What is the relationship between art and politics today? Does engaged art production have an impact in the public, political sphere? How legible are visual messages in art and culture? Recently, increasingly ambiguous and undecided codes and signs have replaced a clear and distinct visual language. While some attribute this to the complexity of content and diversity of forms, others interpret it as a political strategy of refusal against instrumentalization. In recent years, the tone of art criticism has even gone so far as to elevate ambiguity to a hallmark of substantial art. The essays gathered in this publication critically question the phenomenon of "ambivalence" and examine its mechanisms and societal functions.