Kultur Magazine 20: 2010 by Goethe-Institut Australia

edition 20 magazine of the Goethe-Institut in AustraliA

APRIL 2010

02: audi festival of german films

08: BEYOND EUROPE: EXCHANGING CULTURE 16: FOCUS ON PHOTOGRAPHY and NEW MEDIA 22: ON STAGE 26: calendar of events

edition 20 magazine of the Goethe-Institut in AustraliA

Herzlich Willkommen Now in its 9th year, the Festival of German Films is very proud to once again carry the name of its main sponsor AUDI and continues to enjoy the invaluable support of our trusted family of partners. We welcome Schwarzkopf as our new ‘beauty sponsor’ and look forward to a touch of glamour during the festival, which will also go to Adelaide for the first time and thus become truly national. The impressive line-up features a Golden Globe winner, an Oscar nominee, some major blockbusters and, most of all, the challenging and thought-provoking films our audiences have come to expect from the Goethe-Institut. To make the festival even more accessible, we have structured the line-up into themes — and will bring you German Currents, Berlin Based films and Culinary Comedies, bound to whet your appetite. On 12 January, the European National Institutes of Culture (EUNIC) in Sydney joined the growing number of EUNIC clusters worldwide and agreed to cooperate more closely. kultur takes up the theme and reports on both matters of arts funding in different organisations as well as European issues. Our focus on photography and new media reflects one of the focuses of our work over the past years. Next to film, it is possibly the art of photography that best transports viewers into a foreign culture as well as into the mind and spirit of the artists who dare to share their world view with us. As always, we welcome your feedback on the magazine and on all our events across the country. Please write to us at kultur@sydney.goethe.org Viel Vergnügen und bis bald! Klaus Krischok

APRIL 2010

2010 AUDI FESTIVAL OF GERMAN FILMS Introducing: A Wealth of German Cinema

Peter Krausz

Festival Program Meet: Sönke Wortmann European Film Academy

Marion Döring and Rania Ghandour

In Profile Schwarzkopf BEYOND EUROPE — EXCHANGING CULTURE Australia Council for the Arts Meets the Goethe-Institut Klaus Krischok meets Kathy Keele Martin Portus meets Hans-Georg Knopp Alliance Française

Joanna Jouin

Instituto Cervantes

Isidoro Castellanos Vega

Ruhr.2010 — European Capital of Culture

Katja Assmann

Städel Collection: Your Passport to Europe

Ted Gott

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FOCUS ON PHOTOGRAPHY and NEW MEDIA Heidi Specker/Theo Deutinger: 16: Help Me — I am Blind!

Suzanne Davies and Evelyn Tsitas

Matthias Harder

Mark McPherson

:02 Zeitgeist Becomes Form :05 17: Lauren Stadler :06 18: Helmut Newton 19: Hijacked 2 :07

Nina Fischer — Maroan El Sani 20: in Adelaide

Victoria Lynn

Biennale of Sydney —

Dougal Phillips

21: The German Contingent ON STAGE

:08 22: A German Hamlet in Sydney Garry Maddox :10 23: The Pigeons :12 Sarah Giles — David Gieselmann 24: Theatertreffen Berlin Tanya Weiler :13 :14 :15

A German Gypsy in the Desert: 25: Lulo Reinhardt

Shaun Mackenzie

26:

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

We hope you will enjoy kultur. Come and see us at our centres in Sydney and Melbourne and join us for our events all over Australia. Log on to www.goethe.de/australia and subscribe to our newsletters, if you want to stay up to date. acknowledgments publisher Goethe-Institut Australien www.goethe.de/australia Goethe-Institut Australien SYDNEY 90 Ocean Street, Woollahra NSW 2011 Ph 02 8356 8333 Fax 02 8356 8314 |Melbourne 448 St Kilda Road, Melbourne VIC 3004 Ph 03 9864 8999 Fax 03 9864 8988 editor Klaus Krischok, klaus.krischok@sydney.goethe.org coordinators Klaus Krischok, Michaela Bücheler, Claudia Kühn design and artwork Torkos Ploetz Design, Melbourne proofreader Elisabeth Meister print Doran Printing Pty Ltd, Melbourne images The Goethe-Institut has taken every possible care to secure clear copyright permission for all images published here. Any enquiries to the editor front cover Whisky with Vodka, Andreas Dresen deadline for contributions 1 August 2010 circulation Current editions delivered in excess of 10,000 readers |Views expressed by the contributors are not necessarily endorsed by the GoetheInstitut. No responsibility is accepted by the publisher for the accuracy of information contained in the texts and advertisements.

kultur APRIL 2010

02: audi festival of german films 2010

Introducing a Wealth of German Cinema Peter Krausz

The high level of filmmaking activity in Germany continues unabated. With substantial public and private support for financing films, combined with the international success of so many films, the organisers are privileged to have the opportunity, and difficult task, to select films for Australia which reflect a variety of genres, regions, styles, approaches and stories. I think you will find all tastes and interests catered for in this comprehensive overview of some of the best German films available.

So what are the themes for the films this year? Let’s start with something tasty: Culinary Comedies are led by Fatih Akin’s delightful cultural morsel Soul Kitchen, exploring differences between brothers, the running of a restaurant and the need to experiment or be popular — a comedic change of pace from this master filmmaker. Tandoori Love takes us on a Swiss journey through Indian culture while Maria, ihm schmeckt’s nicht!/Wedding Fever in Campobello takes us to Southern Italy and a wedding that needs perhaps more spice. Die Standesbeamtin/ The Registrar will delight and amuse as a marriage registrar in a small Swiss town encounters a past relationship that eventually does become food for thought!

Sydney Program CHAUVEL CINEMA Wednesday 21 April Thursday 22 April Friday 23 April Saturday 24 April Sunday 25 April Monday 26 April Tuesday 27 April Wednesday 28 April Thursday 29 April Friday 30 April Saturday 1 May Sunday 2 May

6.30pm Whisky with Vodka OPENING NIGHT 6.30pm Tandoori Love 8.30pm John Rabe 6.30pm Berlin ‘36 9.15pm My Words, My Lies — My Love 12.30pm The Crocodiles 2.30pm The Crocodiles Strike Back 4.30pm Wedding Fever in Campobello 6.45pm When We Leave 9.15pm Gravity 1.30pm The Day Will Come 3.45pm Aimée & Jaguar 6.30pm The White Ribbon 9.30pm What You Don’t See 10.45am Berlin Shorts 1.00pm Crossing the Bridge 3.00pm The White Ribbon 6.00pm Soul Kitchen 8.15pm Tender Parasites 6.30pm Same Same But Different 8.45pm Vision 6.30pm Maybe, Maybe Not 6.45pm Will You Marry Us? 8.30pm Pope Joan 10.00am The Crocodiles 11.45am The Crocodiles Strike Back 4.00pm Aimée & Jaguar 6.30pm The Door 6.45pm Whisky with Vodka 9.00pm Storm 10.00am The Treasure of the White Falcons 4.30pm Maybe, Maybe Not 6.30pm Men in the City 8.45pm The White Ribbon 11.00am The Treasure of the White Falcons 1.00pm The Wolves of Berlin (3 parts) 6.45pm Mein Kampf 9.15pm The Day Will Come 1.15pm Wedding Fever in Campobello 3.15pm John Rabe 6.00pm Same Same But Different 8.15pm What You Don’t See

Whisky mit Wodka/Whisky with Vodka portrays an ageing actor whose stormy behaviour on a film set leads to some concerning developments. The highly popular Kebab Connection rounds out the flavoursome group with a knockabout comedy for all tastes. The backbone of the festival is now called German Currents, showing first releases and 2009/10 productions only: Michael Haneke’s Das Weiße Band/The White Ribbon, Germany’s Oscar contender, is a haunting and compelling film set just before WWI in a small German town: a key highlight of the 2010 festival. A similarly epic tale is told in the film John Rabe, based on the true story of a German factory manager

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6.30pm My Words, My Lies — My Love 8.45pm Gravity 6.30pm John Rabe 9.15pm Men in the City 2.15pm Berlin Shorts 4.30pm The Day Will Come 6.45pm Berlin ’36 9.00pm The White Ribbon 12.30pm When We Leave 3.00pm Soul Kitchen 5.15pm The Wolves of Berlin (3 parts) 12.45pm What You Don’t See 3.15pm Short Sharp Shock 5.30pm Faith 7.30pm Aimée & Jaguar 6.30pm Tender Parasites 8.30pm Whisky with Vodka 6.30pm Vision 8.45pm The Door 6.30pm Men in the City 8.45pm Will You Marry Us? 6.45pm Storm 9.30pm Mein Kampf 2.30pm Crossing the Bridge 4.45pm Kebab Connection 7.00pm Faith 9.00pm Same Same But Different 12.15pm My Words, My Lies — My Love 2.30pm Soul Kitchen 5.00pm Pope Joan 8.00pm Tandoori Love

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top left to right • Gravity, Pope Joan, Tandoori Love, THE Crocodiles bottom left to right • The Treasure of the White Falcons, Wedding Fever in Campobello, Aimée and Jaguar

shielding his Chinese workers in Nanjing during the Japanese invasion in 1936. We also welcome another work from prominent director Margarethe von Trotta, whose latest film Vision — Aus dem Leben der Hildegard von Bingen/Vision is the insightful story of a religious woman whose impact on those around her is both powerful and spiritual. Männerherzen/Men in the City provides us with an amusing look at various males and their relationships in a cosmopolitan city, with perspectives that may surprise and enlighten. The cathartic drama Es kommt der Tag/The Day Will Come will convince critics and audiences as a woman’s terrorist past comes back to haunt her when her daughter discovers the truth. Sturm/

Storm is the powerful tale of a female war crimes prosecutor trying to bring to justice the perpetrator of many murders in former Yugoslavia. Die Tür/The Door is a haunting thriller in which a man is given the opportunity to relive part of his life when a tragedy occurs — but at what cost? Back on screen is previous festival guest Jürgen Vogel in the compelling drama Schwerkraft/Gravity in which a major event turns one man’s life into an edgy, thrilling roller coaster ride. The intricacies of contemporary behaviour, attitudes and motivations are explored in Zarte Parasiten/Tender Parasites as a couple (one of them Robert Stadlober) spend their time acting as parasites on other people’s lives. In contrast, Lila Lila/My Words, My

Images courtesy of German Films

MELBOURNE Program PALACE CINEMA COMO Thursday 22 April Friday 23 April Saturday 24 April Sunday 25 April Monday 26 April Tuesday 27 April Wednesday 28 April Thursday 29 April Friday 30 April Saturday 1 May Sunday 2 May

6.30pm Soul Kitchen OPENING NIGHT 6.00pm Aimée & Jaguar 9.00pm The White Ribbon 2.00pm Berlin Shorts 4.15pm Faith 6.15pm Whisky with Vodka 8.30pm Pope Joan 1.30pm Same Same But Different 3.45pm My Words, My Lies — My Love 6.15pm The Door 8.30pm Storm 3.45pm Pope Joan 6.45pm Wedding Fever in Campobello 8.45pm Tandoori Love 6.30pm Gravity 8.45pm John Rabe 6.45pm Berlin ‘36 9.00pm Mein Kampf 12.00pm The Crocodiles 2.00pm The Crocodiles Strike Back 6.45pm Tender Parasites 9.00pm When We Leave 6.30pm What You Don’t See 8.30pm Soul Kitchen 2.00pm The Wolves of Berlin (3 Parts) 7.00pm Will You Marry Us? 9.00pm Men in the City 1.45pm Gravity 4.00pm Storm 6.15pm The White Ribbon

