Shadows of Illiberalism | Resisting the Radical Right June 13th until 15th, 2025
▻https://www.disruptionlab.org/shadows-of-illiberalism
C’est un cas extrême d’illusionisme quand un « DisruptionLab » propose une série de conférences « contre l’extrême droite » car il faut considérer les « disruptionists » comme la véritable droite extrême avec leurs startups et projets de dématérialisation.
Bon, c’est toujours un événement culturel dans un espace qu’ils ont hérité de la première génération de squatteurs berlinois. Alors on peut y aller juste pour voir ce que c’est devenu le Bethanien .
« Das Bethanien bleibt besetzt »
▻https://www.newyorck.net/en/bethanien-occupation
Part of the movement
House struggle and eviction Yorck59
Occupation and legalization NewYorck
Self-management
In the press
Et voici les disrupteuses et disrupteurs .
SHADOWS OF ILLIBERALISM: Resisting the Radical Right
Exploring the roots of far-right politics and challenging its influence through art, activism, and tech
Conflicts are escalating both locally in Berlin and across Europe, with the rise of right-wing extremism and far-right ideologies. On a global scale, since Trump’s second term, ultra-conservative social visions are being implemented, immigration policies are being enforced, and national sovereignty and borders are being defended. This context requires a scientific analysis that goes beyond polarisation and the instrumentalisation of conflicts for political purposes, often targeting the most vulnerable sectors of society. In analysing such a complex issue, we propose to use artistic strategies as visual evidence to inform about the reality in which we live and to promote a constructive dialogue between different actors in our field of art and culture.
With the term “shadows of illiberalism” we refer to the concept of “illiberal democracy”, which describes a governing system that hides its nondemocratic practices behind formally democratic institutions and procedures. Amnesty International notes that in July 2014, the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán gave what has come to be known as his “illiberal democracy” speech in Romania, in which he juxtaposes a democratic “Western" system based on liberal values and accountability to what he calls an “Eastern” approach based on a strong state and weak opposition.
To date, Orbán’s new right-wing sovereigntist alliance, Patriots for Europe, has gained enough support to become a political group in the EU Parliament, bringing together MEPs from 12 EU member states, including members from Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain, as well as Hungary. In addition, other members who have expressed interest in joining are from Poland and Slovakia, and other parties that are speculated to join include MEPS from Slovenia and Aternative für Deutschland (AfD) in Germany.
In Germany, nationalism and far-right ideology have been on the rise for more than a decade, and the AfD as the second most popular party since 2023. Similarly, a conservative movement against “wokeness” is taking over in the US, a country where Donald Trump is the new president since January 20, 2025, criticising race theory, gender rights and queer theory, often provoking irrational chains of reactions supported by conspiracy theories and harassment campaigns based on isolationism, anti-feminism, homophobia, white supremacy as well as anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
On the other hand, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has created a threat to neighbouring countries such as Georgia, where a controversial ’foreign agent’ law was passed, threatening the existence of many local NGOs working on democracy and civil rights, and the escalation of violence against LGBTQ+ communities made headlines during the attack on Tbilisi Pride 2023, a violent counter-demonstration organised by far-right, nationalist and ultra-nationalist groups.
In such a scenario, which is clearly based on the weaponisation of culture, the role of art and visual culture becomes necessary to produce evidence of these phenomena. This conference builds on our previous 2018 series entitled ’Misinformation Ecosystems’, which analysed cultural, political and technological issues related to fake news and right-wing supremacist ideologies through our conferences HATE NEWS and INFILTRATION.
We aim to update a previous debate on the strategic production of misinformation and misleading propaganda by bringing together speakers who share methods (from these or similar cases) that can be used to produce evidence of online hate, systematic discrimination, targeting of women, minorities, and people at risk. The focus will be on the strategic use of online tools by political right-wing groups, the weaponisation of LGBTQ+ culture by far-right groups online and offline, the rise of anti-democratic and authoritarian ideologies in Europe and the complicit role of Big Tech, where algorithms and social media platforms are misused by the far-right to polarise users and increase online traffic.
In this conference programme, we want to raise awareness by reflecting on possible counter-measures from artistic, technological and political frameworks.
SHADOWS OF ILLIBERALISM will showcase technological/media, artistic and activist practices to produce strategies to counteract human rights violations and environmental violence by state or corporate actors. The conference is preceded by a meetup at nGbK where to analyse a specific local case study where to understand how weaponised discrimination works.
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Full Programme
16:00 CET · Doors open
16:30–16:40 · OPENING
Tatiana Bazzichelli (Artistic Director, Disruption Network Lab, Director, Disruption Network Institute, IT/DE).
