Preview
Heft 2/26 – Migration Issues
For some time now, few things have stirred up our societies quite like global migration. It is not only the growing tendency towards ethno-nationalism and authoritarianism that can be linked to this. Many other developments, by no means for the better – such as the ‘racialization’ of all ‘others’ or the constantly reignited debates fueled by social envy – are also connected to it. At the same time, the migratory transformation of society is producing many new inequalities and differences, all of which warrant closer examination: ‘good’ migrants (those who are like us) versus ‘bad’ ones (those who will always remain foreign and cannot be integrated); border regimes, under which some enjoy the EU-wide ‘right to free movement’ whilst others have little chance of ever overcoming the barriers erected against them; and finally, the radical disparity in the causes of migration (flight from political persecution, climate emergency, economic hopelessness, the general imbalance between the Global North and the Global South, etc.).
All these aspects are reflected in the current art scene and are addressed there in a wide variety of ways. In this issue on ‘Migration Issues’, we do not merely wish to ask how contemporary art can adequately reflect these processes and circumstances. Rather, we also aim to explore how a migration-sensitive artistic practice can generate and foster a different, broader understanding of these emerging new realities. In other words, the question is how old, entrenched or resurgent binaries such as ‘us’ versus ‘them’ can be effectively subverted. And what shape new, ‘post-migrant’ horizons might take, which do justice to the irreversible reality of contemporary migration movements in a way that does not gloss over the facts.
Publication date: June 15, 2026