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Concept text:

The conference provides an international platform for the exchange of ideas, strategies, and experiences among organizations and initiatives that focus on establishing contact with and supporting independent artists from countries where censorship and control of electronic communication channels prevail. In most cases, the risk of repression against artists goes hand in hand with a decline in international dialogue-based exchange and artistic mobility projects, as well as increasing travel restrictions. This leads to alienation, ignorance, and a dwindling of personal contacts, which in turn plays into the hands of stereotypes and political propaganda. In contrast, initiatives by individuals, associations, and institutions—which consider it important to facilitate intellectual and artistic exchange between independent artists and intellectuals, based on civil society engagement, while remaining above all political conflicts and ideological divides—are working to counter this trend.

What we want to achieve:

How can connections be maintained, how can trust be built and new connections established, and how can formats for exchange and personal encounters be found that work—without compromising politically and without putting artists at risk? The conference aims to bring together people and initiatives from various countries that have created models that have achieved and continue to achieve precisely this.

Conference Schedule:

Day 1 – 16 November: Location: MuseumsQuartier Vienna, Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Vienna

09:30 – 10:00 Registration

10:00 – 10:20 Welcome Words; Introduction by:

Bettina Leidl, director MuseumsQuartier To be announced, Austrian Federal Ministry of Housing, Arts, Culture, Media, and Sport Stefan Melle, director Dialog Büro Vienna

10:20 – 11:40 1 Art and Culture contributing to cultural life, education and formation in a community – experiences and perspectives (presentations and panel discussion)

Even under constant risk, the Secret Reading Club of Kabul created a space of trust where women could come together to read, exchange ideas, discuss, learn and support each other. The founder of the Secret Reading Club of Kabul will be there to speak about creating the club and her experience. As a second remarkable project, Efran Ghiasi, founder of Tehran Art Biennial and co-founder and director of Tehran Summit will present his work. They will discuss with Marita Mukkonen and Ivor Stodolsky, the two founders and directors of Artists at Risk, a worldwide operating program saving artists in urgent situations of threat.

11:40 – 12:00 Coffee break

12:00 – 13:00 2 Books on Independent Art – different approaches and recent publications on independent Russian Artists

The common ground is the understanding how important it is to give artists a voice, who have little chance to speak for themselves, because of cut-off relations between states, because of being afraid of repression, sometimes even because of being put to prison. Some feel a responsibility to give these artists a floor, show their works, tell their stories. Approaches can be very different. Two very different projects are presented and discussed in this session: Artists Against the Kremlin, a project by Prometheus Art. This project brings together contemporary Russian-speaking artists from across the world whose practices confront the Russian invasion of Ukraine, repression, and censorship. Beyond three exhibitions in Amsterdam, two books are published already. Breaking Frames, 25 years of independent art from and in Russia, a book by Simon Mraz, published at Academic Studies Press, 2026. The book tries for the first time to give an overview of independent art from and in Russia. Political art is part of this dive into what tries to tell a part of art history at risk to be lost, but the book wants to catch a broader picture. Speakers: Helena Gubina, strategic development manager of the project Artists against the Kremlin Vladimir Shalamov, founder Prometheus-art, curator of the exhibition program Simon Mraz, art historian, cultural worker in the field of cultural diplomacy, co-founder www.artmov.org, an initiative fostering artistic dialogue between independent artists from Belarus, Russia and Western countries. Moderator: Almuth Spiegler, arts and culture editor Die Presse

13:00 – 14:30 Free lunch break

14:30 – 16:00 3 Beyond Resilience: Art, Dignity and Cultural Exchange Across Unequal Realities

The session will explore how artists, cultural practitioners, festivals and cultural institutions in Jordan and the wider Middle East continue to create, gather and speak under conditions of war, inequality, repression and shrinking freedoms. Jordan provides an important regional context. It has historically offered a space for artists, curators and cultural practitioners from neighbouring countries to meet, work and exchange, particularly during periods of conflict and displacement. At the same time, Jordan has its own social, economic, cultural and governmental limitations and challenges, including questions around freedom of expression, permits and the conditions under which cultural work can take place. Rather than presenting Jordan simply as either a safe haven or a restricted environment, the discussion can explore this tension: how cultural spaces continue to function, create connections and sustain artistic life while operating within their own limitations and realities. Moving beyond the language of resilience and the idea of cultural work as something to be simply “supported,” the conversation asks a more difficult question: what does responsible cultural cooperation look like when the conditions themselves are unequal? What do accountability, reciprocity and care require in practice; and how can international cultural work become a genuine relationship rather than a one-way act of support? From this regional perspective, the conversation can also touch on lived realities shaped by the wars and crises in Syria, Gaza and the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon and the often less visible war in Yemen; without attempting to represent each context through a separate country perspective. Speakers: Lama Hazboun — Founder and Director of the Amman Jazz Festival since 2013 and co-founder of OrangeRed, Jordan’s first independent music and cultural event management company. Linda Khoury — Photographer, cultural activist and Director of Image Festival Amman; founder of Darat Al Tasweer (2007), working on representation, displacement, and the right to tell one’s own story. Moderator: Raghida Alsangalawi — Curator and cultural diplomacy strategist working at the intersection of art, politics and international relations; managing Communication and Cultural Affairs at the Austrian Embassy in Amman, Vice-President of EUNIC Jordan, and certified trauma-informed trainer.

