right narratives as well as the despairing analyses being published by established media and on social media platforms. In a panel discussion Marinić, Moini, Hamburg's Senator for Culture, and President of the Deutschen Bühnenverein Carsten Brosda, as well as the Akademie der Künste's Vice President Anh-Linh Ngo agree on this. But what images and narratives should these be? In the five workshops on local and international contemporary experiences offered by artists after lunch at both the HAU and Gripstheater, the focus is once again on strategies against attacks and repression. When constructive approaches for more democratic, more humane futures are called for, the discussions become quieter.
Room to grow
Is it perhaps too much to ask? Maybe ultimately it has to remain a process, maybe new momentum can only be created in the spheres of kitchen conversations and small groups, and maybe it is the small steps that point in more promising directions? The discussion group I attend toward the end of the day suggests as much. It is led by dramaturge Felizitas Stilleke, and she wants to know very specifically what we need as individuals and as a network in order to address the big questions that have arisen during the day. The conversation initially takes place in groups of two, which are then expanded to four and later to eight and even more participants. A very simple approach. And yet it reinforces the realization that plurality and community need spaces to grow. In the one-on-one meetings, I talk about the faint hope for new organizational formats that are brought up in discussions with new allies. Then, in groups of four, we discuss how such formats could grow. In neighborhoods, for example, where each of us could combine our own networks with existing local structures. In groups of eight, the focus is on what needs to be protected in these spaces.

Because at the moment, it seems that not only is there a lack of convincing narratives for fairer societies, but there’s also a lack of spaces in which we can tell them to each other. Of course, they cannot remain in the plenary halls and theaters. They also have to be schools, canteens, football stadiums, market squares and living rooms. But for today, it is the Akademie der Künste, where Helge Lindh of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) is giving a rousing speech about the rapidly spreading acceptance and trivialization of right-wing extremism. It is a cultural event at which it becomes clear once again that resilient alliances can only emerge if plurality is reflected in the networking of the most diverse groups. And if we learn to tell each other about a world that remains a world of the many.