16:40 – 18:10 · KEYNOTE
Exhaustion and Hyper-Colonialism: The Disintegration of the West · Get tickets
Franco Berardi (Philosopher, Media Theorist, IT). In conversation with Yasmeen Daher (Philosopher, Co-director, Febrayer Network, PS/DE).
In this keynote, Franco Berardi will try to understand the contemporary political crisis as a manifestation of the techno-anthropological mutation that is underway. This is followed by a presentation by Yasmeen Daher reflecting on the issue of hyper-colonialism and the topics covered in the keynote speech.
Disintegration
The illiberal oligarchy has taken control of the most powerful nuclear powers, US, and Russia, and now it is striving to take control of a number of European countries, while Liberal democracy is losing ground. However, the fight between the two political forms is far from over, and it is resulting in a disintegration of both geopolitical and socio-economic order. This is resulting in a process of disintegration of the Western system. But if we want to understand the roots of this process we must go beyond the political surface and dig up the cultural and psychological roots of the present unravelling. These roots lie crisis of the white supremacy over the world, and the emergence of hyper-colonialism.
ExhaustioN
After the crisis of colonial rule after the Second world war, colonialism has taken a new deterritorialised form (that Franco Berardi labels hyper-colonialism), and has been resurfacing in the new Century, together with the aggressive return of the mythology of white supremacy. Illiberalism is based on the furious return of racism, fuelled by the perception of the exhaustion of white supremacy. Exhaustion is the reversal of the Futurist expansionism of the past Century has cultural, economic, and demographic features, but it is also (and basically) an effect of the aging of the white population, following the prolongation of life-time, and the unstoppable fall of birth-rate.
18:10 – 18:40 · BREAK
18:40 – 20:40 · PANEL
Art, Activism & the Rise of Illiberalism in Hungary, Poland & Slovakia · Get tickets
Péter Adamik (Freie Ungarische Botschaft, HU/DE), Anna Krenz (Artist, Architect and Activist, Founder Dziewuchy Berlin, PL/DE), Slavo Krekovič (Artistic Director, A4 Space for Contemporary Culture, SK). Moderated by Tonia Mastrobuoni (Journalist, Correspondent La Repubblica, IT/DE).
Today, when nationalist and conservative forces are rising across Germany, Europe and beyond, a critical, transnational outlook is more crucial than ever. This panel presents case studies and projects that address the rise of illiberalism across Central and Eastern Europe, focusing specifically on Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. It also looks at the countermeasures that have been adopted both locally and abroad, thanks to the efforts of diasporic communities in these countries and in Berlin. Speakers will explore how art serves to challenge authoritarian power structures, confront propaganda and the ongoing war on culture. The panel will examine the political dimensions of artistic practice and how art and activism can respond effectively to strengthen and support grassroots communities. Which political and artistic strategies can shift public consciousness and drive real political change? Can art truly save us?
Hungary used to be among the rather progressive, well-developing countries in the Central Eastern European region in the 90’s and in times of socialism when the country was often referred to as the “happiest barrack” in the Eastern Block with its soft-handed “Goulash-Communism”. 35 years after the fall of communism, Viktor Orbán has successfully built up during 15 years of reign a “Goulash-Democracy”, or turning the tone more serious, Illiberal Democracy, sending the country economically to the bottom of the league in the EU, its people trapped with low salaries, a more than ever divided society and a constantly shrinking population. Although illiberalism may appear to be gaining strength as well-connected right-wing radicals rise to power around the world, this cannot be a long-term success when paired with mafia-like organised state corruption. Péter Adamik from the Freie Ungarische Botschaft will expose the real face of the Orbán’s System and the authoritarian playbook his government is exporting. In his talk, “Trapped in the Goulash Democracy: Illiberalism is not the answer”, he will use footages from “The Dynasty” – the recent Direkt36’s documentary about the economic empire of the Orbán family, and present artistic and activist practices to generate a critique of the status quo.
Polish women and men have a long tradition of resistance and political art, both of which have shaped Polish culture for decades. Under the conservative PiS government in Poland (2015–2023), democracy became a fragile structure. The determined efforts of thousands of activists, including those abroad, ultimately restored a pro‑democracy administration, proving that collective struggle can succeed. The fight for democracy remains inseparable from the fight for women’s rights, and art continues to serve as a powerful tool of resistance.