Lies — My Love is an amusing story about a waiter (Daniel Brühl) whose discovery of an unpublished manuscript turns into quite a twisting tale. Younger people are again well catered for with Vorstadtkrokodile 1 und 2/ The Crocodiles and The Crocodiles Strike Back, two lively films about a gang of children who discover a great deal about themselves, their community and the social issues that impact on their lives. Berlin Based films feature prominently in this year’s festival, demonstrating the way the city itself has a particular influence on its population and vice versa. Die Wölfe/Wolves of Berlin is a three-part series set at crucial times in Berlin history: 1949, 1961 and 1989, and involves a complex sequence of characters

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11.00am The Treasure of the White Falcons 6.30pm What You Don’t See 8.45pm Mein Kampf 2.00pm Crossing the Bridge 4.00pm Short Sharp Shock 6.15pm Soul Kitchen 8.30pm The White Ribbon 12.30pm Kebab Connection 2.45pm Whisky with Vodka 5.00pm Pope Joan 8.30pm Maybe, Maybe Not 1.30pm Gravity 3.45pm My Words, My Lies — My Love 6.15pm The Door 8.30pm Storm 6.30pm Tandoori Love 8.30pm Men in the City 6.30pm When We Leave 9.00pm John Rabe 10.00am Kebab Connection 6.30pm Crossing the Bridge 8.30pm Berlin ‘36 6.30pm Vision 9.00pm Tender Parasites 2.15pm Berlin Shorts 4.30pm Same Same But Different 6.45pm Whisky with Vodka 9.00pm When We Leave 2.15pm Maybe, Maybe Not 4.15pm Will You Marry Us? 6.15pm Aimée & Jaguar 9.00pm Men in the City

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Can be attended by persons under 15 years but must be accompanied by a parent or adult guardian (NSW, WA, VIC, QLD)

MA15+ Restricted Not suitable for people under 15. Under 15s must be accompanied by a parent or adult guardian

Recommended for mature audiences

Queensland Only Can be attended by persons under 15 years but must be accompanied by a parent or adult guardian

Can be attended by general audiences (NSW, WA, VIC, QLD)

kultur APRIL 2010

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embroiled in a story of misunderstandings and attractions is one of Wortmann’s earlier and lasting successes, complimented by the action-adventure tale Der Schatz der Weißen Falken/The Treasure of the White Falcons in which a group of children find a mysterious map leading to an important discovery. Fatih Akin’s resonant documentary on Turkish music and culture Crossing the Bridge will delight musical fans as well as those who appreciate exploring modern Istanbul, while his early film Kurz und schmerzlos/ Short Sharp Shock highlights Akin’s abiding interest in cultural harmony, as seen through the eyes of three friends from different backgrounds. The perfect addition to Akin’s recent success Soul Kitchen!

BRISBANE Program PALACE CENTRO Wednesday 28 April Thursday 29 April Friday 30 April Saturday 1 May Sunday 2 May Monday 3 May Tuesday 4 May

11.00am The Treasure of the White Falcons 6.30pm Soul Kitchen OPENING NIGHT 10.00am The Crocodiles 12.00pm The Crocodiles Strike Back 4.30pm Berlin Shorts 6.30pm My Words, My Lies — My Love 9.00pm Gravity 10.00am The Crocodiles 12.00pm The Crocodiles Strike Back 4.00pm Tandoori Love 6.00pm Pope Joan 9.00pm John Rabe 10.30pm The Wolves of Berlin (3 parts) 4.30pm Berlin ‘36 6.45pm The Day Will Come 9.00pm The Door 11.00am The Crocodiles 1.15pm Short Sharp Shock 3.30pm The White Ribbon 6.30pm Tender Parasites 8.30pm Soul Kitchen 6.15pm Mein Kampf 8.45pm Aimée & Jaguar 6.45pm Storm 9.00pm Whisky with Vodka

10.00am The Crocodiles 12.00pm The Crocodiles Strike Back 6.30pm Soul Kitchen OPENING NIGHT 10.00am The Wolves of Berlin (3 parts) 3.00pm Kebab Connection 5.00pm Short Sharp Shock 7.00pm The Day Will Come 9.30pm Whisky with Vodka 11.00am Crossing the Bridge 1.00pm Berlin Shorts 3.00pm My Words, My Lies — My Love 5.30pm Aimée & Jaguar 8.30pm Storm

Peter Krausz has been an advisor for the Festival of German Films since 2001. He is a film critic based in Melbourne.

www.goethe.de/australia

top left to right • The Crocodiles strike back, Whisky with Vodka, The Door bottom left to right • JOHN RABE, The Treasure of the White Falcons

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10.00am The Crocodiles 12.00pm The Crocodiles Strike Back 6.30pm Whisky with Vodka OPENING NIGHT 11.00am Kebab Connection 7.00pm Storm 9.00pm The Door 11.00am The Wolves of Berlin (Part 1) 1.00pm The Wolves of Berlin (Part 2) 3.00pm The Wolves of Berlin (Part 3) 5.00pm Tender Parasites 7.00pm Tandoori Love 9.00pm The Day Will Come 1.00pm Will You Marry Us? 3.00pm John Rabe 7.00pm Men in the City 9.15pm Mein Kampf 10.00am The Crocodiles 12.00pm The Crocodiles Strike Back 4.00pm Berlin Shorts 6.15pm Berlin ‘36 8.30pm The White Ribbon

ADELAIDE Program PALACE NOVA EASTEND CINEMA Friday 7 May Saturday 8 May Sunday 9 May

There is something for everyone in this 9th annual showcase of the best of German cinema. Guten Appetit! Savour and enjoy.

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experiencing the key events that helped form German identity. Berlin ’36 will surprise many with its account of the true story of a female Jewish athlete competing for Germany at the 1936 Berlin Olympics and the role the Nazis had in her ultimate fate. In a similar vein, Aimée & Jaguar presents the true story of two women caught up in WWII and their personal and public experiences. The festival focuses on two German directors, Sönke Wortmann and Fatih Akin: Festival guest Sönke Wortmann will introduce his blockbuster and epic tale Die Päpstin/ Pope Joan, the legendary tale of a supposedly female Pope ordained, set in 9th century Germany and Italy. Der bewegte Mann/ Maybe, Maybe Not with Til Schweiger

audi festival of german films :05

• Sönke Wortmann on the film set of Pope Joan

Sönke Wortmann is one of Germany’s most successful film directors and will visit Australia in April to be part of the Audi Festival of German Films.

Meet: Sönke Wortmann Sönke Wortmann studied at the Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen (Academy for Film and Television) in Munich and also spent some time at the Royal College of Art in London. His triumphant 1991 debut Allein unter Frauen/Alone amongst Women was followed by big international successes such as Kleine Haie/Little Sharks, Der bewegte Mann/Maybe, Maybe Not and Das Wunder von Bern/The Miracle of Bern. His latest film project, Die Päpstin/Pope Joan, starring German actor Johanna Wokalek and Australia’s David Wenham, is attracting major box office success. kultur talked to Sönke Wortmann in Cologne. kultur: Which of your films do you still like best and why? SW: The film closest to my heart and mind is The Miracle of Bern, which I directed and produced and for which I also wrote the script. The film tells the story of the unexpected turn of events at the Football World Cup in 1954, when West Germany not only made it to the final, but won against all odds! Almost everyone was initially against the project and warned us that the risks were far too high — as ‘sports wouldn’t look good on screen’. The film turned out to be a major success, here in Germany, internationally — and I believe also in Australia.

kultur: What kind of message are you trying to send through your way of creating a film? SW (smiles): Let me quote Italian film director Bernardo Bertolucci: ‘I don’t film any messages, I let the post office take care of those.’ But I couldn’t be a passionate filmmaker if I didn’t believe I could help improve the world as we know it just a little bit.

kultur: Are you happy with the final result of Die Päpstin? What do you think of the critics’ reactions? SW: Like so many of my colleagues I stopped reading reviews a long time ago. You risk losing your style and maybe your confidence if you listen to all those seemingly expert opinions out there. But I appreciate the reaction of the audience — and not only with Pope Joan, the box office and the audience make me very happy with the result. kultur: What was your biggest challenge on a film set so far? SW (chuckles): I try to control challenges as much as possible. Some of my films have been in the planning and preparation stages for years, intensive planning usually starts eight to ten months prior to the first day on set. Being well prepared and organised reduces the challenges, but what can you do when Burt Reynolds unexpectedly throws a tantrum as he did in 2000 on the set of my US movie Hollywood Sign? kultur: Who is your role model as a director? SW: Clearly, utterly and passionately: Billy Wilder! He was a genius who covered all genres, from comedy to thriller to psychological drama — and excelled in each and every one of them. Some Like it Hot is easily one of the best comedies ever made, Witness of the Prosecution, starring Marlene Dietrich, shows how he managed to both develop characters and suspense. In The Apartment he demonstrates how well he observed the comic and tragic elements of everyday life. My all-time favourite film, however, is The Godfather, both part I and II, by Francis Ford Coppola. kultur: Is there an undiscovered story that you dream of making into a movie?

SW: For a long time, I have had a great affinity to the island of Bali and its very specific culture. Austrian writer Vicki Baum, best known for her novel Menschen im Hotel, spent some time there in the 1930s and wrote Liebe und Tod auf Bali (The Bali Tale). One day, this tale needs to be made into a movie. kultur: How would you assess German filmmaking today? SW: Thankfully, German filmmaking today is much more diverse than it was for a long time and has the courage to cover all genres from political thriller to comedies. When I began my career in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the domestic market share of German films hovered around 5% or 6%, today it stands at 25%. It is the audience’s appreciation that makes a film industry thrive; the fact that German filmmakers pick up international awards from Cannes to Los Angeles also helps and forms the basis of growing international success. kultur: What are your plans for 2010 — apart from coming to Australia? SW: I am very much looking forward to coming to Australia! David Wenham, who is based in Sydney, promised to show me around his hometown. But David and I have another common goal for 2010: We are currently making plans to see the opening match of the Football World Cup in South Africa. Germany and Australia will play this match on 13 June in Durban, and we just have to be there! We will also be there when both sides face each other again in the Grand Final! kultur: Wir drücken die Daumen! www.goethe.de/australia

06: audi festival of german films

European Film Awards 2009 in Bochum • Marion Döring •

Marion Döring is the director of the Berlin-based European Film Academy. She visited Australia in March 2010.

European Film Academy kultur: You have been with the European Film Academy since its very beginnings in 1988. How did you get involved? MD: In 1988, Berlin was European City of Culture and the Council of Europe celebrated The European Year of Film and Television. Both events prepared the political ground for the first European Film Awards, but on the eve of the ceremony a group of filmmakers (including Wim Wenders, István Szabó, Bernardo Bertolucci, Isabelle Huppert, Ben Kingsley, Liv Ullmann, Erland Josephson — to name but a few) spontaneously assembled in a hotel suite and decided that something had to be done to bring European cinema back to the audiences. European cinema at that time went through a very difficult period, audiences had lost confidence in European films and the filmmakers felt that it was their responsibility to take up the challenge. kultur: How has the Academy changed since 1988? How has it grown in size and influence? MD: When the Academy started out in 1988, Europe was still divided. Mobile phones didn’t exist. The idea of commuting in a Europe without borders and paying bills in one currency seemed like science fiction. The first ceremony in Berlin in November 1988 brought together filmmakers from both parts of Europe in an atmosphere of shyness, admiration for each other’s artistic achievements and deep respect, especially for the brave filmmakers from Eastern Europe who often made their films under extremely difficult conditions. The European Film Academy was founded by a group of 40 filmmakers, and it was Ingmar Bergman’s vision that there should never be more than 99. During its first years, the Academy was characterised by a strong feeling of solidarity and intimacy, all members being led by a common vision — Europe. Nowadays,

Europe is no longer a vision — it is a reality. Film is without any doubt culture — but it is also an industry. If it wanted to have an impact, the Academy had to grow (from 40 to around 2,200 members in 2010). It had to build a bridge between art and industry and it had to compromise. Promoting films from many geographic and cultural backgrounds to a pan-European audience (which is the main aim of the annual European Film Awards) means facing many challenges. The often-quoted ‘diversity’ of European cinema is its strength, but when it comes to making it travel, this same diversity can become an obstacle.

