The cartography of genocide
ARCHITECTURE: Israeli Eyal Weizman is the founder and director of Forensic Architecture – a research group that uses architecture as an approach to investigating state violence and human rights violations. The group collaborates with artists, architects, researchers, lawyers and journalists – and sometimes with a court. Their main areas of work are Palestine and now Gaza.
The reconstruction of Gaza
LANYARD: We speak with Yahya Sarraj. Since 2019, he has had the least desirable job in the world: He is the mayor of Gaza City. In recent months, they have been preparing the plan “The Gaza Phoenix” for reconstruction – together with specialists not only from Palestine, but also from European, American and other Arab countries. A plan that was unanimously approved by all 25 municipalities in the Gaza Strip. “The Gaza Phoenix” is neither Hamas nor Fatah.
Thinking with the eyes
PROFILE: Chantal Akerman opens a cinematic space without demands for productivity. Her idiom is that of the auteur, where she has full artistic control over and ownership of the films. In her cinematic philosophy, time is a form where time seemingly stands still. And what does Christine Smallwood say about her work? MODERN TIMES has been on exhibition – and has read.
People want to be 'safe'
POLICY: In a time when right-wing radicals create false security in connection with myths about nation and family, the left must also learn to speak to emotions. It matters little whether one is right; one must also appeal to people's emotions. Our vulnerability needs a language that politicians understand.
The fire that burns old worlds
ESSAY: In Europe, around 500 versions of the fairy tale Cinderella have been recorded. The film Cinderella is not only about being queer, but also about how identity is controlled. And hence what 'archive' one has at their disposal.
A story of ideas that is dynamic and wild like a big cat?
PHILOSOPHY: About feminist pioneers, the hypocrisy of academia, and the lasting legacy of prejudice in Western philosophy.
A militarized society
ISRAEL: The Center for Research Architecture, CRA, has developed a unique laboratory for forensic architecture with an interdisciplinary team of researchers, architects, academics, visual artists, and journalists. This is a new field of research where state violence and systemic racism are viewed with new scenarios.
Green misconceptions about sustainable development
ENVIRONMENT: While politicians either downplay the climate crisis or focus on illusory sustainability, Kohei Saito shows what both reinforces the eco-crisis and social inequality – exemplified through "Jevons' paradox" and the "Netherlands error".
Will the next pandemic be a bioweapon?
BIOWEAPONS: The combination of astonishing historical facts and compelling analyses of science policy makes medical professor Stig S. Frøland's book on biological warfare a compelling reading experience. For example, good death microbes should have high mortality, preferably be paralyzing, have a high infectiousness, be easy to produce and suitable for creating fear.
Habermas' new conversation book
PHILOSOPHY: Jürgen Habermas' growing interest in religion in this new conversation book can be interpreted as a symptom that the concept of rationality with which he initially operated was too narrow. Today, philosophy and religion, as well as psychology and a number of other sciences, are struggling to understand or redefine the incomprehensible in our lifeworld.
Our Destiny: Climate Policy When It's Too Late
CLIMATE CHANGE: The long coming heat could mean that our children and grandchildren will have to live underground to survive. What do we do about the crisis that has definitely become a consequence of limited or no action?
A writer's view of the world
COMMUNISM: How many value-motivated 'descriptions' does this author actually make about the history of communism? Read for yourself.
The Golden Age of Crises
CONTEMPORARY: Zeiten Ende is a complaint about the current lack of vision. But what about one of Harald Welzer's suggestions for improvement: 80 percent salary for professionals and 20 percent for social activities or volunteer work?
L as in lesbian, love and literature
WOMEN: Lesbians are the heroes of Diana Souham's book. It is about the development of French modernism. Lesbian women in the early 1900th century were interested in developing, contributing to, and supporting literary modernism in an attempt to break with patriarchy. Paris was like an asylum for sexual refugees.
"Democracy is no obstacle to atrocities."
CARTOON: Like other Western journalists, Sacco was not allowed to visit Gaza, but his book is poignant enough. Here we can see the American rhetoric of moderating the IDF's actions, protecting hospitals and civilians, standing in stark contrast to the continued flow of weapons designed to destroy the Gaza Strip.
Stop the wars – strengthen international law
FRED: Declaration of Peace, adopted by acclamation during the Lay Down Your Arms conference on February 9, 2025 at the House of Literature in Oslo.
The battle for world domination
DENMARK: The Danes have also largely adopted the "American Way of Life" with the entire "buy and throw away consumer culture." With today's geopolitical shift, a European political project should be formulated.
The foreign heart
PHILOSOPHY: The book The Uninvited was the beginning of a new essayistic writing practice, where themes such as body, touch, skin, religion, faith, city, wandering, painting and film would leave their mark. Should one make room for the uninvited?
The Maidan events are the key to understanding the war in Ukraine
UKRAINE: Is it Russia that was the aggressor in Ukraine, while the West supported Ukraine's struggle for freedom? Or is it the West that was the aggressor, while Russia supported Ukraine's elected government?
Grandfather was a torturer
VIOLENCE: Max Rook was a monster, a monstrosity – someone who enjoyed seeing others suffer. Kristin Aalen wanted to get under the skin of the "torturer", to find out what motivations he might have.
"It's just dark, gray and completely, completely dead."
GAZA: Never before in history, anywhere in the world, have so many children had to have an arm or leg amputated as in Gaza. Here, Katrin Glatz Brubakk became responsible for a psychosocial team of ten psychologists, counselors and social workers.
World Wilderness Congress
ENVIRONMENT: What might wilderness mean to indigenous people who are deprived of it in the United States – or, in parallel, to lions who are fenced off and deprived of the opportunity to live wild in the wilderness of South Africa?
Nobel Peace Prize to South Africa!
FRED: Awarding the Peace Prize to South Africa could be part of a necessary settlement with the less peaceful role Norway has internationally – after, among other things, the attack on Libya.
Angela's dark side
GERMANY: Alternative sources can challenge Merkel's polished self-image. For example, the closeness to the GDR regime in terms of both herself and her father. The message is that Angela Merkel has destroyed the CDU and is responsible for the political, economic and cultural problems Germany is currently struggling with. Much of the criticism from the right also touches on the Stasi. Merkel has underemphasised the collaboration between herself and the GDR regime.
Censorship from two sides
Freedom of expression is the last barrier against the dominance of media moguls.