Political Speed Dating – Listening as a Radical Practice
The action artists from Radikale Töchter are guests at this year’s European Forum Alpbach and want to talk to you. The goal: Alpbach as a village of humanity, understanding, and connection. Together with the residents of Alpbach, the guests, and the scholarship holders of the European Forum Alpbach 2025, we are reinventing political discourse and celebrating listening as a radical practice.
In times of global upheaval, fragmentation, and polarisation, trust between people is dwindling. All too often, we think we already know what others are thinking – and we divide ourselves along political lines. Because of this inner exhaustion and this outer withdrawal, many people long for deeper connection and orientation.
When everything is getting faster and faster and has to move quickly – opinions, solutions, positions – Radikale Töchter invites you to slow down. Instead of giving hasty answers, we ask questions, uncomfortable, challenging, perhaps provocative questions. These are questions that invite you to pause and listen.
It is not only talking that is political, but above all listening. How can we truly encounter each other in a divided society if we no longer listen to each other; if we formulate answers in our heads while still speaking – instead of letting the space between us take effect?
This intervention is a game: we ask each other questions – not to convince, but to understand; not to argue, but to remain curious. We philosophise, try things out, and engage with answers that are allowed to remain open.
Some suggestions on how to play:
Version 1 – Classic Speed Dating
- Two people stand or sit opposite each other.
- One person asks one questions (e. g., from the beer mat or poster).
- The other person answers, without being interrupted, for one minute.
- They switch roles.
- They briefly share what surprised or moved them.
Version 2 – The Listening Experiment
- One person talks for two minutes.
- The other person just listens – without searching for counterarguments in their mind. Try to really understand how the world looks from the other person’s perspective.
- Try to repeat the narrating person’s perspective in such a way that they recognise themselves in it.
Let’s practice listening together – without immediately contradicting each other. Listening as a political, artistic, and human practice.
About Radikale Töchter
Since 2019, Radikale Töchter have been inspiring bold and unconventional forms of political participation through their workshops. By combining action, art and civic engagement, their practice aims to spark momentum – and to show how accessible it can be to get involved. Their goal: to ignite a critical mass of young people passionate about democracy, human rights, social justice – and the values of liberty, equality and solidarity.
As part of EFA25, Radikale Töchter will be present throughout the village with a subtle but unmistakable artistic presence. In line with the annual theme “Recharge Europe”, they create moments that invite pause, reflection and action.
Radikale Töchter invite us to remain present – and to make space for the unexpected.