MD: This is a delicate question, because the films and achievements that are nominated or awarded at the European Film Awards are so diverse that I think our members are having a tough, sometimes even heartbreaking job when making their decisions. Incidentally, this is also why we do not use the expression ‘best’ in our various categories. We say European Film or European Actor or European Discovery. There is no ‘best’ in a cinema consisting of so many different film cultures. However, if you are asking me about my favourite winner at the last ceremony: The White Ribbon by Michael Haneke is indeed a masterpiece.

kultur: How would you assess the state of German cinema today, and of European cinema in general?

kultur: The 2009 European Film Awards were held in Bochum as part of the European Capital of Culture program. What was the message?

German cinema is absolutely back on the map. In the 90s, there was rarely a nominee from Germany to be found among the candidates for the European Film Awards. This has changed considerably and you can sense the strong appeal of German cinema for younger audiences in Europe. However, the big challenge is to make German movies — like movies from other countries — cross their national borders. Every year, there are some films that do succeed in being distributed around Europe (and beyond). Although the situation has improved over the past decades, there are still many good films that deserve to be seen by an international audience. There is fantastic cinema to be discovered, not only for its artistic and storytelling qualities but also for its social mission in a globalising world. In 90 minutes, a film can tell so much about other cultures, religions and mentalities! Watching a film can be like a virtual journey. The more we understand about each other, the better a place the world will be. kultur: Who are your favourite winners of the European Film Awards?

MD: There is one main message for every European Film Awards ceremony and that is: ‘Go to the theatres and see the wonderful films that Europe has to offer!’ And there is — depending on where the European Film Awards are presented — always a second message. This time it had to do with the Ruhr area. This area had to undergo fundamental changes over the past decades — from coal mining to being a centre of creative economy in Europe. The same goes for cinema — making films means to accept the continuous challenge of learning and reinventing yourself. The interview was conducted by Rania Ghandour, Media Relations Manager, Perth International Arts Festival, and Klaus Krischok, Goethe-Institut Australien.

www.europeanfilmacademy.org

kultur wanted to know more.

IN PROFILe :07

Schwarzkopf & Henkel are one of Europe’s leading suppliers of beauty products and have been active in Australia for many decades. In 2010, they join the growing family of supporters of the Audi Festival of German Films.

Introducing: Schwarzkopf kultur talked to Christian Skaar and Jodie Lynch (Senior Brand Managers for Schwarzkopf) about beauty, health and the arts. kultur: Schwarzkopf is a household name in Germany. Is this also the case in Australia? Jodie Lynch: While Schwarzkopf is not a household name as it is in Germany, Australians have a strong brand awareness of the name and associate it with professionalism, high quality and expertise in beauty. kultur: Do Germans have different beauty concerns than your Australian customers? Christian Skaar: In general beauty ideals are similar, but given the climate, some attitudes vary significantly. We do find a stronger trend towards convenience than in Germany. It is a challenge for us to promote products that require disobeying water restrictions when showering for longer than three minutes. kultur: Germany is associated with lifestyle and beauty products to a somewhat lesser degree than, say, France. Does this create a special challenge for you? Is your brand German? CS: We see ourselves as an international company with a German origin. And in regards to hair care, German companies have always been at the forefront of innovation. We still focus on innovation rather than on our history.

JL: And don’t underestimate the changes Germany has undergone in the past years. When you ask Aussies these days, Berlin tops the list of European capitals when it comes to lifestyle and trend — which is definitely something we play with, for example in consumer promotions. kultur: Your claim is to be a ‘Brand like a Friend’ — can you explain why? CS: Henkel wants to be part of the family — somebody you can trust. We are listening to our consumers just like a good friend and do our best to give the right answers. kultur: Shouldn’t this be ‘two friends’, since Henkel and Schwarzkopf have very different backgrounds? JL: For Australia this would appear quite difficult as there is not as strong a link between the two brands as there is in Germany. However, in coming years there will be a strong focus on building awareness of the relationship between the two brands. Our focus from the Schwarzkopf Consumer perspective is to focus on our claim ‘Professional HairCare for you’. This envelops and conveys strong associations with our personalised quality expertise which we are able to provide via our diverse product range.

kultur: Who are the best-styled German and Australian film stars? JL: Toni Colette is not only a gifted actress, she also has an amazing presence on the red carpet. She currently is a particular favourite because she is a proud redhead and a 2010 trend setter with this fashion hair colour! CS: Marlene Dietrich is still a style icon across the world and clearly a trend setter in hair — this is probably also why her styles continue to return. In contemporary cinema I would name Heike Makatsch… possibly because I grew up with her on the music channel Viva as one of my generation’s peers. Vielen Dank! www.henkel.com.au

08: Beyond Europe — Exchanging Culture

The Australia Council for the Arts meets the Goethe-Institut On 12 January 2010 the European Cultural Institutes in Sydney signed an agreement on closer cooperation and formed the first Australian EUNIC (European Union National Institutes of Culture) cluster. A similar cluster will be formed in Melbourne. Kathy Keele, CEO of the Australia Council for the Arts, met Hans-Georg Knopp, Secretary General of the Goethe-Institut, during the Sydney Festival and at a EUNIC panel discussion on ‘Arts Funding, Cultural Exchange and Soft Diplomacy’. kultur wanted to know more about where both organisations stand. Klaus Krischok interviewed Kathy Keele, while Martin Portus, Director of Communications at the Australia Council, talked to Hans-Georg Knopp.

Klaus Krischok talks to: Kathy Keele

Kathy Keele: As the Australian Government’s arts funding and advisory body, our key focus is on the development of excellent contemporary Australian arts, and building sustainable arts organisations and artists’ careers. We have a big interest in international touring exhibitions and collaborations to help develop our Australian artists, but we have a less specific brief to use the arts overseas in a diplomatic role. What’s interesting here is that our funding decisions are generally made by peer panels of artists in each art form or practice. So while this may help create excellent art, it is not always art perfectly fashioned for a diplomatic agenda. The first role of artists is not to be diplomats! Having said that, the Australia Council does advise the Australian International Cultural Council and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) on the cultural programs most appropriate for our artists and the audiences they attract. We have built

a full knowledge of this area, given our work developing overseas audiences for Australian arts and our ongoing relationship to the international arena. We have a consistent presence at key festivals, book fairs and art biennales, such as the Venice Biennale, the International Performing Arts for Youth in the US, the Performing Arts Market in Seoul, the South by Southwest music showcase in the US, the Frankfurt Book Fair and other major art events through Europe, Asia and South America. An offshoot of our international activities is the portrayal of contemporary Australia; however, the key purpose of the Australia Council is the development and appreciation of Australian arts. While that includes developing our artists through international exhibitions and performances, it is other arms of government which, usually on our advice, deliberately employ the arts to export key messages and images reflecting political agendas and snapshots of contemporary Australia and its people. kultur: Unlike Britain, Germany, Spain and other countries, Australia does not have a network of cultural institutes abroad. Should it have one?

• Kathy Keele above left • EUNIC meeting, left to right: Paulo Latos Valier (AF), Rebecca Matthews (BC), Alessandra Bertini (IIC), Isidoro Castellanos (IC), Klaus Krischok (GI) above right • Tony MacGregor (ABC), Kathy Keele (AC), centre back Thomas Ostermeier (Schaubühne), far right Hans Georg Knopp (GI) — and EUNIC members

Klaus Krischok/Kultur: Unlike the GoetheInstitut, the Australia Council works mostly within its own country, but also initiates and supports projects abroad. What are the challenges of working in both directions?

Beyond Europe — Exchanging Culture :09

KK: Most of these cultural institutes were founded with a focus on promoting their culture through the preservation of their national language. And Australians speak mostly English — although we certainly have made it our own! But the international prevalence of English makes this focus on language less urgent for Australians. As a former colony and a new nation, I think Australia once didn’t have the cultural confidence. And I think at first there was a struggle on how they could present their diverse cultural profile overseas, respecting their Indigenous roots and also reflecting the diversity of cultures that is part of contemporary Australia. And of course it takes a lot of resources to promote the best of your culture worldwide. Now things are so much more different, with such a cultural flowering in Australia and a wider world role.

Today the job of pursuing a broad cultural engagement is done by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, usually directly through its overseas missions. That cultural priority of soft diplomacy does vary with individual missions around the world, and with diplomatic priorities, strategies and budgets dedicated to different regions. I’ve long been impressed by the work of the Goethe and other institutes, promoting a national culture. It’s also good sense that you are now pooling some resources and collaborating together in Australia in the name of Europe. But I’m doubtful that Australia has the financial reach and even wider need now to establish a global network of institutes devoted to culture. And I wouldn’t like to see the support of our artists being snipped at to achieve it. In today’s global village the times have also changed too much; there are now too many other ways of direct and powerful communication to spread culture internationally. kultur: Does the Australia Council believe in the power of the arts as a tool for soft diplomacy?

KK: Certainly. But besides the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, much of this vital work promoting people-to-people links and positive images of Australia is also done through foundations and institutes. These include the Council for Arab-Australia Relations, the Australia-India Council, the Australia-Japan Foundation and the Council on Australia Latin America Relations. Advised by the Australia Council, DFAT also uses Australian arts in its agenda with focus countries. It’s China this year, and South Korea and India over the next two years. The Australia Council is always working on many overseas fronts to allow our artists to engage with artistic communities overseas. There’s a whole network of writers’ and visual arts residencies across the globe that helps our artists engage with local communities, resulting in a stronger understanding of contemporary Australian culture. kultur: Which image of Australia would you like to convey abroad? KK: I take my cue here from the fantastic work I’ve just seen at the Australia Performing Arts Market which we’ve just organised as part of the Adelaide Festival of Arts. It’s energetic, innovative, creative arts from a positive, witty and sophisticated people, a people who warmly receive others and interact with other cultures. And a land which has the most unique geography and environmental gifts in the world. As once an American, now Australian, I see all this powerfully in the surprise and agility of Australian dancers, the new risk and confidence of our theatre and in masterful Indigenous art which draws on the ancient and the new. kultur: Your organisation focuses on selected geographic and cultural regions. How do you determine where your main activities should be? KK: Parallel with other cultural diplomatic interests, the Australia Council needs to carefully target those overseas market opportunities which extend the impact, audiences and capacity of our artists.

Choosing markets from across the globe requires a careful strategy. Our focus currently lies in China and Korea, the US, Mexico, Brazil and the European Union. These priorities are based on each country’s relationship to contemporary Australian art and on their infrastructure to assist our artists to reach audiences over the longer term. Given the geographic isolation of Australia, we seek relationships that build long-term engagements, resulting in an increased capacity and financially sustainable models for our artists. For example, our work with the International Network of the Contemporary Performing Arts — IETM — led to a partnership where an Australian producer, David Pledger, is now working within the IETM head office in Brussels. His job is to support a stronger understanding of Australia’s contemporary art sector among EU producers and facilitate co-productions and partnerships between Australian artists and the IETM’s European network. kultur: What significance do Europe and Germany have for your work? KK: The UK and Europe have been and continue to be the most significant relationships for Australian artists internationally. Germany is at the centre of it. Our dancers are much appreciated in Germany, especially the Melbourne-based company Chunky Move which toured to Germany last year, as did works by choreographer Tanja Liedtke, who so sadly was killed soon after taking over the Sydney Dance Company. Physical theatre troupes like The Suitcase Royale are also popular in Germany, as are our Australian writers. Germans understand the need for a diverse and innovative arts scene, so we Australians are happy to contribute. www.australiacouncil.gov.au Kathy Keele was appointed chief executive officer of the Australia Council and member of the Council (ex officio) for three years on 14 December 2006.

kultur APRIL 2010

10: Beyond Europe — Exchanging Culture

Martin Portus talks to: Hans Georg Knopp MP: In what ways is your vision, are your priorities, influenced by those of your government and its foreign priorities?

