Populism: often blurred, sometimes defensive, rarely analytical. My bachelor’s thesis is a personal approach to the topic – with a particular focus on the right-wing spectrum.

I am interested in how language shifts social boundaries, how it excludes, exaggerates and simplifies. Populist language is not just a tool, but a driving force and more than just a political phenomenon. The transitions between populist rhetoric and openly racist statements are often fluid. Terms are shifted, meanings blurred, and boundaries moved. Populists manage to simplify complex social problems to the point where they seem understandable and tangible — at least at first glance.

That’s exactly what makes it so dangerous. Because whoever controls the language also controls the interpretation. And whoever controls the interpretation influences reality. I’m convinced that an effective way to counter this dynamic is to actively engage with it. With language. The patterns. With the stylistic devices that are deliberately used to polarize, emotionalize and suppress complexity.

I have made the results of this exploration spatially accessible. The exhibition offers an insight into my research, my thoughts and the complex structure of populist language. It is an attempt to make the underlying structures visible and understandable.

For my exhibition, I went through all of my research material once more: notes, sketches, fragments of thought. From this, I developed a spatial concept that makes central terms and linguistic patterns visible and brings the ideological principles of right-wing populist rhetoric into a tangible context. The space itself functions like an oversized note — a walk-in world of thoughts in which my exploration unfolds not only through content but also through the process behind it.

The content structure of the exhibition follows the two key areas of my research: the foundations of populism and the linguistic strategies. I translated this division spatially, creating two thematic areas. The concept is complemented by a central banner featuring a striking quote — a moment of condensation that distills the noise of populist rhetoric into a single point. Instead of traditional exhibition texts, the content is conveyed through a notebook-style design: handwritten comments, highlights, arrows. A deliberately subjective approach – open, multidimensional and without a fixed direction.

Photos by Felix Vatterodt.