How do spaces—physical and digital—shape protest, participation, and democratic life?

This event brings together Jilly Traganou, Professor of Architecture and Urbanism at Parsons School of Design, and Teresa Retzer, curator, writer, critic, and Artistic Director of the Mesh Festival in Basel, to reflect on how art, design, and curatorial practice respond to contemporary political conditions. Moving between research, pedagogy, and practice, the discussion asks how dissent is spatially produced, who gains access to platforms of visibility, and when cultural practice becomes explicitly political.

Traganou will share insights from her research on design and dissent, with a focus on Copenhagen’s Christiania district as a site of prefigurative political practice, examining how alternative spatial arrangements enable social movements and collective imaginaries. Retzer will draw on her curatorial and research work on right-wing radical communities and media-driven publics, addressing how analog and digital infrastructures shape participation, exclusion, and political mobilization.

Together, they will consider current forms of protest and resistance, the role of art and design in moments of democratic backsliding, and how these questions manifest across teaching, publishing, curating, and institutional work. Grounded in concrete examples, the conversation invites reflection on how spaces are shared—or restricted—and how cultural practices can open, contest, or reconfigure the conditions of democratic life.

The session concludes with a moderated discussion, connecting the speakers’ perspectives to the present political moment and to the broader questions of accessibility, care, and collective agency explored throughout the Mesh Festival.