Hans-Georg Knopp: The Goethe-Institut is not an organisation that deals with nation marketing or branding. We deal with foreign cultural relations. A department of communication is nowadays part of almost every government in the world. They and their agencies engage in communication. They announce certain messages and news to the public and their aim is to influence how the world thinks about the country and about the government. These are very common and legitimate tasks derived from entrepreneurial marketing and communication departments.

HGK: The Goethe-Institut is not a government agency. We are at arm’s length from parliament and government and our constitution is that of an independent entity. At the same time we are a receiver of tax payers’ money and are certainly restricted to certain regulations equivalent to those of the public services. Since we closely cooperate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs it is only natural that there is always a dichotomy between independence from and subjection to politics. There are times and matters where we can operate more independently and there are times and matters where politics tries to take over control.

Foreign cultural relations — and that is what the Goethe-Institut engages in — in contrast tries to connect individuals and social groups in Germany with those abroad. As a player in the field of cultural relations we do not engage in presenting a certain idea of Germany, there are no showcases touring around the world financed by the Goethe-Institut. In fact we try to provide an infrastructure for common experiences and processes of learning. Under these circumstances productive and longlasting relations between the German side and our partners abroad get established. Both sides learn from each other, experience the other as less and less alien and develop curiosity for their respective partner. We do not want to present the world what we do, but rather more how we do it — and we achieve this aim not via presenting but via working together. So to answer to the question: What we want to communicate is how we communicate and how we work together.

MP: In what cases do you think culture is best used for soft (or hard) diplomacy? HGK: Cultural relations are international relations without politics and without economy. We need that channel of exchange where both sides can be sure that they are not dealing with somebody who tries to take advantage in terms of power or monetary benefit. It is a field where the relationship between societies can grow in trust. The main reason for distrust is strangeness. Cultural relations bring societies together. Diplomacy is a field where particular interests matter — culture is a field where trust can grow because particular interests do not matter. MP: What are the sorts of programs and cultural exchanges which for the GoetheInstitut work best between Germany and Australia?

• Hans Georg Knopp, Secretary General of the Goethe-Institut top left • Tony MacGregor (ABC), Kathy Keele (AC), Hans Georg Knopp (GI) top right • Lindy Hume (Sydney Festival), Thomas Ostermeier (Schaubühne)

Martin Portus: What impression of German culture does the Goethe-Institut wish to communicate?

Beyond Europe — Exchanging Culture :11

Well, the programs conducted here are visible in the activities of the Goethe-Institut Australia. Our branches worldwide enjoy a considerable degree of autonomy, the local teams decide about their programs in close cooperation with their regional offices and our head office in Munich. Our working principle has always been that of dialogue and partnership — and we strongly believe this to be the key to our ongoing successes. We, at the head office believe we need to set strategic and very broad themes which are broken down into actual programs by local institutes. Urban Development, Climate Change, Europe are some of these thematic blocks. The classic genres of film, literature, theatre and the visual arts seem to be in high demand in Australia and under ideal circumstances resonate these themes. We are also very aware of the need to strengthen the position of the German language in schools and universities across Australia. MP: Given the impressive network of GoetheInstituts around the world, what are some of the traps to watch out for in running cultural institutes representing a national culture in another country? HGK: There are various traps. First of all those of a material kind — the network has its price. It is very costly to maintain hundreds of real properties and buildings. If funding goes down we are in danger of merely maintaining our presence without being able to work on projects. But then again the network is a source of abundant knowledge and allows us to connect with thousands of people and organisations abroad. To live up to this potential is a major challenge and it does not come naturally. To speak in economic terms: we are a rather small company with hundreds of branches worldwide — if that is a not challenge to modern management then I do not know what is. MP: How has the purpose of the GoetheInstitut changed — as the world changes, as

boundaries between cultures and ethnicities shift and communications go global? HGK: The Goethe-Institut was founded in 1951. World War II had just ended six years before. Large parts of the world were destroyed especially in Europe; Germany was the main source for the violence that led to millions of deaths and countless atrocities. One of the reasons the founders of the Goethe-Institut had in mind, was to bring Germany back to the group of ‘civilised nations’. That of course is a term of the time, but I think with the focus on German history it is still a qualified expression. So the Goethe-Institut was founded to show to the world that Germany is not identical with National Socialism. In the beginning though, our work was mainly focused on the language component — German as a foreign language. The Goethe-Institut then was very hesitant to be a cultural forum. Over the years that changed and we became more and more self-confident in showing our culture and displaying the cultural scenes of the Federal Republic — and don’t forget that there were two Germanys coexisting and competing! As early as in the 1960s it became clear that the GDR engaged in foreign cultural relations, too. They displayed life in Leipzig, Dresden or in the countryside of Saxony to be something similar to a socialist Garden of Eden. They showed to the world what they liked the world to believe of them. Although marketing and showcasing are capitalist terms — East Germany engaged in it massively. The Goethe-Institut chose another way. During that time we tried to put an emphasis on the problematic sides in German society — how do we deal with the fascist past? How do we deal with social structures that to many young people seem to be gridlocked? How do we live in the Cold War and with the fact that there are two German states? Questions like that kept the West German society busy and we dealt with them on an international level.

With the end of the Cold War we increasingly had to face a development that eventually was called globalisation. We witnessed the end of a bipolar world and the rise of countries like China, India, Brazil, and also Russia. Many smaller countries in Asia escaped poverty and became dynamic and developed ever richer societies. It is self-evident that the GoetheInstitut as an international player was not left unimpressed by that. Our reaction to that ended up in something that I tried to describe in my answer to your first question. Today we try more than we ever before to learn with and from each other. As communication becomes global we need to learn from each other on the global scale, too. The work of the Goethe-Institut wants to promote a ‘partnership in learning’ with all its partners around the world. Sometimes we have to take into account that our partners abroad are not specifically interested in a German view of things but rather in a European view. That, too, is a challenge for national institutes for culture like the Goethe-Institut. In Europe there is always a European side on cultural and political questions — why shouldn’t our partners in Asia, Africa or Australia share that view? A few years ago we founded EUNIC — European National Institutes for Culture. With this cooperation of almost 30 national institutes for culture from all countries of the EU I think we reacted adequately to the global developments I described. Together we bring a European view into international cultural relations — and there are active local branches in more than 50 cities all over the world. One of the youngest branches has just been founded in Sydney in January 2010. www.goethe.de Hans Georg Knopp was appointed Secretary General of the Goethe-Institut in 2005. He was President of EUNIC in 2008/9.

kultur APRIL 2010

12: Beyond Europe — Exchanging Culture

Alliance Française — 150 Years of History in 136 Countries Joanna Jouin

The Alliance Française network now consists of 1,040 organisations in 136 different countries, spanning the globe and giving many people the opportunity to learn French. At last count, approximately 460,000 students were taking classes at Alliances throughout the world. The AF actively supports and promotes culture through film screenings, art exhibitions, special lectures and French literary discussion nights. To add spice to this menu, special events showcase la gastronomie française, including wine and cheese appreciation, and the AF also brings French artists to Australia to perform here. Membership in the AF provides access to an array of events as well as lending rights for French feature films, documentaries, music, poetry, novels, comic books, and children’s books and games, all of which are available free of charge at the AF Libraries and Médiathèques. Bienvenue a tous!

Joanna Jouin is a Cultural Officer at the Alliance Française de Sydney.

www.afsydney.com.au

In Australia, passionate devotees and volunteers worked for over a century — AF Melbourne was founded in 1890, AF Sydney in 1895 — to establish a dynamic network of Alliances that symbolise the strength and vibrancy of the friendship between France and Australia. The 31 Alliances Françaises of Australia are members of the AF network and each year, over 10,000 students come to learn French and enjoy a genuine taste of French life. Each Alliance Française is independent and run by a locally appointed board. Many also have the assistance of professional directors and language specialists that are appointed by the French government and rotated every few years in a system similar to a classic three-year diplomatic posting. As a non-profit organisation, each Alliance seeks to engage with its local audience and develops programs to involve the whole community, from business leaders to young children. The backbone of the AF is French language teaching at a variety of levels and ages. There is also a social dimension to the AF, providing a cordial and stimulating environment for making new friends. Throughout the year, the larger Alliances in capital cities around Australia host various events that are of interest not only to French communities in Australia, but also to the locals who enjoy l’air de la culture. These events celebrate important moments in the French cultural calendar and provide a number of eagerly awaited festivities like the annual Alliance Française French Film Festival, La Fête Nationale on Bastille Day, and La Fête de la Musique.

Beyond Europe — Exchanging Culture :13

Hola! Instituto Cervantes Isidoro Castellanos Vega

The Instituto Cervantes is a Spanish public institution dedicated to the teaching of Spanish and the other languages of Spain as well as the promotion of the culture of all Spanish-speaking countries. It was created in 1991 and currently has more than 70 centres located in 30 different countries. On 25 June 2009, the King and Queen of Spain officially opened the centre in Sydney.

Heritage on the outside, and supermodern on the inside! In its new home, the Instituto Cervantes Sydney offers classes in Spanish and the other co-official languages of Spain, for all levels, in small groups, with the best teachers, and using the most up-to-date technologies and teaching methods to ensure effective teaching. The teaching of Spanish is, in fact, our number one priority. Currently, Spanish is the world’s fourth most commonly spoken language, after Chinese, English and Hindi, and it is also the official language of more than 20 countries as well as the mother tongue of over 400 million people. In the United States of America alone, Spanish is spoken by approximately 42 million people and increasingly used in economic, political and cultural relations. The number of people studying Spanish throughout the world is growing every year. However, as well as teaching Spanish and the other co-official languages of Spain, the Instituto Cervantes Sydney organises cultural events such as cinema, theatre, musical activities, exhibitions, round-table discussions, conferences, etc. With Don Quijote, Miguel de Cervantes created the genre par excellence of modern culture: the novel. Four centuries later, Spanish has become an international language of extraordinary cultural prestige. The

Instituto Cervantes makes the culture of Spanish-speaking countries available to all. Anyone interested in the culture of Spain and the score of Latin American countries where Spanish is spoken can benefit from the constant program of activities offered at the Instituto Cervantes. In order to put on all of these events, the Instituto Cervantes Sydney can count on the support of a considerable number of Australian, Spanish and Latin American institutions and organisations such as universities, embassies, theatre companies, etc. We also enjoy the backing of numerous individuals who are happy to lend their talent and efforts to the Instituto. In turn, the Instituto Cervantes Sydney collaborates with official Spanish and Latin American as well as Australian bodies who are involved in the promotion of Spanish language and Hispanic culture. To meet its objectives, the Instituto Cervantes Sydney has 13 state-of-the-art classrooms, its own auditorium with seating for 100 people, an impressive exhibition space and an ultra-modern library that makes reading a pleasure. These services are available free of charge to students of the centre, and, in most cases, also to interested members of the general public. Muchas gracias and hasta la vista.

