Magazine #24 of the Federal Cultural Foundation / Kulturstiftung des Bundes

№ 24 Spring / Summer 2015

RELI GION

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1 EDI TOR I A L

“Now tell me, how do you take religion?” This so-called “Gretchen Question” has been all but missing from ­public discourse for decades. Those who consider themselves enlightened have critically viewed the doings and goings on of religions and their representatives from a distance and lauded secular society as an ineluctable, cultural achievement of civilisation. In the first fifteen years of the 21st century, however, a change in thinking has slowly but surely taken hold. The prominent philosopher and sociologist Jürgen Habermas, who has never attempted to conceal being “religiously unmusical”, made a public appeal to acknowledge religion as a source of meaning in democracies. After engaging in a dialogue with former cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Habermas became all the more convinced that the democratic public sphere had to develop “an awareness of what it lacks” and should take into account religious roots as building blocks of identity. In both political and scientific respects, there is possibly no other relationship which is rifer with tension and offers more subject matter for discussion than that between religions and secular society. Not only is this reflected in public debates, inflamed by criticism of Islamism and religiously motivated persecution, but it has also become evident in the thematic spectrum of our project applications, in which the subject of “religion” is increasingly prominent.

Therefore, in this issue of our Magazine we explore the topic of “religion” in connection with our funded projects and have included a photo spread by Boris Mikhailov which adds an artistic perspective to the subject.

In hindsight, the Protestant Lutheran church made the right decision not only to plan the commemorative events of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017 years ago, but also to commence the Luther De­ cade back in 2008. Our religious and cultural identity requires and deserves comprehensive reflection. Consequently, the Federal Cultural Foundation has already supported a number of Luther Decade projects. And this year, the Catholic Church will be commemorating an historic event – the 50th anniversary of Vatican Council II (1962–1965). It represented a turning point which continues to influence the relationship between the state and the Roman Catholic Church, the relations with non-Christians, and fundamental principles of ­ecumenism today. Starting this May, the Federal Cultural Foundation will be funding a major exhibition in Düssel­dorf featuring contemporary works which present Christian iconography as an integral part of our collective visual memory (“The Problem of God”).

The Federal Cultural Foundation traditionally develops its own programmes as well, e.g. “The Undead”, “Culture of Memory”, “As Darkness Falls” and “Political Romanticism”. This year, it is organising a major international conference titled “Trial of Faith” which will examine whether religions should promote modern growth-thinking or rather call for limits to growth. The conference will centre on the three major Abrahamic religions of Central Europe – Judaism, Islam and ­Christianity. By approaching the subject from a cross-­ religious perspective, the Federal Cultural Foundation hopes that the conference will shed light on the historic and theological implications of our increasingly globalised culture.

This issue on religion opens with an article by a completely “normal” Protestant pastor and esteemed preacher who reflects on why religious people, “Christian” people, are still around today (p. 4). The cultural scholar Marcia Pally comes from the United States where, unlike Germany, evangelical movements set the tone in politics and society and are not retrogressive by any means. And that’s a good thing in her opinion, especially as she sees the conventional criticism of religion in Europe as “naïve” (p. 8). Like Marcia Pally, Birger Priddat from the University of Witten-Herdecke will also be attending the conference in May. In an interview

by Jacqueline Boysen, Priddat, a respected economist and philosopher, offers his take on various facets of the relationship of religious faith and capitalistic doctrine (p. 14). The Catholic theologian Reinhard Hoeps doubts that we are seeing a return to Christian iconography, a renaissance of Christian images, even though this might seem a logical consequence in view of the return of the religions. In reference to the exhibition “The Problem of God” (p. 17), he claims that contemporary art is not so easily enlisted into the service of religious heritage.

After seeing the exhibition “[Open] Secrets” at Rehearsal Stage 4 of the Humboldt Lab, Christoph Balzar uses the example of “churingas” of the Australian Aborigines to explore the moral conflicts that arise when sacred objects are presented in the profane museum context of an ethnographical collection (p. 21). And finally, British author Tim Parks addresses the (currently unpopular) question as to whether science has superseded religion when it comes to explaining and instilling meaning to life (p. 23).

Hortensia Völckers, Alexander Farenholtz Executive Board German Federal Cultural Foundation

2 CON T EN TS

Focus: Religion Is faith dangerous? Or does it provide secular society with values that are ­essential for social coexistence? Are organised religions even necessary or would we be better off if they disap­ peared?

BORIS MIKHAILOV For this special issue on “religion” we have ­selected works by Boris Mikhailov from his series “Structures of Madness, or Why Shepherds Living in the Mountains Often Go Crazy” (2011/12), which were made in Egypt near the Red Sea. Cliff drawings, or petroglyphs, are among the oldest e­ xamples of fine art and often reflect ancient religious views.

Although Mikhailov himself is not religious, he is convinced that religion has played an integral role in driving the development of pictorial culture. In the series presented here, the artist r­eveals how our eye tends to recognise certain visual designs, patterns, dogmas and canons. The cliff formations, which the photographer captured, form the basis for new drawings and evoke associations of images and motifs contained within them; the viewer “interprets” faces, torsos and fantastic creatures in them. Together with the art scholar Sergey Fofanov, Mikhailov offers a religious explanation of these images.

Thomas Baltrock The aim of the Christian faith is not to preserve the church as we know it in perpetuity. What remains are spaces, rituals and texts.

p. 4

Marcia Pally We tend to place the blame for everything in life far away from ourselves. Religion – not us – is the true cause of our greed and failure. But as Marcia Pally explains in her essay, this strategy is as successful as it is disingenuous.

p. 8

New Projects — Image & Space Medical Care by Prisoner Personnel at the ­Ravensbrück Concentration Camp (1939–1945) / Common Grounds / Rémy Zaugg – And the Question of Perception / Kostas Murkudis. Alchemy / Things to come / Bodenlos / Groundless / Irony in Media Art / Counting in Eight, Moving by Color / Inhuman / Room for Association – The Wunderkammer /

p. 11–13

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New Projects — Theatre & Movement

An interview by Jacqueline Boysen with the economist and philosopher Birger Priddat No deal without God – Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the three Abrahamic religions, have established order in the world, and the economy. But are their teachings applicable to the turbo-capitalism of today? Jacqueline Boysen speaks with Birger ­Priddat about the problematic relationship of faith and money.

Christoph Balzar Warning: Australian Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders may take offense at the following article as it contains references to the deceased and secretsacred knowledge.

p. 21

RomAmoR / TERRORisms / Impulse Theater Festival 2015 / Balagan!!! / Paul McCarthy – Stage Coach & ­Theo Altenberg – Invite / Dirt / ORFEO / Seven Rooms Incomprehensible / Save the world /

p. 28–30

Committees & Imprint

p. 14

p. 31

A Voice in the Desert Photo series by Boris Mikhailov Tim Parks To what extent do scientific findings influence the meaning of life and how we lead it? Could science eventually take the place of religious certainties?

New Projects in General Project Funding

p. 23

At its meeting in autumn 2014, the interdisciplinary jury of the Federal Cultural Foundation recommended funding for 32 new projects with a total volume of 4.1 million euros. You can find detailed information about the individual projects on our website www.kulturstiftung-bund.de or on the websites operated by the respective project coordinators. The next jury session will take place in spring 2015. The submission deadline for the next round of appli­ cations to General Project Funding is 31 July 2015.

New Projects — Image & Space Reinhard Hoeps Are we seeing a revival of Christian iconography?

Contemporary artists are not re-embracing Christian imagery for reasons of faith, but rather out of an interest in the history of art – a veritable ­source of inspiration.

p. 17

New Projects — Word & Knowledge Grandhotel Cosmopolis Peace Conference / Science as Religion? / CHANGE / Adolf Hitler: Mein Kampf, Volume 1 & 2 / Interview with Michael Wildt – The Fear of the Spiegel Bestseller List

p. 19–20

Walker Evans: Depth of Field / eigenvalue / Kingdom Paradise / Travesty for Advanced Performers / Nickolas Muray / The Beast and the Sovereign /

p. 25–26

New Projects — Music & Sound Alif::split of the wall / 500 Years with Luther / Festival for Matters of Time /

p. 27

The members of the jury are: Dr. Brigitte Franzen, director of the Ludwig Forum for International Art in Aachen / Joachim Gerstmeier, director of the ­performing arts department at the Siemens Foundation / Dr. Angelika Nollert, director of the Neue Sammlung – The International Design Museum Munich, Pinakothek der Moderne / Dr. Andreas Rötzer, publisher and managing director of Matthes & Seitz Berlin publishing house / Albert Schmitt, managing director of the German Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra in Bremen / Gisela Staupe, deputy director of the German Hygiene Museum in Dresden / Karsten ­Wiegand, general theatre director of the Staatstheater Darmstadt

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 W WE’RE AROU On religiousness between truth and the need for comfort, awareness and self-forgetfulness

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WHY E STILL UND

by Thomas Baltrock

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ooking back at some of the predictions church insiders were making in the 1980s about the future of the Protestant church, perhaps one of the most surprising things is the simple fact that the Christian religion in the popular church-based form is still around. “In view of the dwindling number of church members” is a phrase which has accompanied me ever since I entered the service of the church. And even as recently as Christmas 2014, a journalist with NDR called me up to ask me how it felt to stand before an overcrowded church on Christmas Eve and preach to empty pews for the rest of the year. Now, our congregation in downtown Lübeck doesn’t have that problem. In fact, many overlook the fact that more people congregate in churches

on every weekend of the year than in football stadiums.

This is strange in view of the massive criticism of religion and church in recent times. “Religion trivialises social injustice with the perspective of heavenly reward.”

Nobody denies that this has happened. “Religion is an instrument for disciplining the masses in the interest of those in power.” No one denies this has happened. “Religion cements long-refuted world views and antiquated stereotypes.” Who would deny that this has happened?

Yet despite these arguments, religion seems to last.

The prediction that religion is on a one-way street to disintegrating in a secular world as prosperity grows and enlightenment spreads, is simply not panning out. In fact, one occasionally hears the term “post-secular age” to describe our current times.

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ut why is that? First of all, very mundanely, large institutions have a phenomenal ability to persist. There are estates, pensions, contracts between the federal government, states and churches, legal successors and customs.

the fields”) which seem to have lost all notion of the phenomenon of “holiness”. On one hand, also at the highest intellectual level, we have a metaphysically secure, epistemologically and dramaturgically designed system, organised down to the last detail – which unfortunately only true experts of form can appreciate. And on the other hand, though exercised with utmost commitment, we have a form of religion which has lost all vestiges of Naturally there are other answers which vary tremen- theological Eros and which, in short, caters so much to dously depending on who you ask. A theologian might providing love and warmth that it no longer strives to say that humans are inherently religious beings, created search for the truth.

by God in God’s image. Another theologian may object by arguing that humans are basically godless, they need If we try to classify the new – or revived – religious a revelation, and thus the disappearance of “religion” explorations and discoveries in the Western world, we as a cultural phenomenon has absolutely no influence come across the strengthened ultra-conservative wing on God’s relationship to man. One could systematical- in the Catholic Church as well as the Protestant ­milieu. ly identify, if not analyse, two essential sources of reli- While Catholic movements regard the Church itself as gious sentiment on the basis of historical texts of world providing the intellectual means for coping with the present, Protestant movements see the text of the ­Bible religions: as defining the moral basis and principles for a successFor one, there is the knowledge of the general con- ful life. text of all that is real, the unity of the world which ­underlies all fragmentation into single parts. The knowln addition to these factions, there are edge of this fundamental unity is expressed by religious those who are out searching either by ceremony, the ritualised celebration of life. Secondly, themselves or in small groups. They are there is the defiance toward the world as it truly is, the searching in very different ways and at protest against suffering, injustice and death. This very different levels of determination. ­refusal to accept the factual is expressed through lamSome, for example, follow the path of Buddha by trying to recognise their greed entation and the comforting deed. We can more easily verify the theory that religion is regaining one of its an- and assume an attitude without sacrificing, without recient functions: providing orientation and a home in a lying on an institution as a panacea, and without using complex and chaotic world. For centuries, religions ex- the word “faith”. And there are others who buy a Budplained a world that simple people could not compre- dha-shaped candle at a Christmas market to light durhend. But throughout the course of the Enlightenment, ing Advent … religion in the Western hemisphere lost its status as the preeminent interpreter of all things worldly, while adTwo aspects of these many new semblances of relivances in the natural sciences made the world increas- gion are particularly bewildering and unsettling to me. ingly understandable. In the meantime, however, we find For one, there’s the perfect self-immunisation of potenourselves in a situation in which human life is so glob- tially distressing arguments. How often have I tried to ally networked, yet fragmented with such a wealth of explain to the druid next door that we know absolutely information, we can no longer comprehend it. It’s nothing about the spirituality of his self-chosen ancesmind-boggling to think that the average Central Euro- tors – beyond some ambiguous archaeological finds and pean today views more images in various media in one biased (or even venomous) reports by Greek and Roman single day than someone in the Middle Ages saw his en- scribes? tire life. nother scene: Early one mornhe result is a new desire for f­ amiliar ing, the doorbell of the parcertainties, spiritual ties and ritsonage rings. I open the door uals that create order – let’s call to two spectacularly smartly-­ it religion. Yet remarkably, highly dressed young men. They ask whether we might discuss our institutionalised major churches can hardly benefit from this trend. common faith. Okay, I’m willThe reasons appear obvious. At ing to be generous with the word “our”; I’m up for the one end of the denominational spectrum, we have a hi- challenge ... I know my Bible verses very well. After all, erarchically structured church which sometimes seems I read from the Bible every day. “You also believe, Mr. more fettered by its old judgements and values than it Pastor, that Moses wrote the five books of Moses?” I actually advocates; at the other end, we have a ground- reply, “That can’t be possible, after all in Deuteronoroots, democratically organised culture of small groups my 34, 5, the death of Moses is described in the third holding hands and using gender-friendly language (“And person singular.” The quick comeback: “He predicted there were shepherds and shepherdesses living out in that.” But more seriously, 200 years of philological study

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of the Scriptures, which are also sacred to me, are deflected away like Darwin and the dinosaurs from Ned Flanders in the Simpsons. Weather-proof faith, nothing sticks to it.

is that the old forms arouse a desire in visitors to more intensively participate in them – our external congregation (people who don’t live in our congregation’s district, but attend our services nonetheless) is growing. We offer people something they know, what they’re familiar with.

