Montage or fake news? From Heartfield to Twitter

The question posed by the title is rhetorical: there is no contradiction between montage and fake news. This is a troubling thought in light of John Heartfield's (1891-1969) political photomontages and today's political situation, where right-wing thinking and actions pose a real threat. Does the repositioning of the classical montage technique in visual art, film, music, and theater, in relation to their contemporary counterparts in the age of social media, have anything to do with lost and newly activatable utopias? The technique of photomontage – generally understood as cutting and assembling existing photographs published in mass media – was already a practice of staging in its pioneering days, incorporating newly created shots, retouching, and overpainting. Can we speak of the farewell of photomontage as a historical technique in light of digital images and their media mediation? Or does the formal principle of deconstruction and construction continue with expanded technical means? How have the mechanisms of effect and circulation of images changed? What new artistic forms can act as enlightening forces in our affect-laden societies? Have the increasingly sprawling memes become today's viral montage medium? What role do the images of terror, for example in propaganda videos of the so-called Islamic State, play in the immediate present? What should we remember and question in this context?.