Isidoro Castellanos Vega is the founding Director of the Instituto Cervantes Sydney.

www.sydney.cervantes.es

kultur APRIL 2010

14: Beyond Europe — Exchanging Culture

top • Tiger & Turtle/Magic Mountain bottom • Kokerei Zollverein, Werksschwimmbad

The cities of Bochum, Essen, Dortmund, Castrop-Rauxel, Wanne-Eickel or Sprockhövel may not be too well known outside Germany, but together with another 53 cities, they form the vast urban area of Ruhr, larger in size than London or Paris and similar in population. In 2010, the Ruhr area has been given the title of European Capital of Culture. kultur met Katja Assmann, Head of Programming for Visual Arts at RUHR.2010, during a visit to Sydney.

Ruhr.2010: European Capital of Culture Katja Assmann: Weimar and Berlin already had a reputation for being significant cultural centres. The title European Capital of Culture was more or less a tribute to the existing cultural heritage and an opportunity to strengthen cultural diversity, which was Melina Mercouri’s main idea when she invented the European Capital of Culture in Athens in 1985. For the Ruhr area, the title means much more: It is a challenge to reinvent itself by cultural means. Our leitmotif is ‘Change through Culture — Culture through Change’. kultur: You are one of three cultural capitals in 2010, next to Istanbul (Turkey) and Pécs (Hungary). How do you cooperate with those cities? KA: Straight from the beginning in 2006, when we began to set up our artistic program, we arranged workshops together with Istanbul and Pécs to develop tri-national projects. ‘Temporary City — Dialogue between the European Capitals of Culture’ is one example of a long-term interdisciplinary University collaboration. On top of this, there will be a number of artist exchanges as well as festivals and exhibitions dealing with Turkish, Hungarian and German Culture, often with the support of Goethe-Institut. kultur: The Ruhr area is better known for post-industrial issues. Is culture the answer to these issues?

KA: The Ruhr area is facing an enormous transformation. The once largest industrial region on the continent lost its original purpose, and we have to master the big step to a service economy. Culture is an ingredient that was missing in the economy-driven Ruhr area for a very long time. I strongly believe that culture has the power to create a new self-confidence and pride for the Ruhr citizens, the most important step in the process of transforming the Ruhr area. kultur: You are partially in charge of the visual arts program of RUHR.2010. What is its place in the overall program? KA: The program for RUHR.2010 focuses on four different thematic program areas: ‘City of Possibility’, ‘City of Arts’, ‘City of Culture’ and ‘City of Creativity’. I am Head of Programming for ‘City of Possibilities’. The theme unites Visual Arts, Architecture and Urban Planning. The combination of these disciplines gives us the right tools for re-designing, or rather re-shaping, the Ruhr area. In the Capital of Culture year we are initiating an Art Biennale in a public space, ‘EMSCHERKUNST.2010’, and a Light Art Biennale called ‘open light in private spaces’. These are just two of altogether 40 projects in the field of visual arts. kultur: After 25 years, the idea of Cultural Capital has come of age. Where will it go in the future? KA: Cities nowadays use the title more as a motor for long-term structural changes rather than having a year of temporary cultural events. This strategy started with the extraordinary and visionary program of

Glasgow 1990, and many cities such as Graz 2003, Lille 2004 and RUHR.2010, Tallinn 2011 and Marseille 2013 will also use Glasgow as a role model. kultur: Where is Australia’s cultural capital? And how could Australia profit from the European experience? KA: During my stay, I had the chance to experience Sydney as a vibrant cultural metropolis. The Sydney Festival turned the city into one big cultural celebration. I have never seen such an enthusiastic audience at an arts festival in Europe. In my experience, interdisciplinary projects deliver the best results. Working with artists on urban tasks always results in surprising and unconventional ideas, like the Angerpark Landmark ‘Tiger & Turtle/Magic Mountain’ by Heike Mutter & Ulrich Gent (see image). It might be a good idea for Australia to intensify interdisciplinary teamwork and invest more in art in public spaces. kultur: Vielen Dank und viel Erfolg mit dem Programm! www.ruhr2010.de

kultur: After Berlin 1988 and Weimar 1999, RUHR.2010 is the third German city claiming the title of European Capital of Culture. What makes your project different from previous ones?

Beyond Europe — Exchanging Culture :15

Städel: Your Passport to Europe Ted Gott

The decision of Germany’s Städel Museum to expand and refurbish its premises has provided a hitherto unprecedented opportunity for its renowned collections to travel abroad in 2010 while construction works are undertaken in Frankfurt.

Founded in 1816 by Frankfurt financier Johann Friedrich Städel, seeded with this benefactor’s private collection and developed over the following two centuries with wave after wave of important acquisitions, the Städel Museum is currently home to 2800 paintings, 600 sculptures and over 100,000 prints and drawings. These works, of breathtaking quality, document the development of European art and culture from the Renaissance to the present day. The Städel Museum’s holdings of 19thand 20th-century art are especially strong and vibrant. The National Gallery of Victoria is thus excited to be hosting European Masters: Städel Museum, 19th–20th Century, the seventh spectacular exhibition in the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces series, at NGV International between June and October 2010. The exhibition’s historical scope is panoramic, beginning with the emergence of new notions of shared cultural identity and German nationhood at the start of the nineteenth century. At this time, what is present-day Germany was a collection of independent principalities across which were to be found quite divergent contemporary reactions to the principal cultural movements that had dominated the region at the close of the eighteenth century — the Neoclassical idealism and rationalism of the Enlightenment

and the contrary emphasis placed upon emotion and the individual by the adherents of Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress), a romanticising movement whose greatest literary exponent was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Johann Tischbein’s majestic portrait, Goethe in the Roman Campagna 1786–87, opens this spectacular exhibition. European Masters traces the subsequent development of German art in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, from artists like Caspar David Friedrich who explored notions of the divine in nature, through to the masters of the later Realist, Symbolist and Jugendstil movements — Max Liebermann, Max Slevogt and Franz von Stuck, to name but a few. The exhibition closes with a spectacular array of paintings from the Modernist period in Germany, by the Expressionist artists of the Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) and Die Brücke (The Bridge) groups, whose works span Germany’s passage from Empire through the First World War, to the Weimar Republic and the rise of National Socialism. No fewer than ten works by Max Beckmann trace this turbulent period with both bravura and poignancy. The exhibition also includes more than 30 French, Belgian, Dutch and Swiss paintings by Gustave Courbet, Claude Monet, Auguste

Renoir, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Arnold Böcklin, Max Klinger and Ferdinand Hodler, as well as Norway’s Edvard Munch. A fascinating tracery of European cross-currents also emerges from this extraordinary exhibition — German artists resident in Rome and influenced there by the British landscape master Turner; Swiss painters basing themselves at times in Germany; German painters training and observing modern art trends in Paris; and the seminal contribution made to the development of German Expressionism by the paintings of Van Gogh, Cézanne and Munch. Rich, challenging, eye-opening and transformative — European Masters: Städel Museum, 19th–20th Century is not to be missed. Ted Gott in Senior Curator for International Art at the National Gallery of Victoria.

www.ngv.gov.au above left • Johann Heinrich Wilhelm TISCHBEIN, German 1751–1829, Goethe in the Roman countryside 1787, oil on canvas, Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main. Acquired in 1878 as a gift by Baroness Salomon von Rothschild (1157). above right • Max BECKMANN, German 1884–1950, worked in Holland 1937–47, United States 1947–50, The synagogue in Frankfurt/Main 1919, oil on canvas, Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main. Purchased in 1977 with municipal and private funds.

kultur APRIL 2010

16: Focus ON Photography AND New Media top to bottom • Krümmung • Burka • Beweise • Zuhause • Fluchtpunkt • Verräter

In 2009, with the support of the Goethe-Institut Australia and IFA, photographer Heidi Specker spent a productive month as artist-inresidence at Sydney College of the Arts. While there she sent daily images to writer and architect Theo Deutinger.

Heidi Specker/Theo Deutinger: Help Me — I am Blind! RG: What do you hope Help Me I’m Blind will reveal?

The resulting collaboration of texts and images became the exhibition Help Me I’m Blind, again supported by the GoetheInstitut and the German Foreign Office.

HS: We wanted to make a book out of the project and the book was supposed to be the object which would be exhibited. It is my wish that the spectator or reader begins to see or that he loses his blindness in the eyes of someone else.

RMIT Gallery: The common image of Australia promoted overseas, is dominated by the outback. It’s an image that recurs in films and in art. However, you have chosen to represent the urban landscape. Why?

I love books and I like it when images or thoughts materialise. For photography as well as for the written word, as opposed to other art forms, the book is the ideal medium.

Heidi Specker: I had the idea of looking for something like Heimat (home country) at the other end of the world. After all, the continent initially had been settled by European emigrants. I wanted to find something familiar, to recognise something: hence the motifs from daily life and obvious objects.

The interview was conducted by Suzanne Davies and Evelyn Tsitas of RMIT Gallery Melbourne RMIT Gallery in Melbourne from 29 July to 11 September.

HS: Before my departure and for my stay of 28 days I had made this agreement with Theo Deutinger to send him daily images. He wanted to respond to the jpgs with text. I was very glad that we had thought of this project and was completely consumed by it. At the same time, it was totally out of the ordinary because of the place and because of the arrangement. RG: The title of the work Help Me I’m Blind is intriguing. It suggests not seeing, being lost, needing assistance, a way through a maze, lost in the unfamiliar, disconnected.

My pictorial language in this project uses photographic depictions that we think we know, that we think we’ve already seen. This should be read in an art historical context because many pictures employ classical motifs.

HS: Help Me I’m Blind is a quotation from a text by Theo Deutinger about imagination. The title refers to the flood of images all around us, to ‘not seeing the forest for the trees’.

At the same time many shots are looking from the inside out, as through windows, panes, from a bus, a train, the car, also from a distance. The title pretends to ask for clarification, for a declaration.

www.rmit.edu.au/rmitgallery

RG: Collaborations are always interesting, especially those that cross disciplines. How did you and Theo work together?

Focus ON Photography AND New Media :17

Zeitgeist Becomes Form Lauren Stadler

Between 23 July and 28 August, the Australian Centre for Photography (ACP) presents a history of German fashion photography. The exhibition explores the close affinity between photography and fashion; often viewed as a manifestation of the Zeitgeist or spirit of the times.

• Finely Plissed Dress Opened into a Cocoon by Elsa Schiaparelli, 1951

• Nico Paeffgen, Cocktail Dress by Heinz Oestergaard, 1956

• Susanne and Lutz for i.-D., 1992

Developed by the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa) in Germany and presented at the ACP in cooperation with the GoetheInstitut Australia, Zeitgeist Becomes Form reflects not only on the development of German fashion photography, but also on the enormous social and cultural changes in the second half of the last century. Beginning amid the post-war reconstruction of Germany, the exhibition traces its path through the sexual liberation of the 1960s and 1970s and the power dressing of the 1980s to the anti-chic of the 1990s’ Gen X and the technological advancements of the Jahrtausendwende/Millennium. Curated by respected German photographer FC Gundlach, this was the first exhibition to explore the history of German fashion photography at a time when Berlin claimed the status of European fashion centre, second only to Paris. Following WWII, with Berlin divided by the Allies, photographers such as Regi Relang, Willy Maywald and Rico Puhlmann looked to a new future inspired by the American ‘way of life’ and particularly its culture of celebrity where photographers and models were treated like stars.