The ritual of church service is very much like the hand movements of a tea master or the sequence of steps in classical dance. It relieves people from the need to make decisions for a while and encourages them to assume a disciplined vigilance.

But even more threatening is the following: These new stirrings of religious feeling have formed zones which are absolutely void of irony. And where there’s no irony, there’s no humour. Ultimately it’s about unambiguity – and it’s serious. It takes itself so seriously that it doesn’t see the possible seriousness of others.

And finally – we are a Protestant Lutheran congreAnd that’s how it happens – at various levels of dangerousness – that others are judged as: esoterically un- gation – the texts. To have them speak to us, not only talented, the axis of evil, un-Russian, atheist. This is do we require the gift of the Holy Spirit, but also the gift of interest, exegetic effort and time. The history of where hate resides. the Christian church has always been one of textual inAre there practices, with which Protestant congre- terpretation, and interpreting a text doesn’t only mean gations like ours can assert themselves in the future? obeying it, but also supplementing it or even replacing Are there visualisations of holiness that can move and it with another text. motivate people even today? However, we must be clear that the goal of the Christian faith is not to ensure the nd sometimes, when passing through holy spaces, celebratsurvival of the institution of the Church in its familiar ing rituals and working with form. To be honest, “faith” has no goal: neither the rereligious texts, we encounter newal of the Occident, nor the psychological optimisaan additional “something” tion of the individual. Faith has consequences, but like which does not exhaust itself love, no intentions. in aesthetic pleasure or meWe are granted three things which convey the ­Other, thodical comprehension, and can hardly be expressed the Unprovable, but, for those who believe, the ever in words. Sometimes it’s there, inviolably. I think these present, into the tangible world – spaces, rituals and rare moments of pure self-forgetfulness are places where the phenomenon of “religion” crystallises, and when texts. they do arise, that’s where I believe religion is – with ur own church, the smallest or without a church. of the medieval churches in Why religion and faith are still around? We use the downtown Lübeck, dates back to the early 13th cen- adjective “satiated” or “full” as an antonym for “huntury, and its most recent gry”, but as far as I know, no language has an opposite for chapel extensions and fur- “thirsty”. Nothing and nobody in this world can quench nishings were added in the man’s thirst …

18th century. Aside from minor scrapes and bruises, our space has survived the horrors of the centuries including the Second World War. The deceased still lie at rest in Thomas Baltrock, born in 1961, is a Protestant Lutheran pasthe tombs and chapels. Death and the trust in God surtor at St. Aegidi in Lübeck and respected preacher far beyond his congregation. His sermons are so enlightening, many would round us. This space has been magnificently decorated be happy if he didn’t following the rule “preach about everything, by our forefathers, and this magnificence still fulfils its but no longer than 20 minutes”. Baltrock has studied everything imaginable – theology, ancient philology, art history, philosoage-old function: It portrays an aesthetic world so difphy – and spent time studying in Bonn, New York, Rome and Kiel. ferent from our everyday experience and flouts the grey reality of everyday life. There was a time when people used to regard the old church buildings in Europe as “images of heaven”. At least they don’t limit themselves to being mere reflections of the present. As religious structures, they embody the spirit of celebration, the affirmation of life and defiance in the face of the factual.

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Rituals – it might come as a surprise, but at our church the service is the centre of our congregation. We cultivate a festive, somewhat condensed liturgy and do not deny that every ritual also draws a boundary between those familiar with them and outsiders, and a boundary dividing the profane from the holy. What’s interesting

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THE PRAc tiCAL ScAPe GOAT

by

Marcia Pally

9 Looking at European debates about religion, one would have to conclude that it is mighty indeed. What ills befall us, religion is their source. It inflicts upon us the abuses of modernity, especially hyper-rationalized capitalism, and the abuses of pre-modern irrationality.

It makes people heartless, calculating profit-mongers and irrationally impassioned crusaders for pre-modern beliefs—so impassioned that they care about “values” more than profits. How irrational!

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ong ago, the high priest would lay his hand on his believers and transfer their sins onto an unfortunate goat which, thus laden with the evil of all, would be driven out into the desert.

Nowadays we regard our religious heritage as a scourge and cast the blame for social calamities onto the irrational influences of religion. A ­successful, but disingenuous strategy, as Marcia Pally explains in her essay.

Caring for values other than profits is what critics of capitalism want, but they don’t like these other religious values—though the key Abrahamic mandates are peace, help to the poor (Deuteronomy 15:7-10 and roughly two thousand other provisions), generosity to the stranger (Exodus 22:21, Leviticus 19:34, Leviticus 23:35-39, Deut. 27:19, 10:18, 24:17, 16:11, Luke 10:27-35, etc.) and to the enemy (Deuteronomy 23:7-8, among others).

Never mind that. Religion has fallen victim to tautological scapegoating: call what goes wrong religion and then blame religion when wrong it goes. This unhelpfully obscures that religions are human institutions, capable of the good and evil that other institutions are, and so must be looked at as other human endeavors are.

When populations are brutalized by political systems – ­ Nazism, Stalinism, apartheid, Maoism, etc. – we don’t insist that we be rid of politics. Terrible political ideas do not erase good ones. When economic systems yield horrors in greed and labor abuses, we don’t imagine ridding ourselves of economics. It makes no more sense to speak of ridding ourselves of religion should it become involved with policies that hobble well-being. And it won’t do to call Nazism, Stalinism etc. “religions”— that’s tautological scapegoating: label them religions and blame religions – Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Baha’I – for the world’s sorrows.

Three of the most frequent complaints against religion are that it promotes violence more than other institutions do, that it is a-rational and thus evil, and that it abets the worst of capitalism. I shall look at each and then suggest religious tenets that – contra scapegoating – indeed address the self-absorbed, violent acts humanity is capable of.

The charge of exceptional violence should have been laid to rest by the secular horrors of the 20th century, but those of the 19th and 18th will do (colonialism, slavery, political oppression, torture) or those of the 9th and 8th for that matter and back into antiquity. Crucifixion, after all, was a club of Roman politics, not religion. Even a short review of the wars, subjugation, tribal and ethnic persecutions, and methods of torture invented for political and economic benefit by polytheists, absent the Abrahamic faiths – in East Asia, Africa, the pre-Columbian Americas – should also jettison the canard of a special religious predisposition to violence.

Peace is a biblical priority: Deuteronomy (20:10) mandates suing for peace before commencing war; codifiers of the law (rabbinic commentators and Maimonides) ­required such peace suits. One might modestly say that Jesus, the prince of peace who turned the other cheek, continued this tradition (for a more detailed discussion see Pally, The Hebrew Bible is a problem set, in: Schieder, Die Gewalt des einen Gottes, Berlin 2014).

In the modern era, arguments against church persecutions came not from the Enlightenment but, two centuries earlier, from such religious thinkers as Sebastian Castellio (Swiss Reformed), Baruch Spinoza ( Jewish), and John Locke (Puritan, Socinian, and possibly Arian), who were drenched in Judeo-Christian teachings. Kant’s categorical imperative reprises the biblical Golden Rule. It is also banal to recall the movements for peace and justice spearheaded by faith leaders; Dorothy Day and Latin American liberation theologians (Catholic), Martin Luther King Jr. and others in the ­Civil Rights movement (Protestant), Desmond Tutu (­ Anglican Protestant), and Emmanuel Levinas, Martin Buber, and

Abraham Joshua Heschel ( Jewish). We might also number the hospitals, schools, prison programs, etc. run by people of faith.

The charge that religions are irrational and thus evil I find odd on two counts: irrationality is not per se evil and religious tenets are not irrational. They are called so when misread absent the exegetical tools that enable one to understand them. Not to be picky, but we in the modern West educate ourselves about politics and economics to read about them discerningly, but we come to theology with “Santa Claus hermeneutics” and wonder why we come up with children’s stories.

The point of theological tenets based in biblical ­ arrative and imagery is neither historical facticity nor n ­science. Alfred North Whitehead called that “the fallacy of misplaced concreteness” (Whitehead, Science and the Modern World). Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, suggests that efforts to square facticity with the Bible may be rather the “wrong end of the stick” as the purpose is not accuracy but exploration of the human condition, our making and responding to good and evil (cf. Williams, Being Christian). The Bible is a problem set to develop ethics, not Ikea instructions to be mimicked. Neither is this a modern idea: the Talmud prohibits reading the Bible as science; Ibn Rushd (Averroes, 12th century) taught the critical interpretation of religious texts. The Noah story, for instance, is not to inform us of an ancient flood but of the consequences to nature of human excesses that violate it (sin). While some teach literalism, most do not, and thus the claim that it is endemic to religion per se doesn’t stand – unless one tautologically calls only literalists religious (booting the Archbishop of Canterbury out of the church) and then blames them for literalism.

The idea that irrationality is evil is not only odd but alarming, as love, art, and generosity with little payback to oneself are all “irrational” yet of great good. Here is where capitalism’s critics may miss the mark: might it be not irrational religious values, but lack thereof which allows capitalism’s abuses? As the 18th century economist Antonio Genovesi noted, capitalist markets do not themselves do ill but rather give commoners opportunities to get out of inherited, unappealable poverty. But, he held in the Lezioni di commercio, they flourish only under the “irrational” values of trust and reciprocal care – irrational because one should pursue them even when one can get away with not doing so, to one’s profit.

Adam Smith, the supposed guru of greed, concurred, holding that capitalism works only where persons possess the virtues of responsibility for the common good, including honesty, promise-keeping, and cooperation.

Each should, Smith wrote in The Theory of Moral Sentiments, “endeavor, as much as he can, to put himself in the situation of the other, and to bring home to himself every little circumstance of distress which can possibly occur to the ­sufferer.”

This is again the Golden Rule, based on the “irrational” idea that all persons are made in God’s image and thus must be treated as we would treat ourselves.

Perhaps we should take the guru of greed’s position ­seriously.

The argument that one can come to this secularly – i.e., if I am honest with you, you will be honest with me – is merely strategic. People will behave well only until they can get away with behaving badly, only until the advantages of abusing others outweigh the downsides. But this is precisely the “rational” calculation that leads to exploitation and financial crises (of 2008, 1929, 1893, 1878 … 1637, 1619). Those who declare that concern for others is not strategy but secular humanist principle must then account for their principles. This may be where their ethics is, but how did “where they are” get to where it is? Humanism did not birth itself but emerged from the ontology of the Abrahamic faiths, and even if there now is a secular discourse about human rights, the underlying premises are not.

10 To be sure, certain aspects of Protestantism abetted capitalism. Weber emphasized the rationalization of life, but the idea of individual striving too is key: as each strives to near God and act morally, striving per se became a well-exercised muscle soon flexed in many arenas, including the economic. Once in the groove of striving, one strives for more of everything (stuff, market share) with few queries about what the gain is for or the societally best ways to earn it.

Yet Protestantism was as much influenced by economics as it has influenced it. With the scientific revolution came substantial gain in control of nature with the intended consequences of greater health and prosperity. Unintended consequences included a worldview shift from being in nature to being in control of it and able to ever get more out it. This was accompanied by nominalism, a fascination with the mind and its ability to determine what things mean –to change unpredictable nature into a controllable tool. As the determiner of meaning shifted to the mind and as the benefits of marshalling nature increased, so increased the importance of each person’s (rational, scientific) calculations to get ever more out of the world, by mining, inventing, and manufacturing. In short, the thrill of not dying so young and of linens and tea cups yielded the thrill of unlimited betterment, “more” as an ethos, prodded synergistically by science, economics, and Protestant striving.

