UTOPIENALE

UTOPIENALE is an annual conference held since 2022, organised by Old School – Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) at its headquarters in Havelberg (Saxony-Anhalt) with partners such as Landeskultur Jugend Sachsen Anhalt, Freiwilligenagentur der Altmark, Kinderstärken e.V. (Stendal), Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design (Halle/Saale), Cordts Art Foundation (Berlin/Hamburg), Silent Green (Berlin), fair - Magazin für Kunst & Architektur (Wien/Berlin) and other artists, scholars and activists.

From 2022 to 2024, the conference was held at Old School ICA. In 2025, it relocated an essential part of its events to Berlin, and in 2026, UTOPIENALE V will be held in Berlin, as well as at Old School ICA in Havelberg.

Founding members of the conference include Azby Brown, Wolf Guenter Thiel and Mieste Hotopp-Riecke. UTOPIENALE comprises a series of workshops on the theme "Zukunft Gestalten” (Future Transformation), several colloquia and a central symposium. Conference participants, who include artists, academics, philosophers, activists and social workers, are invited by Azby Brown, Wolf Guenter Thiel and guest curators. All UTOPIENALE events are open to the public. Gerald Walter and Hayati e.V. have grown into an integral founding and organisational part of the conference.

UTOPIENALE’s founding members understand UTOPIA, in the sense of the British sociologist Ruth Levitas, as a method for developing alternative visions of the future and promoting their implementation. UTOPIENALE relies on art as an essential vehicle for promoting such utopian practice and serves as a platform for interdisciplinary exchange between arts, science, philosophy and transformation studies.