War – what is it good for? Exploring the impacts of war and conflict on societies, cultures and creativity
Light in the darkest of times Journalist and war correspondent David Pratt explores the power of the arts to ignite optimism and harness the imagination for good even in the bleakest times.
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ar is strange in that it brings a desire to forget and to remember in equal measure. For decades now as a reporter I have witnessed the impact of conflict to the point where its bloody eccentricities have shaped my own life. From besieged and anarchic cities to remote deserts, mountains and jungles I have been appalled and inspired by what war elicits from those caught in its midst. I recall once during some of Afghanistan’s most violent days how rival warlords and their militias battled for control of the capital, Kabul. During this maelstrom, the city’s Marastoon mental asylum had been abandoned by its staff, and its patients left to fend for themselves. Expecting the worst I arrived at the institution’s open gates and cautiously ventured inside to find myself confronted with an unexpected scene. All around me, the asylum’s blind, disabled and mentally ill patients had taken to running their own lives, cooking, baking bread and helping each other in whatever way they could. Among the patients were artists and musicians, some of whom were reciting Persian poetry or providing soothing, reassuring musical entertainment by playing flutes and the traditional stringed tambur. It was the sanest place in the city. Here was a calming contemplative sanctuary in total contrast to the sadistic madness that had taken hold on the streets outside. Art takes on a special resonance in such times, etching its melodies, lyrics, words and images indelibly on hearts and minds. In wartime the firing line is often invisible but passes through the hearts of those caught up in its horrors. Never was there anyone who made me realise this more than an elderly Bosnian woman called Safeta Kovasević. Seventy-five-years-old when we met, Safeta was my landlady in the city of Sarajevo just after the war there in 1996. She was a Muslim and her husband was a Serb. Their love of music and literature had brought them together and was only surpassed by their devotion to each other.
For almost three years the couple had survived the Sarajevo siege. Despite their age, they would often risk life and limb by dodging the snipers and shells to listen to Vedran Smailović. Dubbed the ‘Cellist of Sarajevo’ Smailović captured the imagination of people across the world by playing regularly in the besieged city’s ruins. His recitals became a symbol of Sarajevo’s defiance and determination never to succumb to the terror and barbarism at its gates. ‘His playing was our escape from the hunger, guns and cruelty, it was a light in the darkest of times,’ Safeta would later tell me one day at her apartment on the city’s Kulina Bana Street, as we listened to a recording of Albinoni’s Adagio in G Minor – ‘Sarajevo’s Adagio’ – that had become Smailović’s signature tune. During those war years Safeta would lose her husband, two sons and a daughter to the bullets and bombs that rained down on the city, but never flinched in her belief that art had the power to transcend hardship and hatred. ‘Men die for a home, not for walls and tables. Men die for a cathedral, not for stones. Men die for a people, not for a mob... Men die only for that by which they live,’ wrote the French author, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, of his experiences during the Spanish Civil War. Like any artist, Saint-Exupéry believed that literature, painting, music, theatre and dance, has the power to ignite optimism and harness the imagination for good even in the bleakest times. In this, a year in which we commemorate the outbreak of the First World War and conflicts rage across the globe from Syria to Somalia, it is also a belief that lies at the very heart of this year’s Edinburgh International Festival. David Pratt is Foreign Editor of The Herald / Sunday Herald and as a correspondent has covered conflicts across the world for almost three decades.
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A cultural catalyst for change International political activist and South Sudanese rapper Emmanuel Jal gives a very personal insight into the potential for art and culture to have a positive impact on the people of war-ravaged nations in the 21st century.
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ulture is the DNA of the people but it adapts with time as it borrows from the influences of the moment. From my experiences, being born in a war torn country where I ended up becoming a child soldier, I saw over time our traditional values fade away as the war took over and engaged us all. It was hard to follow the traditional way of life when the government and the rebels were both actively destroying it. In fact in the 1980s one of the aims of the Sudanese government was to undermine the faith, practices and culture of the South in order to legitimize their actions. They were taking the resources but not educating or empowering the people from those areas. They validated their actions by saying that we were ‘non believers’ (non-Muslim) and were lazy. Instead they stripped us of our human rights and started to ethnically cleanse the tribes from the Southern states. Sadly, conflicts are still occurring despite us becoming an independent state, whereby those with power and knowledge are destroying my country by exploiting those who don’t know. I hope this will change with access to education amongst the masses.
