This lecture series examines gestures of invitation in artistic and academic practices—gestures that open up spaces for relationships, negotiation, and change. While concepts of invitation and hospitality are increasingly present in art and curation, the lecture questions their political effectiveness within and outside institutional frameworks. To invite means to open a threshold where encounters become possible, and power is shared—but never without friction. Invitations can reproduce hierarchies and regulate who is allowed to enter, speak, or be heard.

The series explores how narratives of “inviting” simultaneously reinforce and challenge mechanisms of inclusion and understands un/inviting gestures as a field of tension that can be rethought through refusal, redistribution, and care.

Through contributions from artists, researchers, and cultural actors (among others Luce deLire, Alessandra Corti and Amanda Piña), the series examines the infrastructures, affects, and politics that determine how and who invites, hosts, and participates. In keeping with the transdisciplinary context of the doctoral program “Cultures in Transition,” the series combines curatorial, artistic, philosophical, and political approaches and utilizes a variety of formats—from lectures to participatory encounters to experimental presentations. This creates a space for thinking about and practicing the politics of invitation.

Overview (Details will follow):

Mi 11.03.26, 18:00-19:30: Auftakt mit anschließendem Get-together

Mi 25.03.26, 17:00-19:30: Mayra Jenzer / Luce deLire

Mi 15.04.26, 17:00-19:30: Fernanda Ermelindo Rodrigues / Amanda Piña

Mi 29.04.26, 17:00-19:30: Anna Rebecca Menslin / Alessandra Corti

Mi 06.05.26, 17:00-19:30: Kinga Tóth / Bertram J. Schirr

Mi 20.05.26, 17:00-19:30: Ewa Meister / N.N.

Mi 10.06.26, 17:00-19:30: Zuzana Ernst / N.N.

Mi 24.06.26, 17:00-19:30: Julieta Jacobi / N.N.