Let's talk about not talkingLet's talk about not talking

How do we make art together when we do not agree, and when some things cannot be said at all?

Let's Talk About Not Talking is a research and discourse project by the choreographer Reut Shemesh, the visual and multimedia artist Mona Kakanj and the dramaturg Matthias Quabbe, coordinated by Sabina Stücker.

Political ruptures and fast, digitally amplified debates have polarised society, and the art world with it: in how teams talk to each other, in how work is made, and in how it is received. Artists are expected to take a stand, especially those linked to certain events through biography, origin or religion. The line between the private person and the public artist disappears. Ambivalence that stays ambivalent, and description without taking sides, have become hard positions to hold.

The project starts from speechlessness: situations in which contact is avoided, conversations stop and nothing is exchanged, out of fear of hurting or being hurt. Its question is how dissent, contradiction and conflict can become a source of artistic strength instead of personal damage. Consensus is not the goal.

Between April and October 2026 the team collected positions in conversations with artists, curators, facilitators and partners, and tested them in a gathering at Ringlokschuppen Ruhr in August 2026. The quotes on this page come from that process.

How it unfolded

Research

Reut Shemesh · Mona Kakanj · Matthias Quabbe

Coordination

Sabina Stücker

E-mail

talking@reutshemesh.com

Drawings

Mona Kakanj

Gathering

Ringlokschuppen Ruhr, Mülheim an der Ruhr, August 2026

Design & Realisation

Florian Egermann

With

everyone who talked, and everyone who chose not to

Drawings by Mona Kakanj. Quotes are taken from conversation notes, transcripts, the minutes of 14 August 2026 and written feedback. They were shortened and lightly edited and keep the language they were spoken in. Some speakers are known only through the notes of the person they spoke with.