An auto‑ethnographic perspective on feminist Polish activism and political art in Berlin reveals how these practices counter the illiberal narratives promoted by conservative regimes and build transnational feminist solidarity. Berlin is home to a large and partly politically engaged Polish diaspora. Since 2016, the Dziewuchy Berlin collective has organised protests and demonstrations in solidarity with women* and the LGBT+ community in Poland, as well as campaigns for women’s rights in Germany, reacting and responding to political events in both countries and countering right-wing movements. For example, Anna Krenz’s ARTivist interventions—such as Global Scream (One‑Minute Scream, 2019) and Instant Theatre (2020)—blur the lines between art and protest, challenging conventional definitions of political art. Initiatives and projects of Dziewuchy Berlin reshaped perceptions of Polish women in Berlin, showcasing their resilience and resistance, at the same time offering empowerment.
Slavo Kreković, the artistic director of A4, a Space for Contemporary Culture in Bratislava, will talk about “Slovakia’s War on Culture: Destruction and Resistance”. Since September 2023, the new Slovak government has launched a systematic attack on democracy, civil society, minorities and also the cultural sector—dismantling institutions, rewriting legislation, and replacing experts with loyal extremists, including those at national institutions as well as the main funding body Slovak Arts Council. The talk maps the unfolding devastation and highlights the tactics of response by the cultural community: the formation of voluntary cultural activist platforms, and waves of protests and artistic resistance. As illiberalism advances through institutional capture and ideological cleansing, the cultural field in Slovakia becomes both a target and a frontline of resistance.
Saturday, June 14, 2025 · Get tickets
16:00 · Doors open
16:30 – 18:10 · KEYNOTE
The New Right’s Cultural Hegemony and Contradictions · Get tickets
Katrien Jacobs (Associate Professor, Monash University Malaysia, BE/MY), Florian Cramer (Professor of Artistic Research, Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, NL). Moderated by Tatiana Bazzichelli (Artistic Director, Disruption Network Lab, IT/DE).
In order to gain cultural and political hegemony, the New Right can often take contradictory positions: queerness versus anti-gender politics, disruption versus traditionalism, technocracy versus ecofascism, populism versus elitism, etc. These contradictions make their program seem inclusive and attractive to larger demographics. But in the end, they are just a tactic of playing both sides at once. Once in power, the veil comes off. This keynote will consist of two parts: the first will examine the cultural politics of the New Right in general, and the second will focus on gender and sex politics as a case study.
Florian Cramer will address the dialectics of “liberalism” and “illiberalism” - how the latter emerged from the former, and how liberal concepts of spontaneous order informed experimental arts, technological developments, free-market economics, and ultimately the New Right and today’s oligarchic regimes, from the 1950s to the 2020s. The question remains to what extent the cultural regimes of the New Right are aligned with today’s oligarchies, whether its fascism can be called postmodern, and whether it doesn’t amount to an extremism of the political center rather than of the political right.
Katrien Jacobs will argue that New Right politics and the struggle for cultural hegemony thrive on apocalyptic world views including gender phantasms and a contradictory “illiberal sex revolution”. The talk is based on research into anti-gender movements in Belgium and the Netherlands, enigmatic grassroots alliances between religious groups, conspiracy theorists and political campaigns against sex education that led arson in several secondary schools. The talk will also look into Naomi Klein’s ideas of “mirroring” to show that New Right cultural hegemony borrows radical-left sex/gender politics, such as feminist critiques of dry-analytical thought and alt-queer D.I.Y. porn-making.
18:10 – 18:30 · BREAK
18:30 – 19:00 · LECTURE PERFORMANCE
Ask Me for Those Unborn Promises That May Seem Unlikely to Happen in the Natural · #2 2025 · Get tickets
Donatella Della Ratta (Associate Professor of Communication and Media Studies, John Cabot University. IT).
Generative AI creates speculative visuals that, while not based on factual events, remain plausible, constructing realities that have yet to unfold. Situated within the domain of possibility rather than empirical certainty, these visuals introduce a new form of ’synthetic realism’. By reshaping both past and present through their world-building potential, these seemingly innocuous images—detached from tangible references, historical ties, lineage, or context—wield a quiet yet profound violence against history and factuality.
Sunday, June 15, 2025 · 18:00 · Related event at Tatwerk
AI Framing the Future - The Visual Script That Makes Violence Feel Inevitable
with Donatella Della Ratta at Tatwerk
Read more & register
The lecture performance examines ’speculative violence,’ a developing mode of the image’s existence that oscillates between overt destruction and subtle, almost imperceptible effects. Blending text with visuals—including found footage, social media threads, and AI-generated media—the piece takes the audience on an unsettling journey through the violence of the not-yet-realised, traversing landscapes from Palestine to Trump’s America, and implicating oblivious cows.
