artsoftheworkingclass.org

The Kyiv Biennial has always been a war biennial. Vasyl Cherepanyn, director and curator of the Ukrainian Visual Culture Research Center, underlined this on a pleasant June morning in the courtyard of KW Berlin. This is a fact that feels both significant and oddly detached at the same time, given its enormity and the unimaginable responsibility that comes with recognizing it. Can a biennial in exile be a useful tool of resilience?

Since October 2025, Arts of the Working Class (AWC) and Refuge Worldwide in Berlin, together with Energie Alter-native in Palermo, have been building SPY STORY, an ERASMUS+-supported project that invites young adults (18 -35 yo) to push back against disinformation through the art of storytelling.

Arts of the Working Class – 工人階級的藝術 – Artes de la clase obrera – İşçi Sınıfının Sanatları – فنون الطبقة العاملة – אמנויות מעמד הפועלים – Sztuka klasy robotniczej – Künste der Arbeiterklasse – Umění dělnické třídy – Искусство рабочего класса – വർക്ക് ഓഫ് ആർട്ട്സ് വർക്ക് – वर्किंग क्लास की कला – Arti della classe lavoratrice – Arti tal–Klassi tax–Xogħol – தொழிலாள வர்க்க கலை – Arbetsklassens konst – Τέχνες της εργατικής τάξης –労働者階級の芸術 – Ubuciko beKlasi Yokusebenza – Aṣayan ti Iṣe Ṣiṣẹ –...

Representing A tool of liberation and empowerment, or of oppression and exclusion, depending on its use. In failing to pay attention to what and who is represented and how, we come to understand the world only through the perspective of those privileged enough to have their experiences amplified. The process of representing brings with it the chance to change the position from which the narrative is told, to shape whose experience matters. Sometimes representation impoverishes and must be refused.

Footnotes 1. United Nations Secretary-General, Guidance Note of the Secretary-General: United Nations Approach to Transitional Justice (New York: United Nations, March 2010), accessed via United Nations Digital Library, https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/682111.

How does Jailtime Records operate internally? What kind of work is involved that is not visible on the surface? Internally, Jail Time Records is structured so that on one side there’s the creative and operational team: that’s me and Steve, the co-founders, who direct the project and its artistic side. We have recording studios inside the prison, all run by inmates, where we provide education in sound engineering and music production. The studios are open, and prisoners have unlimited access.

My father never wanted to be a banker. His mother wanted him to become a doctor; he wanted to study literature and write poems. Banking gave him what poetry could not offer then: dignity, stability, a suit to wear in the morning. These are not small things to give a person. Both my parents worked in banks. So did my mother’s father and brother, and I grew up inside that rhythm. My grandfather shaved and wore a suit every morning long after he retired. At the time, it seemed like a habit.

Footnotes 1. United Nations Secretary-General, Guidance Note of the Secretary-General: United Nations Approach to Transitional Justice (New York: United Nations, March 2010), accessed via United Nations Digital Library, https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/682111.

Montréal, jour de canicule. Le soleil tape, l'air étouffe, l’inconfort frise le malaise. Le béton des rues emmagasine une chaleur qu’il ne restituera que tard dans la soirée. Nombreux se pressent dans les parcs, en quête d’ombre et de fraîcheur, de refuge à cet étourdissement général. La proximité est un luxe: difficile de braver les paysages dantesques de la métropole sous 40 degrés humidex pour rejoindre l'un de ses grands parcs.

AFIELD, Arts of the Working Class, and Framer Framed announce the selection of six fellows for the Transitional Justice with Artists (TJA) Grant. Selected from 364 applications from 34 countries, these practitioners are recognized for their long-term work addressing legacies of injustice and violence.