Importantly, striving and betterment are not themselves evil. Abuse emerges when they are uncoupled from an ontology of what striving is for and from an ethics of how to get it – as Genovesi and Smith said.

And as the Abrahamic religions hold. On their account, the individual is not on her own to control and gain; she is in a foundational system that functions only when we care for each other and the natural infrastructure.

As religion sets ambition amid these commitments, blaming religion for their trouncing is rather like blaming marriage vows for adultery. We may betray our ­religious principles as we betray political ones and New Year’s resolutions, but this is not special to faith.

Here I would like to sketch out a bit of how one gets from theology to ethics in economics. Theology begins with the idea of foundational being, the reason there is something rather than nothing and for the specific principles that make things go – a cause of causes. Particular beings emerge from foundational being (as Heidegger put it) not as identical copies or in the details of appearance but analogously, sharing with foundational being something of underlying structure – what Aquinas called analogia entis (analogy of being): causes yield ­resembling results, and thus humanity, caused by foundational being God, is of some undergirding resemblance to him. More poetically, we are made in God’s image. “In all things,” Aquinas wrote, “God himself is properly the cause of universal being which is innermost in all things ... in all things God works intimately.” (Summa Theologica Ia, q. 105, art. 5) As foundational being is distinct from particular b­ eings but also “innermost” in us, distinction-amid-­ relation is a condition of being, part of what it means to “be” at all. Each person is distinct but we are set up by relation and for it. Even identical twins are distinct in aims and character – what Alain Badiou calls “universal singularity” (cf. Badiou / Žižek, Philosophy in the Present) – yet all persons develop into unique selves through relation, beginning with our earliest caretakers. We are creatures of relation and reciprocal impact and so must see to our relational networks – to the educational, community, economic, and political institutions that enable persons to become who they distinctly are. While this might begin with nearby others, given the mobility of persons, goods, microbes, and ideas, areas of interdependent impact reach across the globe.

Policies that take our distinction-amid-relation into account – that go with the ontological grain – yield better outcomes than those that don’t. Such policies hold to each person’s concerns (distinction) and take those concerns to be worthy of consideration (relation).

Considering the concerns of others – reciprocal consideration-worthiness – does not mean that one cedes one’s views or that everything asked for is given. It means reciprocally getting at the other’s underlying needs, fears, and plans so that these may be addressed with contributions from all involved. In short, the theology of the way things are yields an ethics of how not to mess things up.

In a practical example, the question is not whether a timber firm and its employees (who want to retain their jobs) may legally continue logging trees against the protest of the community and environmental groups. It is to ask what the negotiations would look like if all involved (owners, shareholders, employees, town residents, environmental groups) believed – in the way we believe we breathe – that discussion begins, as Joel Hunter writes, with finding out “why the other side is for the other side” and continues by taking that as consideration-worthy (Hunter is a pastor and in 2009– 2010 was a member of President Barack Obama’s President’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships; see, Hunter, A New Kind of Conservative). No one leaves the discussion until all have contributed substantially to the solution and an idea is developed where no one’s concerns are abandoned.

In short, what would economics look like if we worked through such theology, fairly common in the Abrahamic faiths?

I suspect religion-blaming is like any other sort of scapegoating: it soothingly shifts the blame for life’s ills away from us. We aren’t the cause of our greed and aggression; religion is. Absent this invader, we would be generous innocents. We call religion the devil and say the devil made me do it.

Religion, having pondered the fallenness of humanity for millennia, offers a few ideas about scapegoating as well. Judaism prohibits it, and if one must act out, do it on a goat. Christianity too is familiar with getting crucified by the people one is trying to help. Indeed, returning to our discussion of how to read the Bible, exploring this human habit is a prime purpose of that tale.

Marcia Pally, a cultural and linguistic scholar, conducts research on the relationship of culture, ­religion and politics, as well as the influence of ­culture on language use and acquisition. Pally teaches Multilingual Multicultural Studies at New York University. She is a DAAD guest professor in 2014/15, and in 2012/13, she worked as a Mercator guest professor at the Theological Department at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. She also worked as a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin in 2006/07 and 2009/10. Her research and investigation of religious currents in the United States formed the basis of two recent books, “Die hintergründige Religion” [Religion behind the Scenes] and “Die neuen Evangelikalen in den USA” [The New Evangelicals], published by the Berlin University Press in 2008 and 2010 respectively. Pally is currently working on a new book about the “theologies of relationality”, which is slated for publication in 2016 by Eerdmans Publishing. Marcia Pally will be one of the speakers at the conference ‘Trial of Faith’ – On Religion and Growth”, organised by the Federal Cultural Foundation, which will take place in Cologne from 12 to 14 June (see p. 15).

↗ www.kulturstiftung-bund.de/ihraberglaubet

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New Projects Image & Space

Medical Care

by Prisoner Personnel at the Ravensbrück Concentration Camp (1939–1945)

© Timm Rautert

Documentation and touring exhibition

Over the years, the scientific community has conducted intensive research on medical treatment (and maltreatment) in Nazi Germany – particularly with regard to the euthanasia programmes and the so-called human experiments in the concentration camps. Yet researchers have never investigated nor described how the Nazis used prisoners in patient care.

This project conducts a case study on the Ravensbrück concentration camp in Brandenburg, where the SS assigned prisoners of diverse backgrounds to work as doctors and nurses between 1939 and 1945. It examines the work these “functionary prisoners” were obliged to carry out – activities which had them walking a fine line between following the orders of the SS, preserving their own survival and meeting the needs of the sick. Consequently, such work was controversially viewed by fellow prisoners in their care.

A touring exhibition will present the results of this research project based on historic material. The work will be documented and a database will serve as the basis for future research projects.

Project director: Karin Bergdoll Artistic director: Christl Wickert Author: Ramona Saavedra Santis The Ravensbrück Memorial, Fürstenberg/Havel: 24 Apr.–30 Sep. 2016; National Council of German Women’s Organisations, Berlin / Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, Berlin / Intercultural Women’s Centre, Berlin: temporary exhibitions between October 2016 and April 2017; Meeting centre / Management school of the German Medical Association, Alt Rehse: 1 May–31 Aug. 2017; Memorial Site / Death Camp, Hadamar: 15 Oct.–16 Dec. 2017; Neuengamme Concentration Camp ­Memorial, Hamburg: 15 Jan.–4 Mar. 2018 ↗ www.akf-info.de

↓ Timm Rautert: Photos of the 1st set of works by F.E. Walther, 1969/70

Kostas Murkudis.

Alchemy Experiments on form and colour in art and fashion

Ever since it first opened in 1991, the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt am Main has repeatedly examined the overlap between the fine arts and fashion.

It will now present a comprehensive exhibition of works by Kostas Murkudis, one of the most renowned fashion designers of our time.

Murkudis’s ideas and designs frequently make reference to contemporary works of art. His sculptural approach, for example, and visible architectural influences are distinctive features of his oeuvre. Thanks to new forms of presentation and his examination of social and participatory issues, his works are changing our view of fashion.

In the planned exhibition, Kostas Murkudis will explore the aesthetic and conceptual connections between his designs and works from the MMK Collection. These include concepts and forms of display, performance, ready-mades and material aesthetics. Murkudis’s ensembles will be presented alongside pieces by such artists as Blinky Palermo and Franz Erhard Walther, whose works deal with textiles in a wide variety of ways. The exhibition architecture and displays will be

designed by the German artist Carsten Nicolai, with whom Murkudis has frequently collaborated in past years. After its opening in Frankfurt am Main, the exhibition will go on tour to a number of international exhibition venues.

Artistic director: Peter Gorschlüter Artist: Kostas Murkudis Exhibition architecture: Carsten Nicolai Other participating artists from the MMK Collection: Mark Borthwick (US), John Chamberlain (US), Jack Goldstein (US), Douglas Gordon (GB), Thom Merrick (US), Blinky Palermo, Steven Parrino (US), Timm Rautert, Peter Roehr, Franz Erhard Walther and others MMK 2, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt a.M.: 17 Jul. 2015–14 Feb. 2016 ↗ www.mmk-frankfurt.de

Rémy Zaugg – And the Question of Perception Retrospective

In commemoration of the 10th anniversary of Rémy Zaugg’s death (1943–2005), the Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Siegen wishes to pay tribute to and review the complex oeuvre of the Swiss artist and exhibition maker.

The retrospective presents Zaugg’s paintings, video works and projects in public space. An international team of experts and curators are planning a symposium which will address the ethical and aesthetic aspects in Rémy Zaugg’s works, e.g. his life-long investigation of how perception influences artistic production and the reception of its results, or the artist’s role in society.

In cooperation with international partners, the project organisers will edit and publish Rémy Zaugg’s collected writings, letters, lectures and interviews in nine volumes in German and French. ­After its presentation in Siegen, the exhibition will be shown in Madrid and Tours.

Two symposiums in Basle and Siegen will address Zaugg’s work.

Curators: Eva Schmidt, Javier Hontario (ES), Alain Julyen-Laferrière (FR) in cooperation with Manuel Borja-Villel (ES), Teresa Velazques Cortes (ES)

Source: Deutsche Kinemathek – Fotoarchiv

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↘ 2001: A Space Odyssey, director: Stanley Kubrick, GB/USA 1968

Writers: Mathilde de Croix (FR), Christian Spies, Jean-Christophe Royoux (FR), Rémy Zaugg (CH) Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Siegen: 1 Nov. 2015–6 Mar. 2016; Reina Sofia, Madrid: 7 Apr.–28 Aug. 2016; Tours: 18 Dec. 2016–26 Mar. 2017 ↗ www.mgk-siegen.de

Common Grounds Contemporary art from the Middle East

The title of the exhibition refers to the linguistic theory of “common ground”, a concept which posits that a mutual sphere of knowledge exists between two interlocutors which allows dialogue to s­ ucceed.

The exhibition will be supplemented by an extensive accompanying programme with lectures and tours. A performance and dance programme, readings and a film series are being developed in cooperation with other cultural organisations based in Munich.

Artistic director: Verena Hein Artists: Abbas Akhavan (CA), DAAR (PS), Parastou Forouhar (IR), Babak Golkar (IR), Dor Guez (IS), Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige (LB), Hazem Harb (PS), Susan Hefuna (EG), Bouchra Khalili (FR/MA), Sophia Al Maria (US/AE), Ahmed Mater (SA), Nasser al Salem (SA)

This exhibition is the first in Munich to present a wide spectrum of artistic works by contemporary artists from the Middle East. News coverage from the region in Western media is generally dominated either by conflicts in public space or images of luxury and ostentatiousness in Museum Villa Stuck, Munich: the emerging cities of the Gulf nations. 12 Feb.–17 May 2015 The exhibition juxtaposes these images ↗ www.villastuck.de with artistic works which examine the transformation of the Middle East in a variety of ways. One of the focuses of the exhibition will be the topic of collecting and archiving. All of the artists featured in the exhibition are active in the international scene. Parastou Forouhar and Abbas Akhavan, for example, have left their home country of Iran and now reside in Germany and Canada respectively. While Forouhar applies imagery which explicitly takes issue with the Iranian political system, Akhavan is known for his site-specific ­installations which are characterised by intimate rooms, as if the viewers were at home, in their backyard or garden.

Things to come Science – Fiction – Film

The science-fiction genre is experiencing a new surge in popularity. A large number of high-budget science-fiction movies hit it big at the box office in 2013 and 2014. At the same time, however, many areas of contemporary society seem to be moving in a direction which resembles science fiction. The planned exhibition at the Filmmuseum Berlin wishes to offer visitors an overview of the genre and explore the potential reasons for its current success. Could there be a connection between the economic, environmental and social crises of today with the present boom we are seeing in science fiction?

The exhibition displays are designed in the form of a journey. The first part begins in “Outerspace”. The second part takes visitors to faraway planets where they encounter strange creatures and “Aliens”. The third area titled “Society of the Future” examines technical and scientific progress in relation to the issue of social coexistence. In addition to displaying original documents and props, the exhibition includes installations which bring the film sets to life and present awe-inspiring images, graphic design and animation technology. The presentations on the technological state of research and current socio-political debates illustrate how the genre relates to our present day. A joint conference, developed in association with the Einstein Forum in Potsdam, will invite representatives of various disciplines (climate and

future research, design and software ­development, robotics and space sciences) to discuss the society of the future.