The lecture performance is happening in the context of Donatella Della Ratta’s residency at the Disruption Network Institute (1 May-1 November 2025), as part of the research “Speculative Violence. Ethics, Aesthetics, and Power in the Age of AI-Generated ’Synthetic Realism’”, granted by the Italian Council (Public Call 2024). The research project investigates the role of synthetic images—those generated by artificial intelligence—within contemporary dynamics of violence, analysing their ethical, political, and aesthetic implications.
Read more about the research here.
19:00 – 20:30 · PANEL
Generative AI, Weaponised Language & Political Shadow Campaigns · Get tickets
Donatella Della Ratta (Associate Professor of Communication and Media Studies, John Cabot University. IT), Míriam Juan-Torres (Head of Research, Democracy & Belonging Program, UC Berkeley, ES), Amber Macintyre (Research Lead, Tactical Tech, SCOT/UK/DE). Moderated by Tina Lee (Editor-in-Chief, Unbias the News, US/DE).
In recent years, the consolidation of far-right movements within institutional frameworks across both Europe and the United States has marked a significant shift in the political landscape. This evolution has been accompanied by the articulation of political agendas rooted in rhetorics of violence — discourses that intensify social polarisation, incite hatred, and reinforce structures of discrimination. What emerges is a new paradigm of performative transgression, one that is both disseminated and magnified through the algorithmic logic of social media and the infrastructure of automated technologies and generative AI.
According to Míriam Juan-Torres, we are in what scholars call the third wave of autocratisation, marked by leaders who rise to power by mustering popular support and then legitimise authoritarian practices under the guise of defending democracy from perceived “Others.”
Once in power, countries seem to transform into competitive autocracies, where seemingly certain democratic institutions coexist with targeting of opponents and marginalised communities and creating an uneven playing field. In the talk “The Paradox of Authoritarian Populist Politics: Appropriating Democracy, Advancing Authoritarianism through Othering”, Míriam Juan-Torres will look at the specific approach of authoritarian populism, which combines tactics from both the authoritarian and populist playbooks, and how gender specifically is leveraged to advance six strategies to further the authoritarian populist project.
In the talk “Far-Right Campaigns: Shadowy Networks or Institutionalised Practices?” Amber Macintyre will examine what institutionalised practices are involved behind the scenes in creating far-right language and imagery through an analysis of a database of political firms and observations of centre-right campaign practitioners. Far-right digital campaigns have been understood as “shadowy” yet recently it has become clear that recognised institutions – especially technology firms – have shown their support for far-right ideals. Furthermore, the language and image within far-right campaigns is often based on analysis that technology firms support including data collection and analysis.
Following her lecture-performance Ask Me for Those Unborn Promises That May Seem Unlikely to Happen in the Natural #2 (2025), Donatella Della Ratta will join the panel discussion to explore how speculative generative AI technologies extend the reach of violence into the realm of the not-yet-realised. Her contribution interrogates the destabilisation of conventional notions of fact and evidence, particularly within contested political and mediated landscapes—from the ongoing war in Palestine to the socio-political dynamics of Trump-era America.
Sunday 15 June · Register before June 5
Workshop · Defending Civic Space: Countering Disinformation in Challenging Environments
Sunday 15 June, 13:00–16:00, Stadtwerkstatt (Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 11, 10178 Berlin)
Register before June 5
With Maya Talakhadze (Director, Regional Development Hub – Caucasus, GE)
Max 30 participants. No prior technical knowledge or special equipment are required.
Around the world, civic space is becoming increasingly restricted. In many countries, governments are using legal, administrative and narrative tools to limit activism, weaken independent media and discredit opposition voices. This workshop will examine how disinformation - including conspiracy theories and misleading narratives - is used to justify these actions. It will also explore the wider impact of such tactics on protest movements, media freedom and the safety of human rights defenders.
Led by Maya Talakhadze, Director of the Regional Development Hub - Caucasus (Tbilisi, Georgia) the session will draw on case studies from Georgia, Hungary, Russia and Turkey to examine both strategies of repression and forms of resistance. These examples will help participants to recognise how disinformation is weaponised to shape public perceptions and undermine democratic space.
The workshop will begin with a short presentation on the global trend of shrinking civic space and its impact on activism, providing a common ground for deeper engagement. Participants will then work in small groups to compare real cases, analyse government rhetoric, and reflect on resistance strategies that have been effective in different contexts. Interactive exercises throughout the session will encourage critical thinking, creativity and collaborative learning. The workshop will conclude with a strategic discussion on countering disinformation, amplifying independent voices, and sustaining civic engagement in increasingly challenging environments.
This workshop is designed for around 25 international participants with an interest in media freedom, human rights and governance. No prior technical skills or special equipment are required.
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