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As an artist, I believe that music can be a catalyst for change. This is still quite an alien concept back at home, mainly because the influence of art, music and culture has been eroded away by decades of war. However I still use it as a tool to try and unite my people, to help empower them and spread a message of peace. I want to show them that it’s not just the government or army generals that can create change but that it can come from us. I feel art is a positive, alternative route, which speaks to us on a spiritual level, free of politics and conflict. I use my music and voice as a means to make young people thing socially and emotionally about issues bigger than themselves. I hope they can learn from my story and experiences to stop some of my nightmares becoming a reality again. Emmanuel Jal will give this year’s Edinburgh International Festival Young People’s Lecture The Hub, Thursday 21 August 4.30pm, £6, eif.co.uk/emmanueljal. He will also join artist Brett Bailey and Dr Tarak Barkawi to discuss War, Atrocities and the Truth at The Hub, Wednesday 20 August 2.30pm, £6, eif.co.uk/cultureandconflict (see pages 10 & 12 for details).
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Photo Dave Watts
Culture and conflict This year’s Festival talks programme brings together international academics and commentators to explore the themes, issues and debates around the impacts of war into the 21st century. Military historian and academic Sir Hew Strachen looks at some of the highlights in this year’s programme.
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uch more than the Second World War, the First World War is inherently controversial. How it began, how it was fought, how it ended – on none of these issues is there consensus, and they are as contested among academics as among the wider public. However, controversy is not just divisive; it can also be a means to understanding. In the 2014 Festival some of the war’s most distinguished scholars will address the principal debates. A Canadian, Margaret MacMillan, the author of The war that ended peace, will describe how Europe, seemingly luxuriating in order and prosperity, went to war. An Englishman, David Stevenson, whose most recent book on the conflict focused on 1918, will turn our intention to the armistice. Both are international historians, but the war also defined national identities. Those of Australia and New Zealand were forged at Gallipoli, an operation whose ambition was undermined by the poverty of its execution, as Robin Prior, a military historian and himself an Australian, will describe. Scotland’s shipbuilding and munitions industries were more
important to the allies’ war effort than its military contribution, and, William Kenefick will stress, it was that experience which proved formative for the Labour party and the trades unions movement. As a further reminder that the war was fought in many places as well as in France, Mark Thompson, author of The White War, will take us to the mountains of the Italian front. Precisely because its history is so riddled with ambiguity the First World War provides a launch-pad from which to examine the more intractable and persistent questions of war and peace, from Hugo Slim on the killing of civilians to Joanna Bourke on the participation of women, from war’s legitimation of violence to the paradox of its cultural stimulus. Lord Richards, the immediate past Chief of the British Defence Staff and the NATO commander in Afghanistan in 2006, will talk about a subject on which he is uniquely qualified, current operations. Sir Adam Roberts, who has just retired as President of the British Academy, will address the lessons to be learnt about peace-making from 1919, and Alan Kramer will consider the legacy of ‘total war’ for the rest of the 20th century. His Dublin colleague and co-author, John Horne, will urge us to commemorate the war’s centenary in ways that rise above national narratives. There can be no more important theme for an international festival than that. Sir Hew Strachen looks at High Command in War on Sunday 10 August, 2.30pm (see page 8 for details) Find out more about the full programme of talks and events during this year’s Festival on pages 8–11 or visit eif.co.uk/cultureandconflict
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All talks take place at The Hub Tickets £6* eif.co.uk/cultureandconflict
Culture and Conflict: The War that Ended Peace Professor Margaret MacMillan from the University of Oxford, and Great grand-daughter of David Lloyd George, argues that in 1914 after a sustained period of peace, Europe walked into a catastrophic conflict that killed millions, bled its economies dry, shook empires and undermined the continent’s dominance of the world. Saturday 9 August 2.30pm