16:00 – 16:30 Coffee break

16:30 – 17:30 4 Learning about two examplary projects: Haven for Artists & the Queer Muslim Project

Haven for Artists is a cultural feminist organisation founded by artist and activist Dayna Ash in Beirut in 2011. Working at the intersection of art and activism, Haven creates spaces for artistic expression, collaboration, and community, with a particular focus on feminist, queer, and decolonial practices. Through exhibitions, residencies, workshops, discussions, and advocacy, it supports artists and communities in developing alternative, more inclusive cultural structures. The Queer Muslim Project, founded in 2017 by Rafiul Alom Rahman, is a pioneering cultural and digital platform creating space for queer Muslims and other underrepresented LGBTQIA+ voices to tell their own stories. Rooted in South Asia and reaching a global community of more than 70,000 people, the project uses storytelling, art, media and cultural production to challenge stereotypes around both queerness and Islam, while fostering belonging, visibility and solidarity. Through artist programmes, residencies, workshops, community gatherings and international collaborations, it supports emerging queer artists and storytellers and works towards lasting cultural and narrative change. Its importance lies not only in making queer Muslim lives visible, but in creating new possibilities for how faith, sexuality, identity and community can be understood and represented. Speakers: Dayna Ash is an intersectional feminist, performing artist, writer, and the founder & Executive Director of Haven for Artists, a cultural feminist organization working at the intersection of art and activism. Dayna was named one of the BBC’s 100 most inspirational Women in 2019, awarded the Woman of Distinction award in 2020 by the NGO Committee on the Status of Women, and the Leader in LGBT Health Equity award from the Lebanese Medical Association for Sexual Health in 2021 for advancing LGBTQ wellbeing in Lebanon. Rafiul Alom Rahman is the Founder and Director of The Queer Muslim Project, where he spearheads the QueerFrames Screenwriting Lab, South Asia’s pioneering development lab for emerging and early career queer filmmakers. Maniza Khalid leads Programs and Innovations at The Queer Muslim Project. A Swedish Institute Leader Lab fellow and former advisor to queer philanthropic organisations including Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, they have also been part of leadership networks including the Asia Feminist LBQ Network. Moderator: Eva Konzett, Der Falter

17:30 – 18:30 5 Needs and Challenges in Old an New Homes

In this session is a conversation between a brother and a sister, Tahora and Sayed Jalil Hussaini and the artist, curator and cultural researcher Asma Aiad. Sayed Jalil with his film created specially for our conference (10–15 min.) will give voice to artists in Afghanistan giving us an idea of what artists could need from art communities outside the country. And Sayed Jalil gives an insight of practical lessons life in emigration. From the perspective of Vienna, Asma Aiad will expand the conversation by asking what solidarity with artists abroad means when artists and communities from these same regions are already part of European societies. Drawing on her artistic, curatorial and research practice, she will address questions of belonging, representation and participation, and the conditions under which artists are able to move from being perceived as guests or representatives of a “community” towards becoming equal participants in the cultural landscape. Tahora Hussaini is a passionate documentary photographer and storyteller based in Berlin, focused on culture, people, and social injustice within the Afghan diaspora. She has held two photo exhibitions of her own work about discrimination and racism in east Germany and Afghan woman before Taliban, and organized a third by an Afghan artist on daily life in Afghanistan. Her interest in visual storytelling grew alongside years of direct work with migrant and refugee communities. She holds a Master’s in Public Policy. Sayed Jalil Hussaini is an Afghan filmmaker based in Denmark. He worked for many years in television and video production in Kabul, at Ariana TV, 1TV, Tolo TV and Awaz Production. His short film Darya’s Dream won Best Fiction Film and Best Screenplay at the 2nd Herat International Women’s Film Festival in 2014, and his work has won four awards in Afghanistan. He also made the short film Devious. In Denmark, he continues to work in film alongside a part-time job, collaborating with other filmmakers on short documentaries and short films, mostly behind the camera and in editing. Asma Aiad is a Vienna-based artist, curator and cultural researcher. Her work explores questions of representation, belonging and participation, with a particular focus on Muslim perspectives and their position within Austrian art and cultural institutions. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Cultural Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, researching the representation and artistic participation of Muslims in Austria. As co-founder of Salam Oida and initiator and curator of Muslim*Contemporary, she develops artistic and curatorial formats that create spaces for self-representation and participation beyond stereotypical narratives. Moderator: Simone Brunner, Die Zeit

18:30 – 19:00 6 Presentation

arise.space is a digital platform for creating virtual statements in specific urban locations through augmented reality, bypassing mechanisms of censorship. It also brings back street artworks erased by the authorities, reconstructing them where they originally appeared. Format: A video screening about the platform, after which the audience can ask the platform’s creator questions. To preserve their anonymity, the speaker will take part remotely via Zoom using an avatar.