Artistic director: Rainer Rother Curators: Peter Mänz, Kristina Jaspers, Vera Thomas, Nils Warnecke, Gerlinde Waz Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin: 4 Nov. 2015–28 Aug. 2016, Paris, Toronto ↗ www.deutsche-kinemathek.de

Bodenlos / ­ Groundless Vilém Flusser and the arts

Vilém Flusser (1920–1991) is one of the outstanding art and media philosophers of the 20th century. Many of his texts foresaw the future of technology-based communication and networking. Today his works are inspiring; Flusser was convinced that changes in communication structures through codes and new media would ultimately affect all areas of society. He called for a fundamental study of technical images and the apparatuses which generate them. The exhibition “Bodenlos / Groundless” provides an additional, important aspect to the reception of Flusser’s writings: the close and multifaceted connection between his work and the art world. The ZKM in Karlruhe will present collages, drawings, video and audio works, early computer works and the philosopher’s personal items from the Vilém Flusser Archive in Berlin, along with contemporary works by internation-

Composition XXII, 2001, Ink and Plaka on graph mylar, 56 x 71 cm © Sammlung Oehmen

13 al artists which make direct reference to Flusser’s work. Many prominent artists, such as Mira Schendel, Louis Bec and Fred Forest, had been close friends with Flusser, with whom they had carried out joint projects. In focussing on the arts, the exhibition will present Flusser’s works in an entirely new context. In this way, the project will highlight the connection between media and art theory from a Flusserian perspective.

The exhibition wishes to provide an important contribution to international study and research of Flusser’s works.

During the exhibition, a scientific conference will also take place. Researchers plan to develop a trilingual dictionary of terms from Flusser’s world of thought, the “Flusseriana”. The project is being organised in cooperation with the Academy of the Arts in Berlin, together with institutions in the Czech Republic and Brazil.

Künstlerische Leitung: Siegfried Zielinski mit Peter Weibel Kuratoren: Baruch Gottlieb mit Siegfried Zielinski und Norval Baitello jr.

Künstler/innen: Louis Bec (FR), Michael Bielicky (CZ), Harun Farocki, Alex Fleming (BR), Samson Flexor (BR), Juan Fontcuberta (ES), Fred Forest (FR), Marcello Mercado (AR), Anthony Moore (GB), Andreas Müller-Pohle, Quay Brothers (GB), Mira Schendel (IT/BR) ZKM Zentrum für Kunst und ­Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe: 20.6.–15.10.2015; Akademie der Künste, Berlin: 15.11.2015–15.1.2016; SESC Sao Paulo: 30.3.–15.6.2016; DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Prag: 30.7.–31.11.2016 ↗ www.zkm.de

Irony in Media Art Subversive interventions

Addressing topics with irony, satire and humour is an artistic strategy frequently applied in the media arts, the spectrum of which is practically as broad as that of the fine arts. Irony doesn’t only serve to provide tongue-in-cheek entertainment, but also as a means of analysis and criticism.

Playfully walking a line between sculpture, action and performance, artists use irony to express social criticism which places emphasis on economic and social circumstances.

To this end, they “seize on” material from the media, which they rearrange and subvert for their own purposes. With titbits taken from everyday life and consumer culture, the artists comment on the balance of power and the distribution of wealth in society. And now that new media has established itself firmly in the art world, this approach has increasingly become an artistic strategy. In their works, artists rely on the effectiveness of irony to illuminate the impact of media technologies on social interaction and personal identity. In this way, they frequently overstep boundaries, question values and break taboos.

The exhibition “Irony in Media Art” presents some 25 works by internationally renowned (media) artists such as Hito

Steyerl, Istvan Kantor and Paolo Cirio – accompanied by performances, talks, films, workshops and educational programmes.

The exhibition is integrated into the programme of the European Media Art Festival in Osnabrück, one of the most important forums of international media art today.

Artistic director: Ralf Sausmikat, ­Hermann Nöring Artists: Matt Barton (US), Paolo Cirio (IT), Emily Vey Duke & Cooper Battersby (CA), Etoy (CH), Istvan Kantor (CA), Georg Klein, Roee Rosen (IL), Egill Saebjörnsson (IS), Hito Steyerl Kunsthalle Osnabrück: 22 Apr.–25 May 2015

movements to be visualised in relation to time and space by means of graphic scales and colour schemes.

The KW Institute for Contemporary Art will present the first extensive solo exhibition of Horwitz’s works, many of which have never been shown before, and tie them to current discourse. Some of the central works will be reconstructed based on the artist’s own future plans, and in some cases, even created for the first time.

Fridericianum, Kassel: 15 Mar.–7 Jun. 2015 ↗ www.fridericianum.org

Artistic director: E ­ llen Blumenstein KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin: Berlin: 15 Feb.–3 May 2015 ↗ www.kw-berlin.de

↗ www.emaf.de

Inhuman Counting in Eight, Moving by Color

(YU), David Douard (FR), Jana Euler, Cécile B. Evans (US), Melanie Gilligan (CA), Oliver Laric (AT), Johannes Paul Raether, Pamela Rosenkranz (CH), Stewart Uoo (US), Lu Yang (CN), Anicka Yi (KR)

The construct of the “human” after humanism

In view of the breakneck pace of technological innovation and far-reaching climatic and geological changes, the primacy of humans has increasingly come under fire.

Is the humanistic concept of the human being as the “measure of all things” still tenable? The exhibition “Inhuman” gathers international positions by young artists whose works examine current humanoid body models which go beyond avatars, cyborgs and hybrids. They confront us with the view that present-day humans have ­already entered an intermediate stage of ↓ Channa Horwitz: Sonakinatography self-estrangement at varying degrees, and thereby illustrate the dystopian aspects of When the Californian artist Channa this development.

Horwitz passed away in 2013 at the age of The exhibition will examine the con81, she had just begun her artistic career. struct of the “human” ex negativo, offering She had worked in complete seclusion for new anthropological concepts which take years before a presentation of her works at into account the rapid changes of our presthe exhibition MADE IN L.A. one year be- ent day. At an accompanying symposium, fore her death, was received by both the contemporary philosophers will address press and public with overwhelming en- aspects of the post-human and inhuman. thusiasm. Unfortunately, she did not live An extensive educational and event proto see the international attention her works gramme will supplement the exhibition, generated at the last Venice Biennale. hopefully providing a substantial contribuHorwitz’s works are characterised by tion to the debate surrounding a new conthe search for a simple and yet universal cept of humankind. system to capture movements in time. Using a system of notation based on the num- Artistic director: Susanne Pfeffer ber 8, she constantly produced new varia- Artists: Julieta Aranda (MX), Dora Budor tions of complex systems which resemble (HR), Andrea Crespo (US), Nicolas a kind of musical score. These scores allow ­Deshayes (FR), Aleksandra Domanović Exhibition. First solo presentation

Room for Association – The Wunderkammer Contemporary art and design works dedicated to the art and natural science cabinets at the Franckesche Stiftungen. A joint project by the Franckesche Stiftungen and the University of Art and Design Burg Giebichenstein in commemoration of its 100th anniversary

The German art cabinets of the 17th and 18th century, called “Wunderkammer”, represent the encyclopaedic views and knowledge of the world at that time. As they also serve as the historic basis for the establishment of special museums, they have increasingly become a model for contemporary exhibition concepts in recent years. The exhibition in Halle intends to perpetuate the principles of art and natural science cabinets and modernise them in the sense of transdisciplinary networking.

To this end, it has gathered works by 35 international artists and artist collectives which will be combined with specimens from historic Wunderkammern in such a way that the processes of cultural hybridisation and colonialisation are visible. Pieces by artists and designers, who are just starting their careers, will be presented alongside well-known works by established artists who already play an influential role in the exhibition landscape. In keeping with the universal orientation of the Wunderkammer, the exhibition in Halle with its discussions, conferences, art cabinet exhibition and participation in a biennale aims to gain international attention with stops in Sinop, Istanbul, Paris and Rome.

Artistic director: Nike Bätzner Artists: Charlotta Bellander (SE), Alighiero Boetti (IT), Mario Brondo (MX), Pia Fischer, Murat Haschu (RU), David Lynch (US), Anna Maria Maiolino (BR), Ogwa (PY), Ginan Seidl, Silvia Weidenbach and others Franckesche Stiftungen, Halle/Saale: 24 Apr.–16 Aug. 2015; Centre Allemand d’Histoire de l’Art, Paris: conference 29–31 Oct. 2015; Galerie Laurent Mueller, Paris: cabinet de curiosité: October 2015; Sinopale, International Sinop Biennial: 2 Aug.–20 Sep. 2016 ↗ www.francke-halle.de

← Istvan Kantor: Video still from „The Blood of Many Filmmakers“

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HEAVen On EArTH? Economy and religion – Thoughts on a touchy relationship

by Birger Priddat No deal without God – Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the three Abrahamic religions, have established order in the world and its economy. But are their teachings applicable to the turbo-capitalism of today? Jacqueline Boysen speaks with the economist and philosopher ­Birger Priddat about personal responsibility and excessiveness, the accumulation of capital, disappointed expectations of salvation and the church tax as a flat rate.

Jacqueline Boysen Money and faith, economy and religion – how are these terms related? They seem to have little in common.

Birger Priddat Historically speaking, they belong together. The Jewish, Christian and Islamic religions arose in a world in which trade was highly developed. Let’s not forget, Mohammed himself was a merchant. Since the beginning of history, people have always asked who deserves what, what do people deserve – and what does God deserve? In our coexistence, we are constantly occupied with questions of negotiation, measure, calculation and fairness. And this naturally leads – at least in the three Abrahamic religions – to the economic mechanism. The distribution of all material and immaterial goods can be represented as a triangular relationship: human – human – God. For believers, every negotiated act with another human being is conducted under God’s observing eye, and every measure is one that must pass God’s muster. Each of the three major religious scriptures presents this triangle in a somewhat different form. In the New Testament, for example, the figure of Jesus Christ creates an additional, socially relevant category: the father-son relationship, the love of God, the charity and compassion that Jesus preached, and God’s mercy. While the Old Testament and Islam present us with a rather vindictive God who rules over life, the Christian variant – which I’d like to

think of as being more enlightened – teaches personal responsibility before God and thus offers an additional category of social order, which by the way is a guiding principle in the order of the Church. Naturally, this obliges us to organise the markets in such way that the active parties can partake in the mercy of God. JB To what extent do religions contribute to the ethics of trade or economic activity?

BP I’m sceptical as to whether one can derive a suitable ethics for economics from religion. We tend to ask ethical questions when discussing economy and religion, that is, we look to religions to derive dogma for economic activities. But for me, something else connects them. It’s the question of faith, the intensity of faith and conviction. What economy and religion have in common are the categories of hope, belief, and expectation – also a form of expectation of salvation or redemption. In this I recognise – at least here in Europe – parallels in the history of ideas, particularly in the oekonomia divina, the divine economy. It has nothing to do with our concept of economy, but rather refers to oikos, the house, the Greek domestic and economic community as the smallest unit of human coexistence, from which the early ­Romantic writer Novalis derived the “divine housekeeping of the universe” in the afterglow of God’s great housekeeping of creation of the Middle Ages. A creation-­ theological concept lies behind this, i.e. God knows what the world He created should be, He has already put His house in order and obliged its participants to keep its principles or rules. In the sense of a dominion theory, we recognise that we humans are servants who must comply with the order, servants who give and are provided for.

15 JB So for believers, giving and taking in economic processes is equivalent to a deal with God? BP Yes, because if we were to depict these processes schematically we’d see that man gives unto God and God gives unto others. Take the example of the Samaritan who shares his cloak and acts on God’s behalf. The act of charity, the social deed is only of secondary importance; the gift is primarily an act between the Samaritan and God. At the same time, it benefits another person.

JB The Samaritan donates his cloak while our economic system encourages material profit. There are passages in the Bible which we can interpret as a criticism of profit-mongering. In the New Testament, chapter 16, Matthew asks “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” We usually stop there, but Matthew asks a follow-up question: “Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” – How does man achieve salvation?

BP The Christian view is that man is basically good, especially when he shares and doesn’t accumulate profit for selfish purposes. Sharing is also the basis of order in other religions which allows one to remain a “believer” within the community and preserve this community.

[Translator’s note: The German word “Gläubiger” can mean “believer” in a religious sense or “creditor” in an economic sense depending on the context]. We needn’t over-interpret the word “Gläubiger”, but it does describe a socio-economic relationship. One feels the need or obligation to donate money, and with this donation, support the existence of another. Naturally, this is no functional deal with God. But the basic premise is faith.

He who doesn’t believe may donate as much as he’d like, but he’ll never partake in God’s mercy.

JB Set not your heart upon the riches of the world, the Psalms warn, treasures don’t help because true wealth is granted by God. Are these Bible verses also valid in Judaism and Islam?

BP The act of giving has a much more lawful character in Judaism and Islam. They explicitly command their followers to help the poor; giving alms is an integral part of culture and social life. It’s about providing for one’s existence in the here and now. Back to Christianity, we have the 13th-century Thomasian theology which differentiated between the human necessities and the superfluous, that is, everything we accumulate beyond that. You might ask who determines what is superfluous.

Everyone must calculate that himself, which brings God back into the game, which brings us back to the matter of personal responsibility. By donating a certain amount – in other words, by way of this economic token – am I practising enough charity to truly please God? JB Is penance a deal with God? The sinner simply pays to have his transgressions forgiven?

