This is Not a Sanctuary: A Critical Reflection on Community & Hope as part of Manifesta 16
Prof. Dr. Gesche Joost, Prof. Dr. Hagit Keysar, Prof. Dr. Shaul Setter, Prof. Dr. Gal Hertz
Kompaktkurs Designmethoden, 2 ECTS, 2 SWS, 5 places

Locations, Dates & Time:
Berlin, Sep 14th — Design Research Lab (Einsteinufer 43), 14:00-16:00h
Essen, Sep 16th–18th — visiting Manifesta 16: informal gathering on the Sep 16th evening, return on Sep 18th in the evening to Berlin
Berlin, Sept 28th — Design Research Lab (Einsteinufer 43), 14:00-16:00h

Registration: please send an email to Joanna Cywinska at joanna.cywinska_ @drlab.org
Deadline for registration: September 1st, end of day

IMPORTANT: this course takes place both in Berlin and Manifesta 16 biennale in Ruhrgebiet, Germany. Students need to organize their own transportation to and accommodation in (or around) Essen, Germany. More information will be shared after registration for the course. Entry to Manifesta 16 is free.

Critical reflective journey focusing on democracy, local communities and our contribution as designers and artists.

Manifesta 16 centers on the transformation of abandoned, post-war churches in the Ruhr area into spaces for art, dialogue, and community use, using the question "This is not a church: what can it become?" to explore how spaces built for shared beliefs can be reimagined as inclusive environments for connection and renewal when communities decline or fragment. The compact course builds on this hope by bringing together Palestinian, Jewish-Israeli, and German art and design students and faculty from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design and Berlin University of the Arts to discuss pedagogy and critique during these difficult times.

We will examine the concept of community, emphasizing that while it creates belonging, it can also enforce exclusion, silence dissent, and reinforce power structures. The course focuses on the question of sanctuary, exploring who receives shelter and protection, and what occurs when civic institutions collapse or turn hostile. This investigation happens at a time when liberal democratic frameworks face sustained assaults through authoritarian rhetoric, police violence against protesters, and shrinking public spaces that narrow the opportunities for critique.

The course encourages students to explore and develop methods for practicing critical discourse and sustaining capacity for dissent, complexity, and the protection of suppressed voices and bodies while maintaining hope. What are the institutions and counter-institutions, forms of democratic interventions, and creative practices available in times where democracy is under pressure? 

Prof. Dr. Gesche Joost is Professor for Design Research at the Berlin University of the Arts and since 2005 heading the Design Research Lab. With international partners, she conducts research and development projects in the areas of human-computer interaction, wearable computing, as well as user-centered design and participation. She acts in various committees, amongst them on the board of DGTF e.V. [German Society for Design Theory and Research] and on the board of the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes). She is the president of the Goethe-Institut.

Prof. Dr. Hagit Keysar is Head of the MDes in visual communication at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. Her research is practice-based and brings together visual work, activism and critical theory. She completed her Ph.D. at the Politics and Government Department, Ben Gurion University, Israel; in her thesis, titled: “Prototyping the Civic View From Above: Do-It-Yourself Aerial Photography in Israel-Palestine”, she critically examined the political potential of civic/community science and open-source practices in situations of civic inequalities and human rights violations, focusing on the use of Do-It-Yourself aerial photography techniques.

Prof. Dr. Shaul Setter is Head of the MA in Theory of the Arts at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. He is a lecturer and writer in the fields of art, literature, and theory. He holds a master's degree from Tel Aviv University and a doctorate in comparative literature from the University of California, Berkeley. He deals with the relationship between aesthetics and politics, literature and art of the 20th and 21st centuries, political thought, continental philosophy, and critical theory. His doctoral thesis discusses neo-modernist art projects ranging from Europe to Israel/Palestine. His book on Jean-Luc Godard, Jean Genet, and the Palestinian struggle in the 1970s was published in 2021.

Prof. Dr. Gal Hertz is Head of the Department of Visual and Material Culture at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. He is a Germanist and a cultural researcher. His research creates a connection between the history and philosophy of science and cultural studies. He examines the rise of social disciplines around 1900 in the German-speaking world; This is from an affinity to popular culture, development of the press and media, theater, literature, and art. Hertz holds a master's degree and a doctorate from the Cohn Institute at Tel Aviv University, pursued post-doctoral studies at the Leibniz Center for Literary and Cultural Research (ZfL Berlin), and taught at both Humboldt University and the Free University of Berlin.