Art in Times of War and Conflict
25. 8. 26, 7 p.m.

Eythar Gubara is a Sudanese visual artist and cinematographer whose work explores resistance, identity, and human rights through photography and film. Since 2013, they have used visual storytelling as a tool for social change, blending artistic practice with activism. Their work focuses on marginalized communities—particularly women and the LGBTQI+ community—challenging oppression and amplifying silenced voices in Sudan and beyond. Since transitioning into cinematography in 2017, Gubara has documented resilience and intimacy through both still and moving images. Working closely with grassroots organizations, they see art as both a tool for justice and a space for visibility. Their practice is grounded in the belief that art can provoke dialog, inspire change, and ignite hope. Gubara’s work has been featured in six solo exhibitions in Hamburg and more than 17 group exhibitions worldwide. Their short films have screened at numerous film festivals, including the Hamburg Short Film Festival. In 2021, they participated in the Rencontres d’Arles photography festival, where they received the Madame Figaro Award.

Huda Takriti (b. 1990 in Syria) uses video and installation to question hidden histories within colonial and state archives. Her work analyses how systems of power define memory through a decolonial and feminist lens. She is currently pursuing a PhD in practice at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, where she is examining the notion of archival erasure relating to the (hi)stories of female freedom fighters from SWANA region (South West Asia and North Africa) in times of armed anti-colonial struggle. Questioning the construction and production of historical narratives, as well as the potential that contamination can carry as a way for surviving archival gaps. She completed her master's studies at the TransArts department at the University of Applied Arts Vienna in 2020. She also completed her bachelor's degree at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus, Syria, in 2012. Huda Takritis latest exhibitions include: Castello di Rivoli (IT), Kunstraum Memphis (AT), Kunsthalle Wien (AT), mumok (AT), Camera Austria (AT), The National Gallery of Kosovo (XK), Abrons Arts Center (USA), Škuc Gallery (SL), among others. Most recently, she was awarded the Kardinal König Kunstpreis (2025), the Han Nefkens Foundation–Museu Tàpies Video Art Production Grant (2025), the Camargo Foundation Fellowship (2023), Vordemberge-Gildewart Award (2022), and the Kunsthalle Wien Prize (2020).

She studied classical sculpture under the direction of Raffie Davtian in Tehran and later Fine Arts at the LensBased Class of Prof. Hito Steyelr at Berlin University of Arts (UdK). She is the recipient of the Villa Romana Prize 2022 and a fellow of the International Research Fellow of Max-Planck-Institut in Florenz, the Kunstfonds Scholarship 2020 and The Elsa Neumann Emerging Artist Prize 2019. She is an alumni of the Delfina Foundation Artist Residency in London and ISCP new york City. Her publications RETURN TO NEVERLAND - A DIALOGUE BETWEEN NEDA SAEEDI & HOMAYOUN SIRIZI was published (in Farsi and English) by Pejman Foundation and released in the fall of 2021,ONLY BIRSD WHO FLY THE HIGHTEST CAN SHATTER THE WINDOWS , Coversation with Anna Teixeira Pinto Published by Archives Book 2024 and NEDA SAEEDI WHISPERS published by Mousse Publishing 2024.

Dr. Noit Banai (PhD, Columbia University) is Professor of Diaspora Aesthetics at the Institute of Art Theory and Cultural Studies, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. An art historian and critic specializing in modern and contemporary art, her work examines migration, exile, diaspora, border regimes, and statelessness. Her current book project, Stateless: Artistic Life in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Singapore, 1933–1953, explores how Jewish refugees in East and Southeast Asia, alongside Baghdadi, Persian, and Russian stateless communities and other displaced populations, visually and materially negotiated conditions of statelessness.

She is the author of Yves Klein (Reaktion 2014), Being a Border (Paper Visual Arts, 2021) and has published in Third Text, Stedelijk Studies, Public Culture, Performing Arts Journal, Filozovski Vestnik, and the Journal of Jewish Latin American Studies. Her essays have also been published by Sternberg Press, Centre Georges Pompidou, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris, Documenta, Kontakt Collection, Americas Society and Bronx Museum of the Arts. She has taught internationally at Hong Kong Baptist University, NYU Shanghai, University of Vienna, Tufts University/School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, Singidunum University in Belgrade, and Maumaus School in Lisbon; She also served as assistant editor of RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics and is a regular contributor to Artforum International.

Louisa Elderton is a British art critic, writer, and editor based in Berlin. She is the Managing Editor of ICI Berlin Press, an independent, non-profit publisher that promotes radical lines of questioning, diverse voices, and novel approaches to academic scholarship, and was also recently the Text and Editorial Lead for Bergen Assembly 2025. Her writing has been featured in numerous publications including Artforum, Art Monthly, Artnet News, Art Review, Frieze, Flash Art, Harper’s Bazaar, Mousse, The New York Times, Vogue, and many more, as well as in gallery and museum catalogues and artist monographs. With significant experience of working for cultural institutions and galleries, she was Chief Editor of Side Magazine for Bergen Assembly 2022, Curatorial Editor at Gropius Bau from 2019–2022, and the Managing Editor of various publications for KW Institute for Contemporary Art and Hatje Cantz. From 2016–2019 she was Project Editor of Phaidon’s acclaimed ‘Vitamin’ series and Content Editor of Great Women Artists, and from 2011–16 she was a Curator & Artist Liaison at Blain|Southern. She has a Master’s degree in ‘Curating the Art Museum’ from The Courtauld Institute of Art, and specialised in learning and interpretation, as part of which she worked in the Research department at Tate.