First World War: Re-thinking the Centenary Professor John Horne is Professor of Modern European History at Trinity College Dublin. The talk is chaired by Professor Donald Bloxham from the University of Edinburgh, and former research director at the Holocaust Educational Trust. Professor Horne argues that we need to overcome national limitations to see the war for what it was. Saturday 9 August 5.00pm
High Command in War Sir Hew Strachan from All Souls College, Oxford, has spent his career looking at military history and strategies with a particular interest in the First World War. A published author on the subject, he argues that British debate is too focused on command and demonising the generals. Chaired by Trevor Royle, historian, broadcaster and author. Sunday 10 August 2.30pm
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The Culture of Violence in the Twentieth Century Professor of European History at Trinity College Dublin, Alan Kramer’s research focuses on war crimes, prisoners of war and the relationship between soldiers and civilians during the First World War. Here he asks if atrocities committed during the war were exceptional or represent a broader culture of violence. Sunday 10 August 5.00pm
Quartet for the End of Time Messiaen’s masterpiece was composed during his time in the German prisoner of war camp Stalag VII-A. It was first performed in the camp in 1941 to an audience of prisoners and guards. Professor Peter Hill from the University of Sheffield, who is a pianist who studied with Messiaen, talks about the work. Monday 11 August 12 noon
Oliver Messiaen, 1930 Photo Bibliothèque nationale de France; Wikimedia Commons
Talks
Culture and Conflict Randall Stevenson, Professor of Twentieth-Century Literature at the University of Edinburgh, leads a discussion on the cultural impact of war and how it influenced poetry, theatre and fiction from the 19th to 20th centuries. Monday 11 August 5.00pm
The War Requiem A discussion on Benjamin Britten’s celebrated choral work and its controversial political context, first performed when Coventry Cathedral was reopened in 1962 following its total destruction by the Luftwaffe in 1940. With international relations expert Sir Adam Roberts from Oxford University, tenor Ian Bostridge and Matthew Studdert-Kennedy.
Gallipoli: The End of the Myth Dr Robin Prior from the University of Adelaide is an academic and published author with books examining the Somme, the First World War and Churchill. During this talk, he looks at Gallipoli, the First World War campaign involving troops from Australia and New Zealand. Wednesday 13 August 5.00pm
Tuesday 12 August 2.30pm
Objecting to War Professor of Politics at the University of Oxford Martin Ceadel’s work explores the politics of war prevention. In this talk he examines the roots of the term ‘pacifism’ and its uses – from conscientious objection to war weariness and defeatism. Tuesday 12 August 5.00pm
Contemporary Military Operations – Risks and Responsibilities The former Chief of the Defence Staff, the professional head of the British Armed Forces, General The Lord Richards of Herstmonceux served in the Far East, Germany, Northern Ireland and Sierre Leone. During this talk, chaired by Sir Hew Strachan of the University of Oxford, he looks at military operations. Thursday 14 August 2.30pm
The First World War and Australia’s Rise to Nationhood The Governor of New South Wales, Professor The Honourable Marie Bashir examines the social and political environment of Australia in the years immediately prior to the First World War.
The Road to 11 November David Stevenson, Professor of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science, will analyse the lead up to the ceasefire in 1918. Chaired by Professor Donald Bloxham, University of Edinburgh.
Wednesday 13 August 2.30pm Thursday 14 August 5.00pm
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Owen Wingrave: Ghosts of Tradition The role of the conscientious objector and the tradition of soldiering in both world wars is discussed by the Director of Aldeburgh Music’s Owen Wingrave and Dr Heather Jones, specialist in First World War studies.
War, Atrocities and the Truth Artist Brett Bailey, Dr Tarak Barkawi and Emmanuel Jal, South Sudanese musician and former child soldier, discuss how war destroys truths and lives. Chaired by journalist Robert Dawson Scott. Wednesday 20 August 2.30pm
Monday 18 August 2.30pm
From Red Clydeside to Radical Scotland
Beacon of Light: The new Edinburgh International Festival and the arts in post-war Society
Dr William Kenefick, Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Edinburgh and previously an off-shore oil worker argues there was a ‘real Red Clyde’ an era of political radicalism in Glasgow which strongly influenced the Labour movement in Scotland.
Dr Angela Bartie talks with Lloyd Anderson, Director of the British Council Scotland, about the origins and development of the Edinburgh International Festival and its role in promoting international dialogue and improving cultural relations after the Second World War.
