On Denial

The artistic research project On Denial interrogates the pervasive phenomenon of denial as it becomes increasingly embedded in the social fabric of our lives. On Denial provides an umbrella framework that holds together several works. It aims to collectively reflect on how denial unfolds in our contexts, and how we can respond to and challenge it. At its core, it encourages transdisciplinary artistic collaboration and involves exchange between artists, social and political researchers, and scientists.

Denial often manifests as structural amnesia. Discursive and societal norms orient us away from, or render unavailable, factual truths. This results in an evasion of responsibility for historical and ongoing violence, wars, and genocides, as well as for climate change, the risks of AI, nuclear weapons, and mass militarisation. Selective memory cultures, in which some stories are left untold, transform past injustices into structural inequality and, in turn, breed new violence. Once denial is normalized, complicity is obscured, concealing our — often unrecognized and complex — roles as co-producers of existential crises. On Denial therefore seeks to nourish and support practices of acknowledgement and of social, discursive, and material regeneration. The project’s horizon is an encompassing and procedural accountability and transformation.

»figures of denial«, writing · performance (ongoing)

figures of denial is a writing and performing arts project that evolves around five archetypes in a world shaped by denial. The concept of “archetypes” implies that each of these figures lives, to some degree, inside all of us, in our collective unconscious. They are: the denialist, the bystander, the critical archivist, the haunting ghost, and the whistleblower. Through them and their stories, the project seeks to make tangible how the forces within denial operate, and how they can wrestle with one another to ultimately challenge and transform it. The project is being developed through experimental and fictional encounter, in writing and in rehearsal.

transdisciplinary discussion group (ongoing)

The transdisciplinary discussion group facilitates conversation and exchange between artists and scientists. It is a collaborative project by Laro Bogan and Hanna Pfeiffer, affiliated with the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy. It consists of regular discussion sessions involving reading and writing, as well as public keynotes, which will be announced separately. One such public event was the keynote and colloquium with Prof. Omar Bartov in October 2025 (link).

To join the group, please get in touch and let us know what you are working on and how you would like to contribute.