Workshops

Academy of Unlearning: Mentoring-Program

The workshop series of the Mentoring Program provides a space for collective discussions among all participants. We explore questions such as: What does unlearning mean in practice? How can we act in an anti-discriminatory manner? How can we redistribute knowledge and intervene in existing hierarchies? How can we rewrite history? And what does critical and transformative cultural mediation look like? In four workshop sessions, experts share their thoughts and working practices in the mediation of art, history, performance, and music. Through the exchange of experiences, conversations emerge about possible methods and strategies for contemporary mediation that connects theory and practice, seeking avenues for transformative action.

April 23, 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
KICK OFF and Getting to Know Each Other. Introduction to Tandem Collaboration
with the kulturen in bewegung team and Nadja Schuster, VIDC Global Dialogue.
Welcome and first informal meeting of all participants in the Mentoring Program. Nadja Schuster from VIDC Global Dialogue will provide insights into her experiences with tandem collaboration and the kulturen in bewegung team will introduce themselves and answer any open questions about the program.

May 14, 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
WORKSHOP 1: Of Action Spaces and Contradictions in Critical Art Mediation
with Büro trafo.K and Rubia Salgado – das kollektiv
What if art mediation meant seeing, thinking, and acting differently together? How can we cross existing conceptions and reinterpret them anew?

June 4, 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
WORKSHOP 2: On Critical Mediation and Unlearning in the Museum
with Nora Landkammer
Whose history is being told? Whose history matters? How can museums become spaces for unlearning? What are the spaces of mediation to confront colonial heritage?

September 17, 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
WORKSHOP 3: Of Resistant Bodies and Performative Movements of Knowledge
with Daliah Touré
How to intervene performatively? How to appropriate spaces performatively? How to make the invisible tangible? What does a transnational space look like? How to remap prevailing narratives?

October 22, 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
WORKSHOP 4: On the Transformative Potential in Music (Theater)Mediation
with Annemarie Mitterbäck and Mona Matbou Riahi
How can we promote diversity and participation? What does it mean to act participatively? How can we create interfaces between transcultural musical language and experimental art? How to shape spaces against inequality?

Biographies Workshop 1 -Büro trafo.K and Rubia Salgado

Bürotrafo.K is a Vienna-based collective for art mediation and critical knowledge production. They view questions as invitations to think, speak, and participate, embodying an openness that can lead in unexpected directions. Emphasizing the collaborative process, they explore interventions into established norms. They are particularly interested in the possibilities that arise when different forms of knowledge, artistic strategies, and socially relevant themes converge. trafo.K consists of Renate Höllwart, Simon Nagy, Elke Smodics, and Nora Sternfeld. trafo-k.at

Rubia Salgado works as an adult educator, author, and activist in self-organized contexts. Her focus lies in the field of critical educational and cultural work in the migration society.

Biographies Workshop 2 - Nora Landkammer

Nora Landkammer is an art mediator and professor at the Institute for Art and Education at the University of Art and Design in Linz, heading the Department of Didactics – Mediation – Research. In both practice and academia, she engages with racism and coloniality critique in education and cultural institutions, with a methodological emphasis on practice and action research. She is actively involved in the EAR collective and the Another Roadmap for Arts Education network.

Biographies Workshop 3 - Daliah Touré

Daliah Touré is a dancer based in Vienna. Since 2020, she has been involved in art mediation at Künstlerhaus in Vienna, applying movement-based approaches in her teaching. With an MA in Performance, Culture, and Context from the University of Leeds, Daliah, drawing from her extensive experience as a dancer and choreographer, has developed a unique way to explore unconventional spaces and connect on a physical level with other art forms.

Biographies Workshop 4 -Annemarie Mitterbäck and Mona Matbou Riahi

Annemarie Mitterbäck is a freelance dramaturge, music mediator, and cultural producer. She conceptualizes, dramatizes, and realizes diversity-sensitive music and art projects in the societal context. In 2017, she founded MusicScapes, a collective dedicated to contemporary, transcultural musical language and the participatory negotiation process of societal diversity. MusicScapes aims to bring new, experimental art and music to a broader audience. musicscapes.at
From 2006-2016, she led projects in music mediation with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Jeunesse, Klangforum Wien, and since 2022, she leads Community music/Community Engagement at Musiktheatertage Wien. She has collaborated with and for various organizations, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, Carnegie Hall NYC/Berlin in Lights Festival, Osterfestspiele Salzburg, Arcana Festival/regional X, Festival St.Gallen, Wiener Festwochen, Jeunesse, RSO Wien, and Wiener Konzerthaus. Annemarie is a recipient of the YEAH! Young EARopean Award from the network junge ohren 2011.

Mona Matbou Riahi's approach to music is unique, seamlessly blending contemporary and classical elements, combining improvisation, electronic experiments, and innovative techniques to explore new and unheard sounds. She has performed in various artistic formations and projects, collaborating with dancers, actors, and multimedia artists, gaining recognition at renowned festivals and concert halls worldwide. Her recent project includes her role as artistic director and curator of DE/semble, a festival for jazz and adventurous music. With her boundless technical skills, passion for artistic exploration, and commitment to pushing boundaries, Mona Matbou Riahi continually redefines possibilities.