Monday 18 August 5.00pm
Thursday 21 August 2.30pm
Women and the Killing Fields: Femininity and War Professor of History at Birkbeck College, Joanna Bourke’s research has encompassed working class history, gender history, war and masculinity. During this discussion, she explores the roles women play in and near to the killing fields of the 20th century. Tuesday 19 August 2.30pm
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front Award-winning historian and author Mark Thompson and Professor Joseph Farrell, University of Strathclyde explore the First World War on the Italian Front. Tuesday 19 August 5.00pm
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A Century on the Edge: From Cold War to Hot World, 1945–2045 In the years starting with the nuclear age in 1945, have Cold War nuclear lessons really been learnt and can we learn to live within our world wide limits? A talk by Paul Rogers, Professor of Peace Studies, University of Bradford. Chaired by Dr Andrea Birdsall, Lecturer in International Relations, University of Edinburgh. Wednesday 27 August 5.00pm
How War Reporting has Changed: A Century On The BBC’s Chief International correspondent Lyse Doucet and BBC Middle East correspondent Orla Guerin reflect on how war reporting has changed since the First World War. Friday 22 August 2.30pm
Killing Civilians Leading international academic in humanitarian studies, Dr Hugo Slim from the University of Oxford discusses civilian suffering in recent conflicts with Jennifer Welsh, Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford. They are joined by Judith Robertson, former Head of Oxfam Scotland. Tuesday 26 August 2.30pm
The Peace to End Peace Sir Adam Roberts looks at the lessons that were learned, and not learned, from ‘the War to End War’ resulting in the disastrous 1919 Treaty of Versailles. Chaired by Christine Bell, Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Edinburgh. Wednesday 27 August 2.30pm
University of Edinburgh Lex Pacificatoria: Using Law to End Wars A member of numerous peace negotiation discussions, Professor Christine Bell looks at the rise of negotiated settlements as a tool for ending contemporary wars and the legal, political and moral controversies that those settlements cause. Chaired by Professor Dorothy Miell, Vice Principal and Head of the College of Humanities and Social Science. Thursday 28 August 2.30pm eif.co.uk/university
University of Edinburgh Scotland in the Soft Power Era A discussion hosted by the Centre for Cultural Relations at the University of Edinburgh, led by Director Charlie Jeffery, on the complex relationship between conflict and culture. With Professor Chris Breward, Vice Principal Creative Industries and Performing Arts, Professor Antonella Sorace, Professor of Developmental Linguistics, and Professor John Holden, cultural relations expert. Thursday 28 August 5.00pm eif.co.uk/university
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Festival Insights
Edinburgh International Festival Young People’s Lecture: Emmanuel Jal International political activist and South Sudanese rapper Emmanuel Jal discusses his life as a child soldier, surviving unbelievable struggles before emerging as a recording artist and achieving worldwide acclaim for his unique style of hip hop.
All Festival Insights take place at The Hub Tickets £6*
Thursday 21 August 4.30pm
THE DEMOCRATIC SET: Back to Back Theatre and Lung Ha’s Theatre Company Australia’s Back to Back Theatre and Edinburghbased Lung Ha’s Theatre Company have worked together on THE DEMOCRATIC SET residency, a rapid series of short live performances and screen-based video portraits. In this discussion and screening event, the two companies talk about the project and the finished film. Director Bruce Gladwin also answers questions about his ground-breaking production Ganesh Versus the Third Reich. Monday 11 August 2.30pm eif.co.uk/democraticset
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Bitter Music: Harry Partch’s diary with David Moss Bitter Music is the rediscovered diary of Harry Partch’s seven-month travels as a tramp and day labourer. Accompanying the staging of his last great opera Delusion of the Fury during the Festival, this chronicle offers insights into the beginnings of the uncompromising artist that he became. American percussionist and vocal virtuoso David Moss presents part of this musical text in a lecture performance. Friday 29 August 2.30pm eif.co.uk/bittermusic
Delusion of the Fury Photo Wonge Bergmann
Ganesh Versus the Third Reich Photo Jeff Busby
eif.co.uk/emmanueljal
War on Film All films take place at The Hub Tickets £6* eif.co.uk/films
The Burmese Harp Dir. Kon Ichikawa / 1956 / 116 mins / 12A The Burmese Harp is set within the final days of the Second World War and tells the story of Private Mizushima, the harp player of Captain Inouye’s group of soldiers who fight and sing to raise morale.