BP Yes, after confessing and doing penance, one can regain the option of mercy. But the fees imposed on people in the Middles Ages were dubious and that’s what led to the schism between the pre-Reformation and the Reformation. Martin Luther recognised and revealed that absolution was a deal, but not so much with God as it was with the clergy. And exactly that was the Reformer’s point of contention.

JB Nowadays when we experience the excesses of those who enrich themselves at the cost of society, it seems that the veneration of money has achieved religious absoluteness. Does capitalism have religious qualities?

BP Everything we’ve discussed so far has described a vertical relationship: Me and Him, and He is the ultimate, recognised authority. Everything else is gauged on the basis on this relationship, how I maintain access to God and act in a good enough way to be rewarded. In our rational modern times, however, we follow a maximisation, or growth principle. This is where death plays a role. We regard death as final. Consequently, everything I want to achieve must be achieved in life, and profit is gained here in this world, while in the medieval view, it would be compensated in the world to come. The price of heaven has become an earthly one. And today the question of whether I believe or not is private. Capitalism has entered this complex equation of the money trade, credit, interest and personal pursuit of profit.

This is not derived from religion, but it does present a comparable promise. In this way, it does have religious qualities. The economist Robert H. Nelson talks of “heaven on earth”, i.e. the promise of salvation redeemed not in heaven, but in this world – through the accumulation of capital.

JB To what degree is this a perversion of the credo of the American Declaration of Independence which called for “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” meaning personal freedom and material security?

BP That is the great promise of liberalism. However, it drew criticism later in the 19th century. As disparities in wealth between property owners and the poor became more pronounced, the focus shifted to ensuring the welfare of society and, in the 20th century, ensuring growth. But now we’ve arrived at the end of social movements and the ideal of growth because present generations realise that growth – in the old sense of the world – is indeed finite. It’s reflected in issues like resource distribution, climate and energy – and with those, the promise of salvation is gone. We realise that capitalism is running on empty, its promise of redemption has gone up in smoke, and we think, my God, we can no longer gain entry to a better life. The expectations in China – which has a different religious and political character – are still alive. But we are re-defining growth for ourselves. It’s difficult, but justified – the relationship with money, banks, finance capital, credits, contracts can no longer meet our expectations of salvation. We recognise this sobering reality and have reached a point where the religious and economic no longer necessarily correlate.

JB We no longer barter for basic necessities of life, but pay money in a labour-divided society – has money become a fetish?

BP Yes, wonderful money … it’s naturally indispensable for transactions. We don’t barter anymore, we exclusively deal with money. The economy runs on credit financing, we earn profits from interest, derivatives, which of course are derived from credit – and in this sense, money is productive. But financial markets also work with speculative investments which are not real earnings and are no longer tied directly to production and labour. It only takes three people to set up a billion-dollar hedge fund, but it takes tens of thousands of hands to earn a profit at a steel plant. The promise of stocks – earning myself and others a profit while helping accumulate capital for the corporation which has a social impact as it benefits the workers and small investors – is broken.

Earning profits to safeguard one’s living standards, which in a biblical context were obligations which served society, are no longer recognisable. When liquidity is injected into the financial markets, it’s siphoned away from the real economy, and has no further impact on the development of personal earnings. And this has nothing to do with religion at all.

‘Trial of Faith’ – On ­Religion and Growth A conference by the Federal Cultural ­Foundation The capitalistic dogma of growth has drawn criticism for some time now.

However, very few have scrutinised the relationship of the belief in growth and religion – even though it seems people everywhere are discussing a “return” to religion in the past several years. What role do the three Abrahamic religions play in our consumption-, accumulation- and competition-oriented societies? Do they encourage the credo of growth, or do they have the potential to harness it? These questions will be at the centre of debate at the international conference “‘Trial of Faith’ – On Religion and Growth” in June 2015, organised by the Federal Cultural Foundation. Various positions will be addressed and explored in lectures, moderated discussions, workshops and readings. Economists will meet with theologians, sociologists with artists, politicians with activists, and literary scholars with economists.

Schauspiel Köln / Depot (Mülheim) and Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne 12–14 June 2015 ↗ www.kulturstiftung-bund.de/ ihraberglaubet

16 JB Only if you dispute the beneficial character of the financial markets in the sense of giving and taking as an act pleasing to God that you mentioned earlier.

BP Yes, we’ve known this since the 19th century. The areas of speculation have grown so enormously, and we can no longer seriously regard the financial sectors as being part of the economic whole because they no longer o­ ffer any benefit to society. Faith or theological arguments can’t help us here. The dimension of human beings in life on the way to death should be reintegrated into the discussion of aspects of theology and economy, and I feel this is missing right now. What I’ve heard are the older catchphrases, reflections on growth, but nothing that does justice to the current developments.

JB In times of crisis, matters of faith become more important.

The religious market is growing while churches here at home are complaining about dwindling membership – what kind of consequences does this have?

BP Many people nowadays have three to four different faiths; they’ve been socialised in a Protestant or Catholic way, but find something in Buddhism or Hinduism that appeals to them, they like yoga, Lao Tse and are fascinated by the Jewish faith, Islamic dervishes or some guru or another and are interested in shamans as well. We try out everything. Our need for spirituality is high; everyone can believe in every possible kind of denomination and take advantage of specific elements of faith from various religions. Those who no longer comprehend economic processes often look for explanatory models in the magical. Contained in this is that element of faith, the search for a higher order. And most importantly, it’s a search for the ultimate truth with regard to death. The broad spectrum of beliefs provides a multifaceted answer to the question of life after death – it’s preferable to have more options than none at all. To ease their anxieties, people put together a portfolio of religious patterns with the hope that one of them will work. So religious diversity has increased, but that has nothing to do with the major, unconditional faith and devotion to one God; it simply expresses the need for redemption.

And we observe how religions have conformed to the marketplace – they promise happiness or fulfilment, you don’t have to wait until you die, you can have hope immediately. And in line with the laws of the market, people are willing to pay through the nose for this. Many of these redemptive doctrines are not to be had for free.

The only institutions which still offer spiritual welfare at low cost are the established churches. The church tax is like a flat rate, but for a capable shaman, you have to cough up 800 euros first …

JB You equate the experiment with the shaman as humble piety, but is that legitimate?

BP Yes, the God of worship has been replaced. That’s a consequence of the decline of the established churches, people don’t expect much from their own tradition, its influence is fading … The churches are brokerages or travel agencies, intermediaries. But when faith dwindles, the church is lost as the spiritual centre. People have started turning to other providers with the same intensity, and now polytheism is developing, the spectrum is broad and includes host of spirits, witches and demons, not to speak of angels. But there’s no claim to truth any­more, the father figure which grants and takes life has shrunk and is being replaced by minor spirits, also exchangeable spirits. This is an expression of insecurity.

No one has faith in time, in history. There’s only the wide-open present, like the literary scholar Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht says: It’s not about children having it better, the future is no longer the issue, it’s rather the path to salvation in the present.

JB Is this typical Western thinking because it requires ­prosperity?

BP Definitely. For example, in Islam there’s a completely different self-image. Muslims want to return to the origin, that is, the future is the origin, which explains why they have a tendency to be severe and interpret the Qu’ran literally. This also engenders pre-modern concepts of governance. The caliphates are oriented toward Mecca, highly centred on Allah. With such characteristics of Islam in place, everyone is under observation, which is interesting from a cultural-historical point of view because it affects the development of society. Its theology is hostile to progress, which is strange to us as we’ve been taught to subjugate the world. What’s missing in Islam is the impulse to develop society. This applies to economic development as well. It’s completely different with Jews, historically speaking – especially in view of the fact that Jews haven’t lived in closed communities during the course of their history, but rather in the Diaspora in contact with non-Jews, which in turn influenced trading activities with regard to the prohibition of interest and other restrictions. Much has to happen in life. That, too, is a fundamental concept, the hope of returning to Jerusalem, the return of the Messiah, the fulfilment of immaterial salvation.

JB Mr. Priddat, how do you see yourself – as a believer or scientifically curious observer and analyst?

BP I’m clearly an outside observer – and not because I left the Protestant church at the age of 16. But I’ve become increasingly convinced that faith in the economy and society still has a powerful impact today. I’m not critical of or condescending to other believers either. I think it’s possible that believers can manage their lives better.

If you look carefully at how financial investors manage their billions, you find that the expectation of interest is no longer rooted in knowledge or cut-and-dry calculations, but rather hope. There you see that the world, which superficially seems anything but religious, is ­religiously charged to the extreme. Structures of faith are at work here, they are present in the real world, and we have to take them seriously and address them in a discussion about theology and economy.

JB Mr. Priddat, thank you very much for your time.

Birger Priddat (*1950) is an economist and philosopher. He currently chairs the Department of Political Economy at the University of Witten/ Herdecke, where he also served as president from 2007 to 2008. In recent years, he has published articles on subjects such as the relationship of guilt and debt, and capitalism as a religion. His newest book “Economics of Persuasion” (Metropolis, Marburg 2015), was released this past January. Priddat is a co-editor of the journal “agora 42”, a philosophical business magazine devoted to interdisciplinary perspectives of contemporary issues.

Jacqueline Boysen, formerly a cultural journalist at the Berlin studio of Deutschlandradio, became the director of studies for Contemporary History and Politics at the Evangelical Academy of Berlin in 2011. Jacqueline Boysen wrote a biography of Angela Merkel (second, extended edition in 2005) and in 2010, wrote “Das weiße Haus in Ost-Berlin” (The White House in East Berlin), a story of the West German diplomatic mission in the GDR, with which she earned her doctorate at the University of Rostock.

A Voice in the Desert

A Photo Series by

Boris 足 Mikhailov

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Boris Mikhailov — A Voice in the Desert

by Sergey Fofanov Boris Mikhailov’s photographs are quite often interpreted as religious, or let’s say, spiritual.

An ideal example of this is his famous photo series Case History (1996), which portrays the life and death of the homeless, the socalled­bomž, in the city of Kharkov, Ukraine – people who found themselves at the bottom of society after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The photos were keenly studied by art scholars and critics in the West, who recognised thematic parallels with Orthodox icons and paintings of the “Old Masters” with religious subjects, which had absolutely nothing to do with the artist’s original intention. Mikhailov has never been a religious person.

Even though the Soviet regime attempted to eradicate religion with an iron fist – for which a militant atheist organisation called the “Association of the Fighting Godless” was responsible from 1929 to 1947 – it never succeeded in purging the century-­ ­ old religious topoi from the cultural memory of the nation. ­ ­ Its resistance to the ideological propaganda was so evident that at ­ a certain point, the authorities reverted to the old, recognisable pattern of adapting it to communist ideas.

For this special issue on “religion”, we have selected Mikhailov’s series “Structures of Madness, or Why Shepherds Living in the Mountains Often Go Crazy” (2011/12), which he produced in Egypt near the Red Sea. But why this series in particular?

Stones in the landscape often possess a hidden meaning. They can serve as chronicles of human culture. Cliff drawings, or petro­ glyphs, are not only the oldest examples of fine art, but also reflect ancient religious views. Religion, Mikhailov is convinced, has played an integral role in driving the development of pictorial culture.

Coincidence played a key role in this series and enriched the photos with new content. They eventually formed a collection which can be compared to the likes of other famous series, such as Dürer’s ­ Small and Large Passion (1507–12), Beckmann’s Apocalypse (1941/42) or ­ Chagall’s Bible illustrations (1950–60). Although Mikhailov con­ sciously and autonomously captured these photos, the pictures had to be structurally transferred from the cliffs to the photographic level. In order to present them, the photographer had to become an

illustrator. Mikhailov described how the series originated as follows: “It was a completely new ­ landscape to me with structures ­ and geometries which I had never encountered before. This foreignness evoked a feeling of dread and danger in me – like when you don’t know what’s waiting for you behind the next corner. At the same time, I became aware of the significance of the place, so closely connected to the history of ancient Egypt and Israel, the time when these stones were scattered here. Some sexual fantasies were the first to come to mind: holes, genitalia ... but then I gradually recognised human figures. When we arrived back home in the evening, I perused the photos with a more relaxed eye. The focus changed, I recognised the Universal, the Other took form. I suddenly felt the desire to copy it by hand. Through the process of illustration, I created a kind of passage from the visual into an imaginary world. Memory was activated, visual experiences retrieved. The moment of understanding – in that crossover from the photo to the drawing – can definitely be viewed as transcendent or spiritual. Something that only humans are blessed with. For me, that’s the fundamental difference between painting and photography. Usually photographers only have a prepared focus, only a kind of surface. But if you swivel the lens out of focus, other lines and volumes appear which can later merge into something else and create new images. And these too are related to certain cultural traditions and evoke associations. In a sense, you could say that painting is situated between cultural philosophy and its visual representation, it incorporates all the essentials of culture and makes them visible. With photography, on the other hand, it somehow seems as if the image were predetermined, a piece of real life, perhaps that’s why people think it’s further away from God.” Despite this claim, spiritual elements appear in many of Mikhailov’s photos which deal with life. And here resides the universality of his works which seems unshakeably anchored in cultural tradition. The photos are moulded casts of reality onto which both the artist and viewer impose new meaning. In the series in this issue, the artist reveals how our eye is conditioned to recognise certain visual designs, patterns, dogmas and canons. The cliff formations, which the photographer captured, form the basis for new drawings and evoke associations of images and motifs contained within them; the viewer “interprets” faces, torsos and fantastic creatures into them. A nudge towards a certain meaning is enough and you can already see it.

