In the first part of the evening, filmmaker Klaus Stern will give a brief insight into the conflict surrounding the construction of the A 49 highway based on his film as part of a keynote speech. The construction of the A 49 and the partial clearing of the Dannenröder Forest has caused a nationwide stir in recent years. The debates surrounding the A 49 are exemplary of the disputes between various interest groups that repeatedly accompany the expansion of infrastructure in Germany. In the documentary film Die Autobahn - Kampf um die A 49 from 2022, both supporters of the freeway and long-standing staunch opponents, militant squatters as well as representatives of the police and politicians, have their say. At the end of 2020, one of the largest police operations in the history of Hesse ended the occupation of the forest. In March of this year, the last section of the highway between Schwalmstadt-Stadtallendorf Nord-Ohmtal, which begins in Kassel, was inaugurated.

In the second part, Oliver Elser will present the exhibition "Protest Architectures. Barricades, Camps, Superglue" from 2024, Oliver Elser will present this international architectural phenomenon, which was also used in the peaceful occupation of the Dannenröder Forest by means of tree houses, which were cleared by the police at the end of 2020. Protest architectures are counter-worlds within a society. Protest movements transform places for purposes of blocking, marking and defending spaces. The French philosopher Michel Foucault spoke of heteropias as "actually realized utopias". The protesters' bodies can already be used as a means by occupying spaces and forming human barricades. However, improvised structures are also often created as protection from the weather and state power, as places of autonomy and mainstays of protest movements - whether in Hesse, on the Maidan or in Gezi Park.

As always, the two presentations will be followed by a discussion, moderated by Philipp Oswalt.