Culture is: Arts, Imagination and the Planetary Now
In a time of ecological collapse, political fragmentation, and growing inequality, culture is not a luxury – it is a necessity. Yet around the world, artists and cultural spaces are under threat: defunded, censored, co-opted, or erased entirely. In this moment of planetary crisis, the arts provide a language of relation, a tool for radical imagination, and a practice of care that transcends borders.
Culture shapes how we live, how we move through the world, and how we relate to the land and to each other. As civic and artistic freedoms shrink under the weight of nationalism, austerity, and extractive systems, we must ask not only how to defend cultural space – but how to expand it. What forms of solidarity, policy, and institutional rethinking are needed to sustain artistic communities across geographies? What does it mean to cultivate a planetary consciousness rooted in justice and imagination?
This evening at De Balie, in collaboration with the Prince Claus Fund, we’ll explore these questions together with Teesa Bahana (Director of 32° East | Ugandan Arts Trust), artist and architect Ola Hassanain, conceptual artist and photographer Rada Akbar and multimedia artist Gvantsa Jishkariani – asking how culture and artists can be agents of justice, care, and lasting change.
About the Prince Claus Fund
Prince Claus Fund is an independent foundation dedicated to culture and development. With trust-based funding, connections and recognition, we serve engaged artists and cultural practitioners in places where culture is under pressure. By creating a global network of changemakers and amplifying the ground-breaking work they do, we contribute to a more equitable, peaceful, sustainable and inclusive future. Because culture is a basic need.
About the speakers
Teesa Bahana has been leading the 32° East | Ugandan Arts Trust, an independent non-profit organisation and a key contemporary art space and in Kampala. Under her leadership, 32° East has been developing Uganda’s first purpose-built public art centre—with studios, gallery spaces, and a library. Bahana also initiated KLA ART Labs for artistic research and professional growth, and oversaw the third edition of the public art festival KLA ART. With an academic background in sociology and anthropology, she is particularly interested in the intersection between art and Ugandan society, and how artistic environments should be protected and nurtured. Bahana is also active internationally as a mentor and juror for programs such as RAW Academy, has been a part of the Prince Claus Fund Network for many years. She has been recognised in Apollo Magazine’s 40 Under 40 Africa and Art Africa’s 100+ Voices in the Global South.
Ola Hassanain is an artist, architect, and mentor of the Prince Claus Building Beyond Mentorship. She’s originally from Sudan and currently based in Utrecht, Netherlands. Herwork explores the subtle politics of space, specifically how built spaces can reflect and reproduce state power and consequently impact the lives of those who inhabit those spaces. Her most recent work looks into the idea of “space as discourse”, adding political and ecological dimensions to spatial design. Hassanain was a BAK Fellow (2017) and a resident at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten (2021–23), and teaches at HKU University of the Arts Utrecht and the Sandberg Institute. In 2018 she received a Prince Claus Fund Flexible Grant for her project Our Stakes in your Rhythm. Her projects have been presented at the Chicago Architecture Bienniale, Sharjah Architecture Triennial, and in exhibitions such as Workable Geographies (2022) and The Watcher (2025, Kunstinstituut Melly).
Gvantsa Jishkariani is a Georgian multimedia artist and curator based in Tbilisi, Georgia. In her work, she experiments with materials and expresses herself through artistic research, design, music, and performance. Jishkariani is inspired by Georgian cultural heritage, and attempts to re-examine Georgian history through her visual art. Her work investigates imprints left by the past and engages with the images and influences of today and tomorrow. Humour often features in her exploration of deeply personal and socially relevant topics. Jishkariani founded Patara Gallery (2017) and The Why Not Gallery (2018) in Tbilisi, curated for the Tbilisi Photo Festival (2017–19), and founded Georgia’s first online art and fashion magazine Gar-Gar (2013–18). She received the Prince Claus Seed Award (2021).
Rada Akbar is an Afghan conceptual artist and photographer known for her powerful feminist work, which celebrates Afghan women and challenges oppressive structures. Akbar focuses on re-examining history and gender equality in her country through her work in fashion, design and visual art. Between 2018 and 2021, she organised the annual art exhibition Abarzanan around International Women’s Day, featuring wearable artworks inspired by women who defied patriarchal limitations in Afghanistan. In 2021, after the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, Akbar escaped to Paris with support from the French government. Her work is being shown internationally, including in the group exhibition Before Silence: Afghan Artists in Exile (2022). In 2021, Akbar was rewarded the Prince Claus Seed Award for her artistic work.
