Since Degot took over the annual Steirischer Herbst in 2017, the Graz festival (founded in 1968 in opposition to nationalist rhetoric gaining traction at the time) has become a point of reference for how art can interact with a city and its politics. This year’s edition was speedily reworked in light of the pandemic. Paranoia TV, launched in September, is a slick online operation, packed with binge-worthy works that lived up to the curator’s promise of ‘Netflix but less lonely’. Ingo Niermann’s Deutsch Süd-Ost (2020), tracking a fictional future far-right coup, unfolds over 25 parts; Brazilian artist Tamar Guimarães (collaborating with Luisa Cavanagh and Rusi Millán Pastori) created an ‘anti-Bolsonaro-WhatsApp-Soap’ running for four episodes. The Graz public experienced physical works also, integrated into the public realm, from newspaper interventions (obituaries for outdated notions) by Sung Tieu, a soundwork by Lawrence Abu Hamdan hidden in crisp packets at local supermarkets and a broadcast on taxi radios by Janez Janša that imagines the European Football Championship if it hadn’t been postponed.

The ArtReview Power 100 is presented by BMW Group Culture