Video recording: STUDIO AKON – Initiativen zur Aufarbeitung

On November 20, 2025, the second event in the “STUDIO AKON” series, entitled “Engagement and Confrontation – Initiatives for Coming to Terms with the Past,” took place at the Berliner Hansabibliothek. With Nirit Ben Joseph (filmmaker and tour guide, Berlin), Eduard Freudmann (artist, Vienna), Mily Meyer and Max Pospiech (Zentrale für, Nuremberg), Maria Neumann (historian, Berlin/Kassel), Stephan Trüby (architecture theorist, Stuttgart)

The project website and recordings can be found at: https://forum-dcca.eu/studio-akon/

The event “Engagement and Confrontation – Initiatives for Coming to Terms with the Past” addresses how to deal with places and institutions burdened by Nazi history, as well as current conflicts in the art and culture sector surrounding coming to terms with the past and anti-Semitism. How can historical responsibility be made visible, communicable, and politically effective today? The panel brings together architectural theory analyses, experiences from historical research on art institutions and their actors, and artistic-activist approaches. At Berlin's Hansa Library, architectural theorist Stephan Trüby, historian Maria Neumann, and artist Mily Meyer discussed ideological continuities, challenges in dealing with debates on anti-Semitism in the art world, and possibilities for artistic interventions at historical sites of perpetration.

About Studio AKON
STUDIO AKON is a series organized by the Forum for Democratic Culture and Contemporary Art. It is funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion, Action Fund for the Support of Projects Against Anti-Semitism. STUDIO AKON deals with anti-Semitic continuities in science and art and their associated effects on society. Starting with the question of how closely the reappraisal of National Socialism is linked to a deeper understanding of anti-Semitism, the project brings together researchers, cultural institutions, and civil society activists who are professionally engaged in the historical reappraisal of anti-Semitism.