Presented in association with Filmhouse
Saturday 23 August 5.30pm
Talk: Permanent Post-War Cinema?
Joyeux Noël
Did the end of the Second World War mark a turning point in cinema? This talk by Edinburgh International Film Festival Artistic Director Chris Fujiwara asks if it is possible to speak of a permanent post-war cinema. Sunday 24 August 12 noon
Dir. Christian Carion / 2005 / 116 mins / 12A Joyeux Noël is a French film that retells the true story of the impromptu Christmas truce declared by French, Scottish and German troops in the trenches of the First World War. Sunday 24 August 2.30pm
Come and See Dir. Elem Klimov / 1985 / 142 mins / 15 Come and See is a psychological thriller set during the Nazi occupation of the Belorussian SSR. A young boy finds an air rifle and joins the Soviet Army and is thrust into the atrocities of war. Ran
Sunday 24 August 5.00pm
Ran Dir. Akira Kurosawa / 1985 / 160 mins / 15 Based on Shakespeare’s King Lear, Ran tells the story of Hidetora Ichimonji, an aging Sengoku-era warlord who decides to abdicate his throne in favour of his three sons Taro, Jiro and Saburo. Saturday 23 August 2.30pm
The Tin Drum Dir. Volker Schlöndorff / 1979 / 142 mins / 15 The Tin Drum is a film adaptation of Günter Grass’s surreal black comedy novel set in Danzig during the Second World War. Protagonist Oskar Matzerath is given a tin drum on his third birthday and decides he does not want to grow up in the senseless world he sees around him. Sunday 24 August 7.45pm
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Night and Fog
Hunger
Dir. Alain Resnais / 1955 / 32 mins / 15 Filmmaker Alain Resnais recorded the abandoned grounds of Auschwitz ten years after the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps. The documentary shows the footage from the camps overlaid with voiceovers of the prisoners’ experiences.
Dir. Steve McQueen / 2008 / 96 mins / 15 British artist and Oscar winner Steve McQueen’s film debut Hunger is a historical drama that follows life in the Maze Prison, Northern Ireland, with the events surrounding Bobby Sands’ 1981 IRA hunger strike. Monday 25 August 5.30pm
Monday 25 August 2.30pm
Darfur Dir. Uwe Boll / 2009 / 98 mins / 15 Darfur tells the story of a group of Western journalists in Sudan who visit a small village to gather footage and interviews in the hope of reporting on the violence they have seen. Monday 25 August 7.30pm
The Producers Image courtesy mptvimages.com
Dance
The Producers
Escaping War: Bal Moderne
Dir. Mel Brooks / 1968 / 88 mins / PG Mel Brooks’ brilliant and hilarious cult classic musical set in the late 1960s tells the story of an accountant and producer who set out to make a Broadway flop that despite their best efforts turns out to be a huge success.
An immersive dance experience with archival footage and live music inspired by the songs and dances of wartime Europe. Dress up in period clothes and join the singers, ensemble musicians and participatory dance specialists Bal Moderne to experience wartime era dance culture.
Monday 25 August 3.30pm
Speech-to-Text Reported British Sign Language * A transaction fee of £1 will be added to all bookings, with an additional 80p charge for tickets sent by post
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Designed for people with no experience of dance, each has a different theme… so dress up, come along and experience the joy and escapism of dancing during turbulent times! Friday 15 August, Saturday 16 August & Sunday 17 August 2.30pm The Hub, Tickets £6* eif.co.uk/balmoderne
Where conversations happen... Conversations with Artists
The Hub Tickets £6* 45 minutes approximately *Fees apply
For more information visit eif.co.uk/conversations
10 – 29 August
Supported by Gordon Fraser Charitable Trust
Photo Stuart Armitt
Fiery Festival Finale! Festival 2014 concludes with a spectacular concert, with fireworks launched from Edinburgh’s iconic Castle to music by Wagner, Beethoven, Debussy and Mendelssohn, concluding with Tchaikovsky’s electrifying 1812 Overture, performed live by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
Virgin Money Fireworks Concert Sunday 31 August 9.00pm eif.co.uk/virginmoneyfireworks Sponsored by
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