Bedrohung / Zagrożenie / Menace

The persistent feeling of multiple existential threats is a central symptom of our contemporary society. These threats manifest themselves directly in the individual’s perception, but they are also communicated through the media, thereby shaping the collective awareness of entire communities. Contemporary art often functions like a seismograph, registering with incredible sensitivity the “vibrations” of all kinds of dangers and threats. Both concretely tangible and only perceptible through mediation. How do artists from the neighboring countries of Germany and Poland analyze similar threats? How do they react to them, how do they process them, and what strategies of resilience or direct response do they develop? The artistic contributions to the German-Polish exhibition, which jointly presents leading faculty members from the Magdalena Abakanowicz University of Arts in Poznań and guests from Berlin, navigate the tension between acute and perceived threats, between experience and fear.