The photos were chosen together with the artist, as well as the titles, which emphasise the Christian tradition and their universal character. The subjects aim to negate century-old dissonances between the Eastern and Western churches, go beyond these traditions and appeal to a prehistoric unconscious.

Stone and desert are rich in semantic significance. Jesus was tempted by the devil in the desert to turn stone into bread. The story of the photographer who stands facing the desert, the cliff and loneliness, intermingles with that of the hermit, the “Desert Fathers” and ascetics who journeyed into the wilderness to find God. Body and spirit can reach new levels: hermits who strengthen the flesh by fasting and their spirit with dutiful prayer are said to have been ­ visited by mystical ecstasy and visions which directed them along a path to God. And the photographer also saw faces which he attempted to capture with his camera and pen.

The development of modern art as a global project has fundamentally shifted since the beginning of the 20th century. Malevich created a black square, the icon of a “new world”, a work infused with the greatest clarity, laconicism, universality and ubiquity. In this, Mikhailov recognises the first original phase, in which man attempted to portray the divine, a reference to God the Father of the Old Testament. This contrasts the portrayal of his son who came to Earth – this is the second phase which brings in the realistic representation of the empirical knowledge of the world.

In phase three, the goal is to express the purely “spiritual element in art” which can neither be seen nor depicted, the sense of its “presence in all things”, the attempt to lend form to the Holy ­ Spirit. This phase is embodied in modern art.

Boris Mikhailov, born in 1938 in Kharkov (Ukraine), is one of the world’s most acclaimed artists of the former Soviet Union and is well-known for his controversial photographic works.

He has been living and working in Berlin since the end of the 1990s. In 2008 he was inducted into the Berlin Academy of the Arts and is this year’s recipient of the “Imperial Ring of the City of Goslar”.

Sergey Fofanov, born in 1984 in Leningrad (now St. ­Petersburg), is an art scholar and curator. He lives and works in Berlin.

Photo titles: The Child, The Burial, The Prayer, The Shroud, Cross

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GOD IS Not tHE SolUTion.

GOD IS tHE PrOBLEm On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Vatican Council II, the Düsseldorf exhibition “The Problem of God“ explores how

contemporary artists approach Christian iconography. Are we seeing a revival of Christian imagery?

by Reinhard Hoeps

I The relationship between the fine arts and the Christian religion has been on shaky ground for a long time now. Their habitual ­alienation in modern times has not caused us to forget, however, that past epochs of Western art history were influenced by images in which the Christian faith was graphically manifested.

Since the third century, this faith has sought artistic expression which contributed to disseminating Christianity through the medium of images and significantly influenced its outward appearance. At the same time, art has developed in terms of the representative tasks and functions of the Christian faith.

This close interweave is still engrained in our memory if we view its disintegration over the past one and half millennia, a disintegration which is at least two centuries in the mak-

A barricade separating art and Christianity ing. The beginning of this rupture can be traced back to the epochal threshold around 1800, and for reasons which can be assessed in different ways. If we regard the developments as evoked through processes of secularisation, we can also identify erosion in religion’s ability to instil meaning to life in the area of art,

which has since focused on other objects of representation. If we mainly associate this epochal threshold with the end of grand narratives and the increasing differentiation of central ­societal functions, then we see developments which chiefly resulted in the rise of artistic autonomy, set apart from the Christian churches’ growing concentration on religious internal matters. Art and Christianity barricaded themselves from each other; one can only identify relics of religious traditions in art nowadays.

No matter how one describes the processes of mutual alienation, the art historian Wolfgang Schöne (1910–1989) expressed its theological essence with singular precision in the mid-20th century in the form of two theses: “1. God (the Christian God) possessed a pictorial history in the Occident. 2. This pictorial history has ended.” First, these concise theses assert the end of an intimate relationship between art and the Christian religion. And second, they don’t go so far as to claim it was merely a stage of Occidental religious history.

According to Schöne’s theses, the relations between Christianity and art are not yet appropriately understood if they are to be interpreted only at the level of religious functions and their historical developments. Rather, it seems that the pictorial history of God himself has come to an end. The art historian seems to feel obliged to consider the theological consequences of his theses. Schöne claims that the art of modernity – according to its self-image – demands to be interpreted not as distinct from religious context in functional terms; in the world of art – in its portrayal and argu-

mentation – it’s not about functions, it’s about where religion is taking us.

II In view of this background, an exhibition project devoted to “The Problem of God” sparks our curiosity. Organised by the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen and funded by the Federal Cultural Foundation and the association “Ausstellungshaus für christliche Kunst” (Exhibition Gallery for Christian Art), the exhibition examines the Christian iconography in works by renowned international contemporary artists.

The theme of the exhibition reminds us of two pioneering Berlin exhibitions by ­Wieland Schmied (1929–2014), “Zeichen des Glaubens – Geist der Avantgarde” (Symbols of Faith –Spirit of the Avant-garde, 1980) und “Gegenwart Ewigkeit” (Present Eternity, 1990). Schmied’s argument at the time was that contemporary art – ignored by the churches and the theological community – was keeping the window to transcendence open, which the churches had long lost view of on account of their inward fixations. ­Particularly in artistic positions of abstraction and the absence of figurative depictions – with respect to subjects of Christian iconography – he pointed out the potential of spirituality for which there seemed to be no place in the ossified conventions of church-sanctioned art.

18 In addition to representative examples of such traces of transcendence, which have meanwhile become historic themselves, “The Problem of God” mainly ­focuses on recent contemporary works which, in a kind of counter-movement, appear to exhibit a renewed interest in the pictorial subjects from the sphere of Christian tradition. Should we interpret this as autonomous art re-embracing the pictorial language of the Christian faith?

The ways in which contemporary artworks address and explore the Christian pictorial formulas immediately pull the rug out from under such an assumption.

Their treatment of the traditional pictorial subjects is open, frequently playful, in any case very experimental and thus far from any ambition to seamlessly continue such pictorial traditions. Instead, we encounter apparently familiar symbols only to discover how foreign their content has become to us. Original Christian images are stripped down to their shells in order to fill them tentatively with new meanings. The contents transform and shift, iconographic subjects receive new outfits. Deciphering them does not automatically lead us to a religious core, and by no means anything age-old and familiar.

Actually, it appears that it is not the iconographic subjects themselves that have awakened today’s artistic interest.

It has much more to do with the complex constructions of pictorial expressions, the unique forms of symbolic articulation, upon which Christian pictorial traditions had formed and developed their iconographic subjects long ago. In fact, the intention of Christian artistry was never about producing iconographic textual references, i.e. merely illustrating Biblical texts. Rather, it was always much

Familiar symbols, foreign content more a question of the authenticity of the representation, and then enhancing this representation into an actual visualisation. Together with the representation, the images were also meant to reflect the limits of what was possible to represent.

Beyond such requirements, they were mostly expected to direct the viewer’s devotion, arouse feelings and sentiments, engage in a vibrant exchange with the viewer and encourage him to produce his own images in his mind. Such works cross the boundary of iconography. In order to produce them, one requires a sophisticated awareness of specific graphic processes and the potential of abstract pictorial composition which had been effectively applied in Christian pictorial traditions long before the era of art.

However, much suggests that contemporary artists are not returning to the methods of Christian imagery for reasons of faith, but rather out of an interest in the history of art. But if this is the case, it appears that they are not content with the distant, theoretical reconstruction of the religious functions. It is more intriguing to explore which graphic techniques and which specific artistic conditions

e­ nabled Christian artworks to actually fulfil these functions. In short, it’s not about the human aspect of religion, but rather God, his relationship to the world and the resulting possibilities for establishing a relationship with God: “The Problem of God”.

III When contemporary artists revive pictorial forms of Christian tradition, they tie their specific questions with regard to the represented themes, artistic self-assurance and pictorial evidence with religious issues that ultimately lead back to the elusive question of God. This might not occur so obviously everywhere; of course, it also occurs in ironic juxtaposition or from the distance of historic unfamiliarity. It definitely doesn’t occur in the systematic style of theological treatises or as an illustration of speculative philosophy. But these recollected Christian pictorial forms are not merely set pieces of postmodern historicism or religious nostalgia. Creating images so concisely requires artists to examine a wide spectrum of religious themes – from the existence of God in its various dimensions to issues related to the Church, the position of the individual, the tension between this world and the hereafter, and this naturally beyond the scope of the Christian religion. It is futile to outline or even try to systematically classify the entire thematic field. This is where a research field is currently growing, a field for interdisciplinary investigations linking artistic study and theology. However, it seems we can already distinguish two fundamental characteristics of this research field.

First of all, it appears – in contrast to the artistic positions in Wieland Schmied’s exhibitions of 1980 and 1990, that art is not as inclined to accept the role of a placeholder for what is usually described in society as transcendence. Art will not be enlisted in the service of religious heritage, especially as there is no lack of transcendental promise in the cosmos of everyday images. Instead, we are seeing a criticism of transcendence through art – due to an interest in transcendence. Or in the words of the exhibition title: God is not the solution, but rather the problem.

A second characteristic of the re-examination of Christian pictorial forms by contemporary artists is evident in the rediscovery of Christian figures of visuality and their artistic potential. Beyond iconographic adaptations, the relevant works of contemporary artistic positions are reflecting on figures of the pictorial cosmos of Christian imagination: visions, heavenly and earthly spaces, forms of liturgy and devotion, artistically conveyed stories of miracles and redemption, but also injury, death and the end of times. Their content cannot be separated from the evidence of their visible form. To a large degree, “The Problem of God” is a problem of representation, and the question of God has been a question of images from the very beginning.

Imaginations provide more intensity to religious enlightenment and take us

The Problem of God Fifty years ago, the Second Vatican Council came to its conclusion in Rome. The German Bishops’ Conference wishes to commemorate this event with a national cultural programme, for which the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen will present the exhibition “The Problem of God”, featuring works by some 40 artists.

In their works, the artists examine Christian imagery as an integral part our collective memory which can be found in art in many multifaceted and ambivalent forms.

The focus of the exhibition is comprised of works which make reference to Christian images and related areas, reflect on them critically and present them in new ­contexts. The exhibition highlights a wide range of subjects, such as the basic questions of life, humorously critical reflections on aspects of religion and pictorial tradition, and socio-political themes. The show includes important works by Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Berlinde de Bruyckere, Francis Bacon, Pavel Büchler, Andrea Büttner, Tacita Dean, Harun Farocki, Katharina Fritsch, Douglas Gordon, Katarzyna Kozyra, Santu Mofokeng, Aernout Mik, Boris Mikhailov, Hermann Nitsch, Robert Rauschenberg, James Turrell, Bill Viola and Paloma Varga Weisz. A two-day international conference and special education programme will accompany the exhibition project which the Federal Cultural ­Foundation is supporting with 500,000 euros.

Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, K21 ­Ständehaus, Düsseldorf: 26 Sep. 2015–24 Jan. 2016 ↗ www.kunstsammlung.de

beyond the cognitive to the realm of feelings and sentiments, which are e­ licited, expressed and communicated through pictorial conceptions. The figurative language of art at the height of its specific possibilities is the medium predestined to reflect these Christian imaginations because it is capable of regarding its principles and methods on its own terrain of imagery without having to be subjected to conceptual reduction. Working with Christian pictorial forms, contemporary artists convert their imaginative evidence into language, test it in selective experiments and examine them against the horizon of our time.

The “Problem of God”: The aim of this exhibition is to convey the past and present force of visuality in Christianity.

From the perspective of contemporary art, the exhibition generates awareness of the influential force of images on the theory and practice of faith in the his­tory of Christianity. The works show us what we’ve lost with the demise of Christian pictorial forms, and at the same time, they playfully, but also critically investigate their current potential to communicate and bestow visual meaning. In this way, the works sensitise us to the visual expressive power of Christian pictorial forms while shedding light on this imagery of the past for artistic discourse in the present.

Preparing and initiating such discourse is one of the aims of the exhibition which the German Bishops’ Conference has agreed to host on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council. Along with other artistic projects supported by the German

Bishops’ Conference this year, it conveys the motto of the first sentence of the “Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World” (1965): “The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.”

Pope John XXIII called this ecumenical council together with the aim of opening a window of the church to the world and in so doing, engage with the world outside while providing it access to the Church inside. The gesture of opening aimed to identify the “followers of Christ” as the “men of this age”, as we can gather from the programmatic first sentence of the Pastoral Constitution. It

All paths lead to the question of God is interesting to note that this identification, which the introductory sentence of the constitution proposes, is not dedicated to social circumstances or human living conditions, but rather elementary feelings and sentiments: joy and hope, sadness and fear. It is such feelings and sentiments which express concepts, arguments and analyses as imaginations in the first place and enable them to speak to us through contemporary art in their visual conciseness.