Five decades later, Wolfgang Tillmans and Olaf Märtens developed a very different kind of glamorous aura for fashion using ‘boy and girl next door’ models and a sexy-grunge aesthetic. However, their images shared with those of their predecessors a fascination not so much for the particular tailoring of clothes, but the attitudes and emotions that underscored a shifting generational lifestyle. The diverse selection of images showing at the ACP reflects Gundlach’s generous and inclusive interpretation of what constitutes ‘German’ photography. The exhibition includes works by foreign nationals living in Germany and German photographers working internationally. Consequently, German fashion photography is seen in a dynamic dialogue with the styles and trends of other countries and cultures. The acknowledged master photographer Helmut Newton, for example, was born in Berlin, but came to Australia as a young man and later married celebrity photographer June Brunell (who rejoiced under the artistic pseudonym of Alice Springs). Equally at home with couture and erotica, Newton was one of the most sought-after and influential

photographers of the 1970s and 1980s. So what does this exhibition tell us about Germany, fashion and photography? Although fashion begins with what we wear, it taps into the dreams and aspirations of the individual. As Marlene Dietrich put it, “I dress for the image. Not for myself, not for the public, not for fashion, not for men.” Zeitgeist Becomes Form continues the ACP’s practice of bringing stellar exhibitions of international standing to Sydney. Such exhibitions provide a platform for a cultural conversation through which Australian photographers and audiences alike can come to understand that vibrant cultural practice is not limited to a narrow definition of art or nationality, but embraces the many and various ways in which we explore and express our place in the world and the times in which we live. Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney: 23 July–28 August

www.acp.org.au Lauren Stadler is the Public Relations Manager at the Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney

kultur APRIL 2010

18: Focus ON Photography AND New Media

Helmut Newton is considered one of the leading photographers of the 20th century and best remembered for his large and lasting oeuvre of fashion photography.

Helmut Newton

kultur talked to the curator of the HNF, Dr Matthias Harder, who plans to visit Melbourne in October 2009. kultur: What kind of feelings did Newton have for his home country? MH: Helmut Newton called the two years of his training as a photographer in Berlin, from 1936 to 1938, the best time of his life. Since the 1950s, he regularly returned to his home town. Here he created retrospective fashion images, portraits and nude photographs, but also the occasional street scene or landscape photograph of the walled city. Newton once said he had a constant yearning for Berlin, not for Germany. And with his decision to found and open his foundation in Berlin, his life ultimately came full circle. kultur: How did Australia inspire Newton’s work? MH: The continent, especially Melbourne, definitely inspired him, since his professional career as a fashion photographer began here. After he had managed to flee Nazi Germany, Newton lived in Singapore for over a year, but from there, he — by now stateless — was also sent away and brought to Melbourne by ship. He was then transported to the ‘Tatura One’ internment camp where he was forced to spend over two years as an ‘enemy alien’. From 1942

to 1946, Newton served in the Australian army; only afterwards he opened a portrait studio in Melbourne — and became an Australian citizen. He married one of his models, actor June Browne, in 1948. In 1956, they left Australia as Newton was offered a contract with British Vogue; in 1959 they returned to Melbourne for two years. The country had become home for him, but the prospect of working as a photographer for French Vogue from 1961 onwards made him move to Europe for good. And subsequently, Paris became what was probably his greatest source of inspiration. kultur: What would you consider his most important work of art? MH: There are so many iconic images in his extensive oeuvre. I think the exceptional group of works Naked and Dressed should be singled out here. If anything, it is the fusion of fashion, nude photography and portrait, the overcoming of traditional photographic genres as well as the simultaneous catering to and questioning of visual clichés that make his works so surprising, ever contemporary and distinctive. kultur: How does the Helmut Newton Foundation manage to preserve the works of Helmut Newton? MH: We store a partial estate at the foundation, a permanent loan of almost 1000 original photographs, as well as numerous archival materials, most of which are exhibited in the permanent presentation Helmut Newton’s Private Property. Most temporary exhibitions the fashion presentation Helmut Newton FIRED, currently SUMO, later become permanent loans in our archives. One day, a Helmut Newton exhibition should also make its way to Australia. kultur: Your exhibition Private Property provides insights into the photographer’s personal life by showing Newton’s individual belongings and devices. MH: Newton was a very classy, self-confident and at the same time reserved person with a great deal of humour. And this is precisely the aim of this presentation. It is not so much

an exhibition rather than a ‘museum inside the museum’, as Mrs Newton calls it: Here, Newton comes alive again in a manner of speaking, and viewers can retrace stations of his life as well as his multi-faceted. kultur: Who has taken on Helmut Newton’s role as the world’s favourite fashion photographer? MH: There are very few fashion photographers who worked at the same time as Helmut Newton with comparable success, and there are equally few who succeeded him on an equal level. Because the shoes he left behind as one of the most distinguished fashion photographers — not just the high heels of his Big Nudes — are too big for most of them; I feel hardly anyone can fill them. Solely photographers like David LaChapelle, or his German colleague Jürgen Teller could be named as pivotal characters of a contemporary, innovative fashion imagery. kultur: And the current exhibition SUMO is also about fashion? MH: The current exhibition is a kind of ‘best of’ selection of his works, compiled ten years ago by Helmut and June Newton for a gigantic book called SUMO with which publisher Benedikt Taschen revolutionised the market for photographic volumes. Out of the 394 photographs in this volume in poster format, more than half were taken in a fashion context, mostly for renowned magazines or directly for the couturiers. We have now responded to the uniqueness of this publication with an unusual presentation at the Foundation — in one part, adopting the layout of the book, while for the other part, we have opted for a classical presentation of selected original photographs from this pool of motives. www.helmut-newton.de above • Helmut Newton and Benedikt Taschen with one of the first copies of SUMO in the courtyard of the publishing house, 1999 © Alice Springs

Newton was born Helmut Neustädter in Berlin in 1920, but left his home country in 1938 to escape Nazi persecution. He arrived in Australia in 1940 and became an Australian citizen in 1946. Newton worked for the Australian Vogue as well as international fashion magazines from 1956 onwards. He died in Los Angeles in 2004 and is buried in Berlin. A year before his death, he founded the Helmut Newton Foundation (HNF) which is now part of the Museum für Fotografie (Museum of Photography) next to the famous Bahnhof Zoo in Berlin. The current exhibition is called ‘Helmut Newton SUMO’ and is based on the outstanding volume of photographs of the same name.

Focus ON Photography AND New Media :19

Hijacked 2 Recent German and Australian Photography Mark McPherson (Perth) created his own publishing house, Big City Press, with the intention of publishing a bilateral photographic project called Hijacked. Now in its second cycle, the 2010 project focuses on the publication and exhibition of German and Australian artists. kultur wanted to know more. kultur: What is the Hijacked concept? Mark McPherson: Hijacked is about the recontextualisation and juxtaposition of images to synthesise a new meaning, emotion and context. Hijacked 1 toured in 2008 and included the works of American and Australian photographers. I feel that Australian photography sometimes lacks an international perspective. German photographers tend to look abroad for inspiration, whilst the Australian photographers, in Hijacked, looked within their own borders. It’s a correlative relationship, I think, that is directly related to geographical circumstance. Hijacked 2 aims to deliver a new perspective to Australian photography that is not academically restrained, institutionally influenced or embedded in heavy-handed curatorial work. The work should speak for itself.

MMcP: It’s part of my DNA and heritage. My grandmother and mother were both born in Hamburg and I lived in Freiburg and later Berlin. In my student days artists like Wolfgang Tillmanns, Gerhard Richter and Andreas Gursky left a major impression on my life and changed my sensibilities toward art and photography. There are also subtle links between German and Australian culture that fascinate me. Both nationalities love to travel and there is plenty of cross-pollination between the nations through tourism, sparked by a love of photography and the arts. The development of Hijacked 2 has to some degree drawn on all these influences, but essentially the project is an intelligent crosssection of the new generation of German photographers, aligned with my own Australian culture. kultur: How does this project continue to survive? MMcP: I work with people and organisations who believe in the project and the opportunities stem from there. The 2010 exhibition venues, the Australian Centre for Photography (ACP), the Monash

Gallery of Art, the Queensland College of Art Gallery, Griffith University and the Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum, are the most significant and reputable photo-media and photographic art spaces in Australia and are ideal for ‘hijacking’! The ACP and the Goethe-Institut Australia have been diplomatic ambassadors and supporters for Hijacked. I continue to fund the majority of Hijacked and Big City Press project expenses. This is a necessity for the project’s continuation. I would love to ‘hijack’ all philanthropists, rich West Australian mining magnates and wealth-soaked billionaires in Australia and ask them to invest in the arts and culture of this country; it’s a rewarding partnership that is often undervalued. Hijacked 2 will be launched at the Australian Centre for Photography on 10 June. The exhibition will run from 11 June–17 July 2010.

www.acp.org.au Hijacked 2 will be touring to Melbourne, Queensland and South Australia.

www.bigcitypress.com.au www.goethe.de/australia [from September 2010}

The interview was conducted by Lauren Stadler of ACP. • Untitled, Las Vegas, 2004

Hijacked 2 received over 300 submissions in an open-call process. The Goethe-Institut Australien kindly funded my trip to Germany to discuss the first draft selection with my coeditors Ute Noll (Stuttgart) and Markus Schaden (Cologne). This selection of artists and imagery is by no means a definitive guide to Australian and German contemporary photography; it’s barely a snapshot, a momentary survey. It’s just the tip of the iceberg.

kultur: Why was the inclusion of German art in Hijacked 2 important to you?

kultur APRIL 2010

20: Focus ON Photography AND New Media

Nina Fischer and Maroan el Sani, Spelling Dystopia 2008–09, high-definition 2-channel colour video with stereo sound

Nina Fischer and Maroan El Sani are Berlin-based artists who have spent a significant amount of their time, living and teaching in Sapporo, Japan, over the last five years. Their artwork was featured at the Adelaide International 2010 as part of Apart, we are together, an exhibition of 13 artists located at five public galleries.

Nina Fischer and Maroan El Sani in Adelaide Victoria Lynn: What are the challenges and opportunities provided by artistic collaboration? N/M: Our artworks are developed through communication, like a ping pong of ideas, an ongoing dialogue. The challenge is to achieve consensus. Ideally, it requires treating the considered opinion of each of us seriously to realise an artwork. VL: Many of your films, videos and photographs involve architecture and the memories held within a certain building. Can you comment? N: History manifests itself in the diversity of architecture from different epochs. A building is a visible remnant and a piece of memory of a certain time. Our work is a permanent pursuit of and negotiation with the transition of time, or the transition of eras. We explore the historic traces of urban landmarks, monuments and events that embody such a transition. As with many of our previous projects, with our new work Spelling Dystopia we ask how memory operates, how a site wears its history, both physically and metaphorically. M: A city should be like a growing organism. Berlin is a good example: The traces of the war are still visible. After the war, the western part of Berlin recovered faster than the east, it was rebuilt and renovated a lot. But in the GDR, many old areas have been left almost unchanged. They were not renovated and were in fact waiting to be demolished to make way for a bright modernist future. After the wall came down, the German government immediately started to erase traces of modernist architecture which were landmarks of the former GDR — first of all the

former Palace of the Republic which had been closed since 1990 and was finally demolished in 2008. Later in the 2000s, the awareness for modern GDR architecture changed, and buildings like the ‘Sonderbauten’ (special purpose architecture) began to be protected and considered valuable enough to keep. But it took many years to reach that point of view. VL: You have been influenced by the history of cinema. For example, the video that you are showing as part of the Adelaide Festival’s exhibition: Apart, we are together is loosely based on the film Battle Royale. In what ways does your work renew or reinterpret cinema? N/M: We are interested in how cinema has an impact on locations. It changes the perception of a place and causes a shift in collective memory. With our new film project, we focus on the public perception of the uninhabited island Hashima near Nagasaki, which has a vivid history. In 2000, it became the location for the science fiction blockbuster Battle Royale and came back into Japanese consciousness with a different connotation. The younger generation mainly knew the place from movies, mangas and video games as an abandoned ghost island. The island thus appears almost as a fantasy, an imaginary playground where various images and layers of reality and fiction intermingle. VL: How important are archives as a concept and as a resource in your work? N: As a concept, it is quite important, especially since we do a lot of research for our artworks. But we also visit the location, meet people and collect stories. Archives are important for intensive research, also as a place of memory and knowledge.