Day 2 – 17 November:

10:00 – 11:30 1 Artstic Islands of not only cultural survival but perspectives for creative dynamics (lectures, presenations and panel discussion)

This session explores three extraordinary projects by telling the stories of its creators. The Ballets Russes (founded by Sergei Diaghilev) bringing together not only artists escaping from Russia’s collapsing Tsarist empire at the beginning of the 20th century), The Art Museum Nukus (so-called “Louvre in the desert”) started in the 1950ies by Igor Savitsky bringing together one of the worldwide most important collections of Avantgarde art and making a save haven for art and artists and at the same time a local hotspot of artistic creation that would shine far beyond creativity the remote region of Karakalpakistan. In present days the festival “Kirill & Friends” founded by Kirill Serebrennikov in Berlin in 2026 brings together artists from all around the world, and among them many in emigration (as the founder himself) in order to once again in history shake artistic talents up where they might have lost grounds, bringing together talent in order to create the miracle of art. Speakers: Marinika Babanazarova, long-term museum Director in Nukus (Louvre in the Desert), expert on Igor Savitski who she personally knew. Sjeng Scheijen, historian, leading expert and biographer of Sergey Diagelev Kirill Serebrennikov, founder of platforma (2011 – 2014), legendary artistic director of Gogol Theatre Moscow (2012 – 2021), internationally successful Theater Maker, founder Kirill & Friends. Moderator: Simon Mraz, co-founder ARTMOV

11:30 – 11:45 Coffee break

11:45 – 14:00 Closing of the Conference: Listen → Exchange → Reflect → Formulate → Take Forward

Taking It Forward – A Participatory Closing Session moderated by Raghida Alsangalawi Following a World Café approach, the concept is to create smaller, more informal spaces for exchange where participants can reflect on the themes of the forum, bring together different perspectives and gradually build on each other’s ideas. Rather than simply collecting general feedback at the end, the aim is to turn the discussions of the two days into collective knowledge, concrete recommendations and possible next steps. This fits well with the overall purpose of IN TOUCH: maintaining connections, building trust, addressing practical barriers to exchange, and thinking about how cultural cooperation can work responsibly across very different contexts. We build four discussion tables, with approximately 15/20 participants at each: 1. Connection & Trust How do we keep artistic connections alive? How can trust and artistic exchange be maintained when censorship, political tensions, restricted communication or security concerns make contact difficult? What forms of connection can work without putting artists at risk? 2. Mobility & Access What prevents artists from moving, participating and connecting? What practical barriers do artists face – visas, permits, travel restrictions, funding, digital access and other structural obstacles? What can institutions and cultural networks realistically do about them? 3. Power, Representation & Reciprocity How do we make cultural cooperation more reciprocal? Who gets to decide, who gets represented, and who controls the narrative? How can artists retain agency, dignity and ownership rather than being positioned simply as recipients or representatives of a particular context? 4. Sustainability, Care & Participation What makes cultural exchange sustainable? How can cultural spaces, initiatives and collaborations better support wellbeing, belonging, inclusion, participation and long-term artistic practice, rather than relying on short-term projects or individual resilience? With estimated 60–80 participants, Raghida will pre-allocate participants into four mixed groups of around 15 people, so that each group includes a variety of artistic, institutional and regional perspectives. They would start at one table and rotate through three different tables. Each table would have a host who remains there throughout the session. At the beginning of each new round, the host briefly introduces the key points raised by the previous group, so that the conversation accumulates rather than starting again from zero. Three rounds of approximately 10–15 minutes each, followed by a short synthesis period. At the end, each table would identify the three most important insights and one or two concrete recommendations or possible actions that emerged from the discussions. Then we bring everyone back together for a collective presentation. Each table would share its key points, and Raghida helps cluster them into broader themes and recommendations. These could then directly feed into the final documentation/report as concrete outcomes of the forum. For the very final exercise, Raghida brings the focus back to the individual: “What will I take away from IN TOUCH?” Each participant writes some thoughts, idea, question or commitment on a sticky note and places it on a shared wall (or using their phone through a Word Cloud). This gives us a final collective picture of what participants are taking away from the forum, while ending on a more personal and reflective note.

END OF CONFERENCE

Security request:

All participants are asked to adhere to the Chatham House Rule. This means that participants are free to use the information received during the session, but may not disclose the identity or affiliation of the speaker(s) or of other participants. Further we ask all participants not to take photos of panelists or audience. By participating in this conference, you agree to respect these principles and to contribute to an open and constructive exchange in a confidential setting. All documents will be compiled by the conference organizer into a final report, which may be published on the websites/communication channels of MuseumsQuartier, Dialogbüro, Artmov and BMWKMS.