Masks stood for solidarity and protection in the wake of the Covid 19 pandemic on the one hand, and were instrumentalised in conspiracy myths and so-called ›hygiene demos‹ to undermine democracy on the other. They reminded marginalised groups of ›silencing‹, oppression and suffering, but were also reinterpreted as ›empowering‹ and celebrated as part of different traditional cultures. In conversation with Lara Gross, curator Natasha A. Kelly presented the results of the first web residency at the LCB entitled Un_masking Difference and introduced the virtual workshop on the multi-layered and ambivalent meanings of masks. The essays produced in the workshop 2020 were collected in an eBook published by mikrotext Verlag.