M: But some archives are too exclusive, not easily accessible for everybody. Like TV and media archives in Germany. It is almost impossible to research early TV media. It is like this big invisible part of knowledge. Media archives like that should be made more accessible to the public. Media have to be reviewed and recycled somehow, and if not, they will soon be all lost and forgotten. VL: How much research do you do for a video like Spelling Dystopia? Do you think you are working more like documentary filmmakers than artists? Concerning the research, we have a similar attitude as a documentary filmmaker, but ultimately a different approach. We try to find a strong visual image, but we don’t want to educate or explain everything. As artists we can keep it vague and abstract. For a documentary filmmaker it’s probably different. You have to target a certain format, for TV or documentary film distribution, ideally 60 or 90 minutes. For artworks, the timeframe is more flexible, and rather than working for a single screen, we can also work with multiple screens and consider the element of space for an installation. N/M: Through the format of a film installation with several screens, we try to create a new approach for watching it. Viewers can switch between parallel time and story streams, depending on their own knowledge, associations and imagination, and finally add this new image to their own memory. www.adelaidefestival.com.au

Image courtesy of the artists and EIGEN+ART, Leipzig and Berlin

The Festival’s Visual Arts Curator, Victoria Lynn, recently spoke to Nina and Maroan:

Focus ON Photography AND New Media :21

Biennale of Sydney: The German Contingent Dougal Phillips

Courtesy of Klosterfelde, Berlin; Lisson Gallery, London; and Petzel Gallery, New York | Image courtesy of Biennale of Sydney © 2008 John Bock | Courtesy Klosterfelde, Berlin and Anton Kern, New York, Photograph: Jan Windszus

The Artistic Director of the 2010 Biennale of Sydney is David Elliott, international curator, writer, broadcaster and museum director, with considerable work experience in Germany and especially Berlin. Elliott has based the Biennale on the curatorial theme THE BEAUTY OF DISTANCE: Songs of Survival in a Precarious Age. The exhibition will see recent and new works by Australian artists showcased alongside international artists. A range of artists living and working in Germany will be participating in the 17th Biennale of Sydney. kultur introduces three of them.

• Christian Jankowski, Strip the Auctioneer, 2009 (video still), video, colour, sound

• John Bock, Fischgrätenmelkstand kippt ins Höhlengleichnis Refugium, 2008, video

Christian Jankowski (born 1968 in Göttingen, Germany; lives and works in Berlin) is one of many artists producing a new work for the 17th Biennale of Sydney. Developed in conversation with David Elliott, Jankowski’s work will be shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Jankowski’s practice is about the transformative powers of artistic creation, executed in simple gestures in the context of everyday life. His works have at their core a humorous yet critical reflection of his own role as an artist. In his work, he develops scenarios in which everyday interactions are transformed into performative artworks. These outcomes are manifested across a range of media, from installations and videos to photography and performance.

John Bock (born 1965 in Gribbohm, Germany; lives and works in Berlin) makes lectures, films and installations that combine and cross-pollinate practices of language, theatre and sculpture in an absurd and complex fashion. He is known for producing surreal, disturbing and sometimes violent universes in which he manipulates phantasmagorical machines constructed out of waste and found objects. Actively collapsing the borders of performance, video and installation, Bock is one of the most unique artists working today. Bock came to prominence with appearances in the 6th Berlin Biennial (1998), the 48th Venice Biennale (1999) and Documenta 11 in Kassel (2002). He was initially known for his unpredictable, sprawling live performances in which he brings together uncanny costumes, jury-rigged sets made from tables, cupboards and simple machinery, and his own wildly discursive lecturing style. Bock’s work in the Biennale, Fischgrätenmelkstand kippt ins Höhlengleichnis Refugium (2008) sees the artist playing the role of a decadent, powdered, ancien régime dandy who is trapped, questioning the meaning of life, with an opulently clad, similarly bewigged young woman in a clinical, tiled space.

Berthold Reiß (born 1962 in Salzburg, Austria; lives and works in Munich) is a scholar, researcher and experimental artist. His works are rich in symbolism, spiritualism and modern mysticism, and reveal the influences of architectural structures — in particular, church buildings — geometric patterns and the forms of nature. Reiß’s watercolours contemplate the historical role of pictography in society, used either for aesthetic, political, religious or scientific purposes to communicate information or convey a message. Particularly fascinated by the philosophy and aesthetics of Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), and aware of the colour theories and ideas of Rudolf Steiner (1861– 1925), he also revisits German Romanticism and Jugendstil; in his words, he ‘starts at the point where German Romanticism and the German Enlightenment are hardly distinguishable.’ In delicate watercolours, Reiß applies a range of muted, nearly translucent tones to create an enigmatic backdrop to the symbolic constructs he has modified. The beauty of these pieces lies in their spare nature; the coloured planes within them seem to be awash with a kind of spiritual wonder. For the 17th Biennale of Sydney, Reiß will exhibit a new series of watercolours specially made for the exhibition, each titled Fabel. Dougal Phillips is public program and education manager at the Biennale of Sydney. The German participation is generously supported by IFA (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut. Biennale of Sydney 12 May–1 August 2010

www.bos17.com

kultur APRIL 2010

22: ON stage

Garry Maddox

Director Thomas Ostermeier could hardly have been happier about the response to his German version of Hamlet at the Sydney Festival this year. Ostermeier was drawn to theatre partly through geography: he was born in Germany’s north but grew up in Bavaria. “I had problems at school because I had a different accent,” he says. “Because of that, I was a little bit of an outsider. Theatre was one place where this capability of talking [differently] was an advantage, so I went there.” Moving to Berlin to act and play in bands, Ostermeier discovered an interest in directing that quickly saw him recognised as a leading talent in German theatre. “Contrarily to my acting career, I immediately became very successful in a very short time,” he says. It was another production of Hamlet that inspired his own interpretation, which involved dismantling and reassembling the play. Ostermeier says he was prepared for the reaction that it was “Eurotrash, only interesting inside of Germany”. But the production has been acclaimed internationally — in France, Spain and Holland before Sydney and Moscow. “One of the biggest mistakes of most other actors and directors, in my view, is that they portray Hamlet as if he is a non-human being,” he says. “As if he is a pure soul of total truth and wisdom — yes, hesitating, but at the same time romantic — a beautiful mind. “I was a bit angry with that. I’m angry with Hamlet not taking decisions. I think this is kind of him showing that he is a spoilt child — that he’s a child of a royal family… “People say Hamlet is the first step of mankind towards modernity — the first modern character. I wanted to talk a little bit about modernity and where we are now with modernity.” While steeped in theatre history, Ostermeier draws inspiration for his productions from another art form. “I’m a big fan of highly advanced American experimental hardcore free jazz music, like John Zorn for example

top to bottom • Thomas Ostermeier; Judith Rosmair and Lars Eidinger in Hamlet

and others,” he says. “This music is a sampling of all different styles of music, so you have swing moments with hardcore moments and it’s changing very fast. “But it’s all handmade, there are no samples, no electronics. These are musicians who are capable of doing all kinds of styles of music and sounds and to change very fast and to nevertheless be very groovy and very close to the heartbeat. It’s also a very physical music. This would be my vision of theatre.” Ostermeier is now continuing his interest in realistic contemporary playwrights with a production by Scandinavian Lars Norén while preparing another classic Shakespeare tragedy, Othello, for the Ruhr.2010. The new production promises to be as bold and unconventional as Hamlet. “It’s a play about Iago,” Ostermeier says. “The real interesting thing is how Iago achieves to deconstruct Othello’s mind. That’s why I’m doing the play. The starting point of the play is envy. Jealousy is only a variation of envy.” Thomas Ostermeier is one of Germany’s most distinguished directors and theatre managers. He is jointly in charge of artistic direction at Berlin’s Schaubühne theatre, where his acclaimed work includes both contemporary and classic plays. Garry Maddox writes for — and is deputy arts editor of — The Sydney Morning Herald.

www.schaubühne.de

The production by Berlin’s famed Schaubühne theatre, supported by the Goethe-Institut, was one of the festival’s hits and the muddied face of star Lars Eidinger became one of its most memorable images. “We were all very excited about coming here and also pretty nervous,” says Ostermeier during his Sydney visit. “It’s Hamlet, it’s a Shakespeare play, it’s an English-speaking audience who is used to hearing Shakespeare in English. In the end, it turned out to work, which was nice.” The Schaubühne boss’s vision for one of theatre’s most famous plays was as bold as it was brilliant: 6 actors playing 20 roles, with a disturbed and bewildered Hamlet turning a video camera on his debauched world. At times, he acts like a spoilt teenager, burying his face in the dirt on stage; at other times, he raps and jokes as he strolls into the audience.

ON stage :23

David Gieselmann • Sarah Giles •

Germany’s finest comic writer, David Gieselmann, discusses his writing and his new play The Pigeons with Sydney based director and producer Sarah Giles — and finds out why some cultures laugh more than others.

Die Tauben — The Pigeons or The Deaf Ones Sarah Giles: It’s not often that you read a play and instantly fall in love with it. I liken it to finding a good friend; they’re not in huge supply and you recognise them straight away. So when I found myself sitting in a cafe laughing out loud, completely enthralled and furiously turning the pages, you can understand why I jumped on The Pigeons straight away. Six months later, as I prepare to direct the English Language World Premiere of this award-winning neurotic puzzle, I had the rare opportunity to chat with writer David Gieselmann about his thoughts on theatre, the role of the director and why some cultures laugh more than others. SG: David, Die Tauben in German translates into The Pigeons or The Deaf Ones, yet in English we lose this nuance in translation. How important was the double entendre in choosing your title? David Gieselmann: I guess it is a nice effect to have this double entendre, but the more important reason for the title are the pigeons in the play which are actually carrier-pigeons: It is all about coming back or not being able to leave. The untranslatable ‘Deaf Ones’ is maybe not a big loss.