Contemporary art offers us an essential path to identifying the “followers of

19 Christ” as the “men of this age”. At the same time, it sharpens our sense for the potential of visual meaning in a fundamental way – in the context of our present-­ day society, in the history of C ­ hristianity, whose cosmos of images it rediscovers, and perhaps most importantly, for Christianity today. Contemporary artistic positions make the churches and theology aware of the enormous visual valences which have developed over the course of long traditions, the responsibility of which now lies in the present. Questions regarding the significance of images and suitable forms of visuality don’t merely affect the Christian faith on the fringe of its medial presentation, but touch the core of the question of God. Islam has vividly demonstrated to the public at large that questions of God are ultimately questions of images, and that these have potential consequences. However, we still don’t know at present what our own history of imagination means (and could mean) for the self-awareness of (Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, German, European) Christianity. Contemporary art with its adaptations of pictorial forms of Christian traditions opens a broad range of necessary and very promising pictorial-theological experiments.

Reinhard Hoeps (*1954) is a professor of Systematic Theology and Didactics at the Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Münster. Hoeps has headed the project group for Christian image theory, theological aesthetics and pictorial didactics since 1993. He has published an extensive range of articles and books on theology and art and is the editor of the four-volume “Handbuch der Bildtheologie” (Handbook of Pictorial Theology), published by the Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn. Reinhard Hoeps studied Catholic Theology, Philosophy and Art History in Bonn and Bochum.

New Projects Word & Knowledge

Grandhotel Cosmopolis Peace Conference International talks and workshops on flight and displacement

In the middle of Augsburg’s Cathedral District, dedicated city residents turned a long-vacant, run-down concrete building from the 1950s, which was originally intended as a standardised refugee facility, into what they now call the “Grandhotel Cosmopolis”. It offers 60 refugees temporary accommodation in twelve hotel rooms, designed by artists, and complete with an artists’ studio and café which serves as an event venue and meeting place for the community. This project has gained considerable national attention and has received numerous awards as a model project. Impressions from exchange trips and research visits in the border regions of the EU and North Africa will now be incorporated into an international conference, at which participants will share their experience and establish contact with future cooperation partners. What are the chances and risks involved in this alternative form of “welcoming culture”?

How much creative protest does a democratic society need? The conference will review, reflect on and offer points of reference to these questions, which will be documented and accompanied by exhibitions.

Experts and artists: Ariane Brennsell, Nayari Castillo (VE), Heidrun Friese, Lukas Houdek (CZ), Daniela Kammerer, Peter Jacob Maltz (IL), H ­ annah Reich, Dorothee Richter (CH), Bahia Shehab (EG), René Zechlin International conference, Grandhotel Cosmopolis, Augsburg: 2–8 Aug. 2015 ↗ www.grandhotel-cosmopolis.org

Science as Religion?

An internship

Are we seeing a “scientification” of discourse in our politics, society and even everyday life? Does science provide us with legitimation, norms and meaning – something once reserved for religion? Are the sciences becoming a new religion? This project is comprised of ten internships, offered to well-known international authors, with the aim of examining these questions based on example. The “interns” are sent to renowned research institutes, such as the German Cancer Research Centre, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and the Max Planck Institutes, to gain an in-depth view of scientific work for a period of two weeks. Their task is to investigate to what extent the sciences have the potential of shaping our image of the world and influencing our norms. Following their internships, they will write down their impressions in the form of reports, essays, stories etc., which will be presented to the public in a “town-hall meeting” and later compiled as a publication. The organisers hope that the project will initiate a public debate about the role of scientific findings as a normative order for our individual lifestyle.

Artistic director: Jakob Köllhofer Artistic advisor: Russ Hodge Writers: Siri Hustvedt (US), Ben Markus (US), Tim Parks (GB), Colm Toibin (IE), Michaela Murgia (IT), Michael Maar, Kathrin ­Passig, Marcel Beyer, Daniel Kehlmann, Judith Kuckart Researchers: Prof. Ian W. Mattaij, European Molecular Biology Laboratory; Prof. Mathias Weidenmüller, ­Center for Quantum Dynamics; Prof. Joachim ­Wambsganß, Astrophysical Research Institute; Prof.

Joachim Wittbrodt, Center for Organismal Studies; Prof. Hannah Monyer, German Cancer Research Centre Heidelberg: 1 Mar.–31 Dec. 2015 ↗ www.dai-heidelberg.de

CHANGE A symposium on literature in the protest cultures of Central and Eastern Europe and North Africa

Despite the fundamental differences between the protests and demonstrations in Ukraine, Turkey, Russia or northern Africa, they share a common trait in that they have sent tremors through societal systems and opened up new means of thinking and action for people in the affected countries. Writers and artists have always responded sensitively to revolutionary trends in their countries and reflected on them in their work.

“Change” examines the role art plays in these transformation processes, which re-politicise art and make it so vulnerable at the same time. This project in Stuttgart is the first to bring writers, artists, activists, researchers, cultural experts and literary scholars together from Arabic countries and Central and Eastern Europe with the goal of sharing their heterogeneous experiences beyond national borders. The symposium’s participants will discuss central aspects of democratisation and civic processes. A second module will present international positions from the fine arts, photography, performance art and literature and encourage them to engage in dialogue which will be documented and made available to the general public.

Artistic director: Kateryna Stetsevych, Stefanie Stegmann, Katarina Tojic Artists, experts: Jörg Armbruster, Boris Chersonskij (UA), Borka Pavicevic (CS), Tanja Ostojic (CS), Juri Andruchowytsch (UA), Sahar El Mougy (EG), Valzhyna Mort (BY) and others Literaturhaus Stuttgart: 18.–20.9.2015 ↗ www.literaturhaus-stuttgart.de

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THE FEAR OF THE SPIEGEL BESTSELLER LIST Non-profit propaganda or necessary information?

As the legal successor to Adolf Hitler’s estate, the Free State of Ba­ varia was able to prevent publication of Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” [My Strug­ gle] in Germany for years on the ba­ sis of copyright laws. However, the copyright protection is set to run out in 2015. Several publishers have al­ ready announced plans to publish at least parts of the book. Meanwhile, the German State Ministers of Justice have taken steps to continue prevent­ ing its publication in Germany after 2015. An interview with the Berlin his­ torian Michael Wildt on the dangers and opportunities of publication.

Professor Wildt, should publishers be allowed to sell Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” in Germany?

Yes. I think it’s a bad idea to keep the book a secret. It’s a central document of National Socialism, and I ­believe we shouldn’t wrap a cocoon around such texts, but rather study them, examine the hate, the anti-Semitism and racism they contain. The same way we’ve been doing with Hitler’s speeches which have been available to researchers and the public for many years in a serious edition published by the Institut für Zeitgeschichte.

Did the book really play such an important role in National Socialism?

It lost its status as an irrelevant populistic pamphlet following the election victories of the Nazis in the Weimar Republic. After 1933 “Mein Kampf” became the most important work of propaganda in Germany – civil registrars would even present newlyweds with a brand-new copy at the marriage ceremony. I can’t discover anything that supports the legend that it was the “least read book” of National Socialism. There are many volumes around with notes and underlined passages. People did read it and thought about it.

Would the book become more ­alluring if a decision were made to continue preventing its publication?

That’s what I’m afraid of. I can understand very well that in the 1950s almost directly after the Second World War and in light of the revelations of the mass crimes committed by the Nazis, it would have been hardly conceivable for the Bavarian state to allow the publication of “Mein Kampf”. The copyright laws provided a suitable way to

prevent the sale of the book without explicitly banning it. Today, the book is far more an historic document which we ought to study and analyse.

Does its propaganda still pose a threat?

Nobody is going to turn into a ­neo-­­­ Nazi because of this pamphlet. Any right-­wing extremists, who might have wanted the book, have likely downloaded it from some obscure website long ago. But those who read it with an unbiased mind will find its crude anti-Semitism and blatant racism revolting, its language is inexpressible, not only does it have an antiquated style, but basically the book is poorly written.

Then why the decision by the G ­ erman State Ministers of Justice?

Naturally, in the first weeks after it comes out, people may purchase a copy because they’ll see it displayed at stores and because they always wanted to read it themselves and find out what it really says. “Mein Kampf” could then end up at the top of the Spiegel bestseller list, which wouldn’t be a moment to be proud of, particularly in view of the commentaries from the international press. I think we could deal with that.

But the thought that money was being made with the book is difficult to accept. The publishers would hopefully be put under pressure to answer the question of whether they hope to earn a profit with an anti-Semitic pamphlet.

After all, its publication could be painful and shocking to survivors of the Shoah and their relatives. That’s something we’d have to address.

The Ministry’s decision could also prevent the publication of “Mein Kampf ” by the Munich-based Institut für Zeitgeschichte.

That would indeed be rather strange because the institute was commissioned to produce a historical-critical edition of “Mein Kampf” by the Bavarian state parliament on the basis of a unanimous resolution. The planned edition will clearly mark all passages where Hitler lied, show how he twisted the facts and also provide the populist and racist background information.

The Institut für Zeitgeschichte wants to produce the edition by itself and earn enough on it to cover the net costs.

It also plans to publish a free digital ­version online. Not publishing it would be a missed opportunity, because when

it comes to National Socialism, a responsible society like ours needs information and education.

Do you think that the Ministers of Justice might change their position?

I hope so. Because what would happen if a publisher released the book on the market in January and the State Ministers of Justice took legal action and prosecuted the publisher? Then we’d have a societal dispute about court proceedings involving a Nazi document and the freedom of speech. That would be disastrous in my opinion. We should avoid any kind of legal battle as the Ministry decision is set up to do. What we need instead is a public debate.

The interview was conducted

by Tobias Asmuth

Michael Wildt completed a bookseller apprenticeship at the Rowohlt Verlag and went on to study History, Evangelical Theo­ logy, Sociology and Cultural Studies at the University of Hamburg. He gained his ­habilitation in 2001 in Modern History at the University of Hannover with a highly ­acclaimed study on the leadership echelons at the Reich Main Security Office. In 2002, Wildt was invited to work as a ­research associate at the Jerusalem International Institute for Holocaust Research in Yad Vashem. He was also a research associate at the Hamburg Institute for Social Research (HIS) in the project area “Theory and History of Violence”. In 2009, Wildt was appointed professor for German History of the 20th Century at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin with specialisation in “The Age of National Socialism”.

Adolf Hitler: Mein Kampf, Volume 1&2 Broaching a banned book

Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf ” (My Struggle) was first published in 1925/1926, and by the end of World War II, millions of copies of the propagandistic manifesto had been sold. After 1945, the Free State of Bavaria became Hitler’s successor in title and prevented future publication of the book in the German-speaking market.

However, with the copyright protection set to end in 2015, a debate as to whether and in what form the book should be published has already begun.

The Kunstfest Weimar and the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar, in ­cooperation with numerous German-­ speaking theatres and festivals, have commissioned the theatre collective Rimini Protokoll (Haug/Wetzel) to produce “Mein Kampf” for the stage. Using their production of Karl Marx’s “Das Kapital” (Capital) from 2006 as a basis, Helgard Haug and Daniel Wetzel will focus on “Mein Kampf” as a literary text and historical document. Despite the numerous copies in print, “Mein Kampf” is one of the least read books. The question is, if no one has read it, what purpose has it served? And who would buy the book today, who would read it? Haug and Wetzel wish to investigate the mythical aura surrounding the book and examine what points of reference it offers the resurging nationalistic movements in both East and West. The research work and rehearsals will be accompanied by the Buchenwald Foundation and well-known historians.

As in previous Rimini Protokoll productions, a large-scale, international casting process will be used for selecting the “everyday experts” who will convey their personal views of the book on stage. The world premiere will take place at the ­Kunstfest Weimar in 2015, followed by numerous national and international guest performances.

Artistic director: Rimini Protokoll (Haug / Wetzel) Directors: Helgard Haug, Daniel Wetzel Set and costumes: Marc Jungreithmeier Dramaturgy: Sebastian Brünger DNT / E-Werk, Weimar: 3 Sep. 2­ 015–31 Jul. 2016; Graz: 24 Sep.–11 Oct. 2015; Münchner Kammerspiele: 12–31 Oct. 2015; Nationaltheater Mannheim: 1 Nov.–31 Dec. 2015; Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin: 1 Dec. 2015–31 Jan. 2016 ↗ www.kunstfest-weimar.de

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Some objects say

HELLo Warning: Australian Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders may take offense at the following article as it contains references to the deceased and secret-sacred knowledge.

by Christoph Balzar Warnings like these can be found in every imaginable form of media in post-colonial Australia. Television shows and news reports are often introduced in the same way, as are school textbooks, websites or movies. The purpose of the warning is to inform the indigenous people of the spiritual risks involved and to preserve their religious world from tabooed content. Some traditionally religious Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, i.e. inhabitants of the islands off Queensland, can become upset by even a subtle reference to something they call “secret-sacred business”. This includes everything that they consider sacred – on account of its particular spiritual force – and things which may pose a danger to one’s body and soul. These could be songs, ceremonies, stories, artefacts, also names and photos, films and voice recordings of the deceased. The degree of initiation, sex and totem membership determines who and what they can see, know and be acquainted with. We might say that a general rule of thumb is that everything to do with the dead is taboo. Indeed, the following essay could be offensive to indigenous Australians even though its intention is the exact opposite. The reason is that it deals with rethinking how to deal with this taboo in the museums of Berlin. Perhaps even more, it deals with the ­question of whether sacred or tabooed objects should be publicly exhibited at all. To do this, we have to discuss the matter ­publicly.

