Creative Sabotage
Workshop with Zsu Zsuró
When states slash arts funding, it’s not economics — it’s a systemic destruction. The methodical defunding of culture across Eastern Europe is a deliberate tactic to neutralise its critical edge. They want art to be decorative, silent, and compliant.
But as thinkers like Judith Butler, Mick Wilson and Slavoj Žižek remind us, the margins are exactly where radical work begins. If they won't fund our critique, we’ll build a new democratic imaginary without their permission. This 3-hour collaborative workshop isn't a passive academic seminar; it’s a laboratory for cultural resistance.
We’ll dissect populist threats to the European arts scene and ask: how do we turn institutional abandonment into radical solidarity?
Discuss: Map the threats. Where does art exist in relation to the political sphere?
Conceptualise: Which type of subversive intervention suits you best: a radical manifesto, an institutional protest, or a guerrilla exhibition plan?
Prefigure: What is the culture of tomorrow?
They cut the budget.
They cannot buy our voices.
Join the workshop and transform your imagination into creative action!
The number of places is limited. Registration is via email at application.tranzit.sk@gmail.com by March 23, 2026
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The event is part of the Revolting with Care project conceived by Zuzana Révészová (Spolka) and organized together with Judit Angel and tranzit.sk.
ERSTE Foundation is main partner of tranzit.org.
Media partners: Artalk.info, Flash Art CZ & SK, Kapitál, GoOut.net
Zsu Zsuró is an art researcher and curator. She holds a Master’s degree from Central Saint Martins. As a PhD candidate at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, she is currently engaged in research on the connections between contemporary art practices and migration. She curated exhibitions in cities including Cologne, London, Amsterdam. Zsuró worked in major museums such as the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. She conducts research and presents her findings at international conferences and publications throughout Europe. Most recently, she curated a group exhibition ‘Along Common Borders’ at Art Quarter Budapest focused on social and political exclusions, co-funded by the European Parliament and Culture Action Europe. She was recently invited by UNESCO and ifa as an expert to advise in cultural policy-making. Zsuró is founder / co-organiser of platforms advocating for cross-cultural knowledge-sharing, diversity and social justice, including working title* and Critical Culture.
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Recommended Literature:
Heywood, Andrew (2015) Chapter 1 “What is Political Theory?” In Political Theory: An
Introduction 4th edition, Macmillan International Higher Education, pages 1-12
Kuba Szreder (2019) “Towards an Anti-Fascist International: A View from Central and Eastern Europe” https://internationaleonline.org/pl/contributions/towards-an-anti-fascist-international-a-view-from-ce
Vijay Prashad – Propositions for Non-Fascist Living – video statement (6 mins approx.)
Maria Hlavajova and Matteo Lucchetti – Propositions #1: What We Mean – opening remarks –
(07/10/2017)
Jane Tyjan and Mick Wilson (2024) “Violence: State Practice Editorial” PARSE Journal, Issue 15 - Autumn.
Judith Butler: The Force of Nonviolence - as part of Whitechapel Gallery Big Ideas series (23/07/2020)
Zaina Shreidi (2024) “Hungarian Independent Voices: Cultural Repression and Independent Resistance” Reset-Network
Artistic Freedom Initiative: Systematic Suppression. Hungary’s Arts and Culture in Crisis. 2022.
Slavoj Žižek “Which Idea of Europe is Worth Defending?” Crisis & Critique, Vol. 6, Issue 1.
Chantal Mouffe “Chantal Mouffe: Agonistic Democracy and Radical Politics” PAVILION