SG: Your previous play Mr Kolpert has been performed in many countries, and The Pigeons is being performed in a number of countries this year as well. What do you think it is about your writing that attracts such international interest? DG: Die Tauben is not a success in Germany — but in other countries… I more and more get the feeling that German theatre is not interested in comedies at all. I don’t want to sound bitter, and of course I very much appreciate the fact that my plays are a success in so many countries, but it is also weird. Maybe the reason is very simple: In other

countries, there is more of a will and an ability to laugh? SG: The form and structure of Die Tauben may be one of the enormously exciting elements of the play — did you discover the form and structure as you went along or did you have a clear idea of it in your head to begin with? DG: I had this open form or structure in my mind for a very long time, the idea that some scenes are interrupting each other so often that the main focus is getting lost for audiences and actors, and there is one surreal main space in which everyone can speak to everyone. This scenario was looking for content and found it in the story of Robert Bertrand who wants to disappear. SG: I know The Pigeons is part of a trilogy… What were your thoughts behind making it a trilogy? DG: The idea of the trilogy was a trick for myself in the first plays: It connected three different ideas for three plays, and this connection made it impossible for them to disappear from my brain. By writing the third play, I found out that the three plays affect each other even though they have totally different forms. SG: Do you feel that the role of the director is to elucidate what they perceive to be the writer’s intention or to treat the text as a pre-text, so to speak, and to use it as a catalyst for their own intentions and messages? SG: Very often, especially in Germany, I get to hear that my plays are so ‘well made’ that there is no space for the director. I think this is silly, because every play has its deep core which is surrounded by a lot of details that have to be realised ON stage. I often have no opinion about these details, because they

need the stage to be alive, to be visible, to work. And to be alive, to be visible, to work they need all the things that actors, directors, stage designers and so on do. If a play is can be explained on paper in every detail, if everything is written down, it is not a play anymore. Sarah Giles is a NIDA directing graduate and was the Affiliate Director in residence at Griffin Theatre Company in 2009. Sarah has directed a wide variety of plays and has assisted with STC, MTC and Malthouse. David Gieselmann grew up in Darmstadt and studied playwriting in Berlin. Since 1999, Gieselmann has been writing plays and radio plays. In 1999 he was invited to the ‘International Residency of Playwrights’ and the ‘Week of New German Playwrights’ at the Royal Court in London where his play Herr Kolpert had its world premiere in 2000. The Pigeons: Griffin Independent Season, Sydney, 6 to 30 October 2010, produced by Pearly Productions and Griffin Independent, support by Arts Radar, the Goethe-Institut and The University of Sydney.

www.griffintheatre.com.au

24: ON stage

Theatertreffen Berlin Tanya Weiler

May in Berlin. The weather is warm, the evenings are long and light, the vibe is electric, and for two weeks, Berlin plays host to the most remarkable pieces of German-speaking theatre.

as the story of one woman’s loneliness was filmed and streamed live onto a giant screen whilst juxtaposed against a stage filled with technical crew, providing the live soundtrack to her misery. In Joachim Meyerhoff’s Alle Toten fliegen Hoch (All the Dead Fly High), a remarkable biographical solo piece, the focus on text was unparalleled. Similarly in Nicholas Stemann’s Die Räuber (The Robbers), which saw four actors concurrently play the same character. Following each performance, workshops focused on German theatre in comparison to theatre around the world. These debates raised a repeating point — no emotion tended to make its way past the footlights. For the international contingent, comprising artists from England, Norway, Chile, Syria, Israel, China, Argentina and Japan, this seemed problematic. All agreed that the direction, staging and performances were brilliant — ‘but I wasn’t moved’ was a statement often uttered. This, however, did not seem of concern to the German participants. The explanation for this came from an Artistic Director from Mannheim: “We do not go to the theatre to be moved”. I was intrigued. “If you don’t go to the theatre to be moved, don’t you nevertheless want to feel some kind of connection?”, “No” was the reply. This had me even more intrigued; surely audiences desire an empathetic connection

to the material? “The reason we go to the theatre is to question, not to feel… Question our environment, our lives, and our society, irrespective of the answer. To ask a question does not necessarily garner an answer. You can debate and become emotional and passionate after the piece, when you discuss it with the other people in your life, that is the time for emotion — watching the work on stage is the time to be objective, not emotional”. Another theatre maker from Leipzig agreed: “We do want to be moved, but it is self-indulgent for an actor to play with their audience’s emotions. It is more relevant to reflect our society rather than play emotion and rely on empathy.” I am certain there is no uniform reason we go to the theatre, irrespective of our cultural backgrounds. However, the opportunity to debate, discuss, and learn from German speaking theatre makers at Theatertreffen 09 was invaluable, as was our ability to share our Australian theatre experiences. Tanya Weiler is a Sydney-based actor and director. In May of this year, she will be travelling to Germany to work with director Marco Storman on a bilingual theatre piece to be performed in Berlin and Melbourne in late 2010. Theatertreffen 10 will be held in Berlin from 7–23 May, with the theme New Horizons.

www.berlinerfestspiele.de

Each year Theatertreffen jury invites the ten ‘bemerkenswerteste Inszenierungen’ (most notable productions) from Germanspeaking theatre to Berlin. Concurrently, the Theatertreffen hosts an International Forum, inviting German-speaking theatre makers from around the world to participate in theatre workshops. The theme of the 2009 Festival was Erzähltes Wir. Die Welt als Stoff (The Narrated We. The World as a Subject). In May 2009, supported by the GoetheInstitut, playwright Nicki Bloom and myself were invited to participate in the Theatertreffen International Forum. Viewing the work of directors such as Jürgen Gosch, Christoph Schlingensief, Joachim Meyerhoff, and Katie Mitchell, participating in the same festival was unforgettable. Highlighting intense differences and similarities between Australian and German directing and staging styles, the festival provided an extraordinary insight into contemporary German theatre. The use of space, technology, and the sense of detail in the various pieces was astounding. The on-stage worlds and the performances within them were acutely detailed, as seen in Christoph Schlingensief’s Eine Kirche der Angst vor den Fremden in mir (Church of Fear) — which transformed the theatre into a church that celebrated Schlingensief’s life and commiserated in his personal battle with cancer. Katie Mitchell’s Wunschkonzert (Request Programme) brought technology to the fore,

ON stage :25

A German Gypsy in the Australian Desert Sean Mackenzie

Most travel products allow you to predict the outcome of your tour precisely. The traveller knows exactly what they will see and when. Gypsies in the Desert is not one of them. The workshop commences in the desert town of Alice Springs and moves along the beautiful MacDonnell Ranges before looping around into the Aboriginal community of Ipolera. Under the tuition and guidance of Lulo and his band, the travelling group will prepare a repertoire for a last-night performance in the old German Lutheran Missionary town of Hermannsburg, acting as a support act along with Lulo before he and his band take the stage as the main act. In the community where old German pastors such as Pastor Strelow and Pastor Albrecht tended to the Arrentre people, the sounds of music from the gypsy tradition will be heard in the desert night and definitely for the first time. Gypsies in the Desert will be the final stage of Lulo’s World tour for 2010. If you can’t make it to Hermannsburg, you can see Lulo elsewhere in Australia until 5 April or from 1 September to 7 October.

• Lulo Reinhardt

• Hermannsburg Missionary

Take your mind to a desert night, warm around a fire with kindred spirits, perhaps listening to an old Aboriginal woman telling stories of her country, or Lulo Reinhardt telling stories of his, or singing a cappella style in an ancient gorge, and tell me you can predict the outcome of this extraordinary tour. www.intotheblue.com.au www.pixiemichaelmanagement.com

When a tour is designed for singers and musicians as a roving workshop into the centre of Australia, with a German gypsy guitarist who is Django Reinhardt’s grandnephew, sometimes walking, sometimes listening to traditional Arrentre people around a desert fire, performing in an old German Lutheran Mission, always only a note or an inspiration away from joining in song in the tradition of a nomadic band, then the outcome becomes unpredictable, edgy, fascinating and hard to miss. Guitarist Lulo Reinhardt is recognised as one of the few true gypsy guitarists left in the world. He will lead a band of singers and musicians into the beautiful and evocative landscape of the MacDonnell Ranges and Aboriginal homelands around Hermannsburg, shaping songs together and telling stories of gypsy life as their Aboriginal hosts will share their stories of Creation and Dreamtime.

kultur APRIL 2010

26:

Calendar of Events

Highlights

April–July 2010 and Beyond For updates on all these events please check: www.goethe.de/australia or our partners’ websites.

ART INSTALLATIONS NINA FISCHER & MAROAN EL SANI ADELAIDE FESTIVAL

EXHIBITION FAR AWAY SO CLOSE — GERMAN LIFE AND HISTORY IN AUSTRALIA

EXHIBITION ZEITGEIST BECOMES FORM — GERMAN FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY

26 February – 30 April: Adelaide Nina Fischer and Maroan el Sani are part of the ‘Adelaide International 2010’ exhibition. Nina Fischer and Maroan El Sani formed their artistic partnership in 1993, and have worked since to create a body of contemporary video, films, installations, and photographic works. Their work explores ideas about collective memory, architecture and visual space, and the play between fantasy and reality. www.adelaidefestival.com.au

6 April – 02 July: Sydney Goethe-Institut Australien Ocean Street, Woollahra Germany and Australia are Far Away from each other and yet So Close. What kind of German places and traces are still to be found in Australia today? German photographer Matthias Koch travelled through Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney. FAR AWAY SO CLOSE is Part III of a German-Australian exhibition project. Come and have a look at unexpected places and signs of German life and history in Australia. Send us your own favourite place for our website… www.goethe.de/faraway

23 July – 28 August: Sydney Australian Centre of Photography Oxford Street, Paddington This exhibition showcases the best of German fashion photography 1945–1995. An exciting retrospective of post-World War II German fashion photography demonstrating not only trends in fashion but also societal development in Germany.

EXHIBITION BIENNALE OF SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2010 AUDI FESTIVAL OF GERMAN FILMS 21 April – 02 May: Sydney Chauvel Cinema Palace Norton Street 22 April – 02 May: Melbourne Palace Cinema Como Kino Cinemas 22 April – 26 April: Perth Cinema Paradiso 28 April – 03 May: Brisbane Palace Centro Cinema 07 May – 09 May: Adelaide Palace Nova Eastend Cinema In its 9th year, our Audi Festival of German Films will again bring the best and most outstanding German film productions to Australia. Audiences in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide are invited to join us for the 2010 festival and participate in our Golden Gnome audience award, vote for your favourite film and win a trip to Germany. www.goethe.de/australia

EXHIBITION HIJACKED 2 — RECENT GERMAN AND AUSTRALIAN PHOTOGRAPHY 11 June – 17 July: Sydney Australian Centre of Photography Oxford Street, Paddington In cooperation with the Goethe-Institut, Australian curator and journalist Mark McPherson will develop a group exhibition on young GermanAustralian photography. Hijacked 2 offers a rare opportunity to consider the contemporary photographic culture of two distant but connected nations. Simultaneous publication of an accompanying book; planned visit of two photographers featured in the exhibition. Dance TANZCONNEXIONS Meg Stuart — Maybe Forever 23 – 26 June: Melbourne Malthouse Theatre Melbourne For details and bookings please visit: www.goethe.de/australia

Information correct at time of printing.

12 May – 1 August: Sydney The 17th Biennale of Sydney is curated by Artistic Director, David Elliott and is titled The Beauty of Distance: Sings of Survival in a Precarious Age. In a country like Australia in which distance has often been regarded as disadvantage this Biennale will focus of the advantage to be so far away. John Bock, Christian Jankowski and Berthold Reiß are three of the eminent contemporary German artists that will be included in this curatorial concept.

calendar of events :27

Looking Ahead

EXHIBITION TWO GERMAN ARCHITECTURES 02 – 23 October: Canberra Gallery of Australian Design 20 years after German reunification this exhibition shows the architectural achievements of both West- and East-Republic. The show traces the diverging and converging aspects of the two apparently separate architectural discourses, studies their different developments and cites their cultural, political and economic context. Accompanying talks and workshops with Simone Hain, curator of the show.

BERLIN DAYZ in Melbourne Your German Australian Arts festival in Melbourne Program available early October.

BERLIN BUILDS STADT UND HAUS — NEW ARCHITECTURE FROM BERLIN

BERLIN SPEAKS THE POWER OF LANGUAGE — DIE MACHT DER SPRACHE

1 November – 30 November Goethe-Institut Melbourne

November Bailieu Library BERLIN WRITES YOUNG CAPITAL WRITERS: Bas Böttcher and Wladimir Kaminer

BERLIN DESIGNS SOMEWHAT DIFFERENT — CONTEMPORARY GERMAN DESIGN 07 October – 27 November: Melbourne RMIT Gallery

October/November: Melbourne State Library of Victoria

BERLIN DRESSES ZEITGEIST BECOMES FORM — GERMAN FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY 18 October – 12 November Australian Design Academy

BERLIN TALKS SYMPOSIUM: BERLIN IN LITERATURE AND FILM Dates TBC Presented by University of Melbourne in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut.

BERLIN FRAMES HIJACKED 2 — RECENT GERMAN AND AUSTRALIAN PHOTOGRAPHY 29 October – January 2011 Monash Gallery of Art

For further information as well as highlights in 2010 please check our website www.goethe.de/australia

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CANNES 2010 Meet us at German Pavilion, International Village www.german-films.de

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