"The question then arises, the real question: how do forms return [reviennent-elles], just as we say of ghosts. A Nietzschean question, a Freudian question, but also a Warburgian question par excellence: that of Nachleben, of the 'survival' of forms or visual 'formulas'. 
- Georges Didi-Huberman

Atlas of Forms is a collaborative project consisting of conversations - through and amongst images - investigating the transformation of forms in transnational visual culture. 

The first phase consisted of a chain conversation amongst six artists, who collected visual material related to the question of visual formulas in the cities where they live, each in response to the images of the previous artist. In order, the participating artists were: Elsa Leydier (Rio de Janeiro), Ewa Doroszenko (Warsaw), Zhao Qian (San Francisco/Shanghai), Samuel Solazzo (Weimar), Salvi Danés (Barcelona) and Giulia Parlato (Palermo/London). 
In the second phase, focused on the permeation of discourses and disciplines in the reading and understanding of images, six professionals from non-artistic disciplines were invited to curate and interpret the set of visual material created by the artists, put in relation to further archival material: Patrizia Batch (archivist), Lilian Gonzalez (linguist), Sara Dahme (teacher), Hugo Meder (physicist) and Michael Walorski (programmer). The result was displayed in a pop-up exhibition in Kunstgebäude during the festival days, and was collected in the ad-hoc Atlas of Forms website. 

Soft Power Palace is a festival and residency dedicated to European independent cultural spaces, some of which will come together for a short two-week residency to reflect on the future of cultural exchange. Five initiatives led by artists from Lyon, Milan, Barcelona, Sofia and Stuttgart will share their experiences as independent workers in the cultural sector, organising an exchange of curatorial skills and co-working. The aim of Soft Power Palace is to imagine the future of cultural exchange and the transregional connections that can be created beyond political and economic forces.









 Ardesia Projects (Milan), Aether Space (Sofia), Fireplace (Barcelona), GMBH (Stoccards) and ZZ Studio (Lyon) took part to the 2018 edition.