After last years’ IDFA we committed to host an international gathering with international cultural institutions to question the role and responsibilities in today’s social and political context. Are we experiencing a partial change, or a historical shift?

We invite you to discuss three major pathways of questioning: First, Positionality (the statement, the voice and purpose of the institution, and the need to imagine a new paradigm of cultural work). Second, Representation (Whose institutions are these? Do they engage with the world in a truly pluralistic process of continuous questioning and discovery? Or do they do so only within the frames of an ailing, exclusive and unjust, social contract?). Third, The Place of Money (Questioning the multiplicity of ways in which funding and the power that comes with it, can limit freedom of expression rather than protect and support it). Underpinning all of these is power, and how it is distributed. 

Tabitha Jackson and Dominic Willsdon (IDA) will kickstart and facilitate an open discussion.