Indeed, the ancestral remains of indigenous Australians – in other words, everything that has anything to do with their ancestors – can be found in Berlin en masse. At the beginning of the 20th century, museums in Berlin established extensive ethno­ graphic and anthropological collections by scientists like F ­ elix von Luschan. These include everything the scientific world of that time considered important for gaining an understanding of foreign cultures: from tools to hunting weapons, from photos to voice recordings, from religious artefacts to human skeletons.

These collections and their formations have become the centre of heated debate in post-colonial discourse. Ethnographic and anthropological objects not only tell us something about foreign cultures, they often bear witness to a time when these cultures lost a large portion of their material, immaterial and natural heritage. The natives in many of these colonial territories were forced to watch how ethnologists carted away their possessions, biologists exhumed their dead for research pur-

poses, missionaries declared their traditions as sinful, and land-hungry settlers decimated their numbers with alcohol and flu infections. Socio-political influences like these allowed countless numbers of artefacts to be shipped away to Europe in a Diaspora unlike any other in history. Naturally, there were examples of “fair trade”, but in light of the enormity of injustice carried out in the name of colonialism, we ought to be sceptical of the claim that most ethnographic and anthropological ­collections were acquired lawfully. They couldn’t have been ­acquired in hardly any other way than via colonial infrastructures, which is why they are still subtly tainted with that history of ­violence, be it directly or indirectly. Clearly, museum ethnologists bear an enormous responsibility for this. But the fact that they’re not personally responsible for the crimes committed during the colonial era is sometimes overlooked by post-colonial activists.

The largest controversy in discourse about ethnological and anthropological collections concerns certain “sensitive objects”, by which we mean human remains or sacred relics of living cultures. Many indigenous peoples in post-colonial areas not only share their struggle to secure civil and land rights, but also seek restitution of sacred “things” which were taken from their ­societies during colonial rule. Their requests for restitution from today’s museums are often religiously motivated – in contrast, for example, to demands for the bust of Nefertiti by the E ­ gyptian National Museum. Dignitaries of the Kogi tribe in Colombia see their statues of their deities locked up and denied spiritual ­nourishment in international museums. Representatives of the ­Namibian Herero lament that the skeletal remains of their ancestors are put on public display and degraded. And many Australian aborigines suffer from being cut off from the artefacts in which they believe their ancestors reside.

Museums curators and conservators are not– as goes the frequent argument – capable of doing justice to the actual ­demands of such relics in terms of spiritual context and ceremonial use, and therefore, should return them. The criticised institutions often reject such accusations, arguing that “use” is equivalent to consumption and would result in a cultural taboo.

It is imperative, rather, to preserve such cultural treasures for future generations of researchers and museum visitors. Such conflicts demonstrate how tense the relationship between ­religion and science still is today.

The debate of whether it is more important to ensure the religious or scientific well-being of sensitive collections has ­become the pivotal question for researchers at museums. “What do you think? Do the sensitive objects in your collections really have spiritual powers?” For ethnologists and anthropologists, this question is most always unpleasant because it requires them to admit their personal belief about issues which, from a scientific perspective, should be a private matter of faith. Some ­researchers regard the alleged power of sensitive objects as the result of individual attributions of significance. Everything goes on in your head, it’s all just a matter of perspective. Or as Dr. Anita Herle from the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge describes her personal experience with ­sensitive collections: “Some objects say ‘Hello!’”

Even for those who have no way of grasping how sacred relics of foreign cultures can create a connection with their traditional owners, they can at least recognise that these things are not simply “things” for the affected individuals. Berlin’s museums are

22 respecting this special relationship between sensitive collections and their traditional owners more and more as they gain a keener sense for the trauma of colonialism.

In fact, it has made provenance research an integral part of the historic reappraisal efforts at museums. The Charité and its Museum of Medical History is a pioneer in this field. In 2008, Dr. Andreas Winkelmann and Prof.

Dr. Thomas Schnalke initiated the “human remains project” centred on its massive collection of human-biological specimens. These included around 5,000 human skulls which Felix von Luschan collected in the colonies at the start of the 20th century for dubious racial ­research purposes. With detective finesse and funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG), the team tried to determine the provenance of these human remains over a period of three years. The goal was to at least ­return a portion of these collections to their original societies. The project invited representatives of ­various Australian tribes among others to Berlin. In an ­official ceremony, they accepted the remains of their ancestors so that they could take them home and provide them a dignified burial. The “human remains project” has since come to an end. In hindsight, it wasn’t a campaign of political correctness, not public display of reparation or mere publicity stunt by the Charité. Dr. Winkelmann explains that his team always tried to take the wishes of its cooperation partners into account. The Aborigines wanted discretion in order avoid further public display of their deceased and their mourning. The “human remains project” was truly about people and healing historical wounds, perhaps also because the people coordinating the project were doctors.

The Ethnological Museum of Berlin also owns sensitive collections containing items which Felix von Luschan had purchased. These include ancestral remains of Aborigines, but not in the form of bones or skeletons. Rather, they are pieces of “soul wood“, or to be more precise churingas from the Central Australian tribe of the Aranda.

Churingas are a central element of their 40,000 to 60,000-year-old religion and their belief in alcheringa (Spencer & Gillen), or the “Dreaming”. This higher ­reality, which merges the past, present and future, reflects their concept of life in its totality – of land, the

Humboldt Lab Located in the historic heart of Berlin, the Humboldt Forum is set to become a centre of art, culture, science and education, dedicated to promoting dialogue between the cultures of the world. Since 2012 the Humboldt Lab Dahlem has served as an experimental venue for preparing the museum exhibitions in the future Humboldt Forum. The primary aim is to answer the question of how a museum today can present non-European art and culture in a both vivid and comprehensive fashion. The exhibition format “Rehearsal Stage” regularly presents the works and findings of artists and curators. Visitors were able to view the exhibition “[Open] Secrets” on Rehearsal Stage 4 until February 2015 which explored the museum presentation of sacred relics. Rehearsal Stage 6 opened on 26 March 2015 with new works of “Music Listening” in the audio room, along with two central projects titled “Object Biographies” and “Enchantment / Beauty Parlour” which highlight the history of the collection and address the challenge of vividly portraying unusual aesthetic concepts in a tangible way. Rehearsal Stage 7 and a concluding Humboldt Lab exhibition will open on 24 June 2015. ↗ www.humboldt-lab.de

plants, the animals, the people and even the laws they are obliged to follow. The laws of alcheringa are not physical, they are poetic.

According to the beliefs of the Aranda culture, when a pregnant woman feels her unborn child stir in her womb for the first time, this is the moment when a spiritual entity from the alcheringa enters the foetus. The mother-to-be informs the father-to-be, who then visits the place of conception with his own father. They understand that the child’s spirit is closely connected to the landscape, and it was exactly that spot where the spirit of a kangaroo, a snake or an ant decided to become a human. This is the place they must find the churinga – a special piece of stone or wood, etched with mystic symbols of circles and lines – which was dropped by the spirit during the transition. The men bring this churinga to the eldest and place it in a secret cave containing the most sacred relic of their tribe, the ertnatulunga. This is where the churinga will be guarded together with its brothers and sisters, its ancestors and those yet to come for all eternity. It is now in the Dreaming.

The ertnatulunga and all of the churingas are normally protected most stringently. Anything related to them in any way is “secret-sacred” and may not be shown or seen.

Women, children, uninitiated men and basically all strangers must stay away at the risk of being put to death, perhaps because the guardians of this place feel they couldn’t otherwise keep the doorway to the Dreaming open. The magical technique of concealment is utterly crucial in this. Not being permitted to look at the ertnatulunga or enter the cave not only increases the temptation to do so, but also make it – for those who believe – a completely different place which we might regard as a centre, from which order is radiated into the chaos of the world and into the life of each individual (Eliade).

There is no other place where the alcheringa are closer to the “law of the cosmos”.

The sensitive collections of these churingas in the Ethnological Museum in Berlin was the subject of an exhibition in 2014/15 titled “[Open] Secrets”, presented on Rehearsal Stage 4 at the Humboldt Lab. The curators Dr. Markus Schindlbeck and Indra Lopez Velasco had conducted research on how sacred and tabooed objects could be presented. The question possesses a certain degree of urgency as the Ethnological Museum in Dahlem is scheduled to close in 2016. While the majority of its collection will be stored in Friedrichshagen, the exhibition pieces will be moved into the reconstructed City Palace in Berlin, where they will become part of the Humboldt Forum. The responsible curators are planning to integrate the historical objects into theme-based, contemporary exhibitions starting in 2019. Even if they end up not being displayed, the sensitive collections could at that point become a political risk, provided that they draw the ire of their respective religious communities. Therefore, we have to come up with solutions now.

The exhibition “[Open] Secrets” experimented with the principles of revealing and concealing, and thus accounted for the sacredness of the objects. The black-painted exhibition room strongly resembled a cave. Among other displays, there was a churinga wrapped up in plant fibres, a 3D-printed plastic replica and a conceptual artwork ­featuring an empty vitrine with a note to visitors informing them that an object had been removed. The glass of another display case changed from milky white to transparent and back again, revealing and concealing other ritualistic objects. Curiosity and doubt were equally palpable.

The makers of the exhibition deserve credit for not shying away from the critical question as to why museums still own such sensitive collections. They invited international museum researchers with specialisation in sensitive objects to a public workshop where they ­discussed the controversial topic of restitution. Philip Batty from the Museum Victoria in Melbourne explained via video conference how difficult it is to concretely ­negotiate the restitution of churingas. The restitution

­ rogramme, which he coordinated in Australia, had p 3,000,000 Australian dollars at its disposal to investigate the provenance of 1,500 collection specimens. He and his team only found 100, i.e. not even seven percent, which they could trace back to their traditional owners.

Because of their tabooed nature as “secret-sacred business”, there were hardly any traditionally-minded, devout Aborigines who dared to come forward and identify them. And those who are not traditionally-minded or devout cannot identify them. The situation is dramatic.

Meanwhile, special depots in selected institutions have been set up nearby Aborigine communities so that at least the possibility exists that some churingas from international collections can be returned to Australian soil. Having the widely dispersed churingas displayed at central locations will most likely make it easier to identify them in the long term. However, time only will tell whether they will someday be truly reintegrated into the spiritual world and lives of the Aborigines. Philip Batty’s advice to ­his museum colleagues in Berlin: Seek contact with the traditional owners!

This is exactly what Indra Lopez Velasco did following the opening of the exhibition. At the workshop, she reported about a trip she took to Australia and her task of establishing contact with museum curators and Aborigine dignitaries. She told them about the exhibition “[Open] Secrets” in Germany and described the enormously broad range of resonance. And she discovered strong interest in the collections in Germany and the churingas there. A woman explicitly demanded to know about this “men’s business” and appreciated the fact that a museum was looking into ways of presenting it. A truly gender-based controversy! Regarding how best to ­care for churingas, one Aborigine said that while protective insect repellent was important, it wasn’t the only thing.

Some even predicted that we in Germany were playing with fire in dealing with “secret-sacred business”. Others simply wanted to have their churingas returned and manage them themselves. Lopez Velasco emphasised the ­necessity of taking the interests of the Central Australian peoples seriously. She concluded by reiterating that the scientific field in Germany had to address the beliefs of the Aborigines.

But how? In my opinion, an appropriate first step would be to launch a research project on the restitution of sensitive objects. After all, we’re talking about the salvation of an entire people, and perhaps our own as well.

Christoph Balzar, *1980, PhD student of Art History at the University of Bonn, is an artist, curator and mediator. His work focuses on conflict research with regard to cultural heritage disputes between indigenous societies and ethnological and cultural-historic museums or collections. The goal of his artistic-scientific practice is to generate dialogues in the form of joint exhibitions, research collaborations and transdisciplinary projects.

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” FOr EVERy MAN SHALL BEAr His Own BURden ” On the

Relationship

of Science

and Religion

by Tim Parks

For centuries, scientists have been debunking the creation myths of the world’s major religions and displacing man ever further from the centre of the universe. In return, they promised a more en­

lightened, longer life. Can science ultimately replace the belief in God? Can scientific findings provide us with a concrete world view and grea­ ter comfort?

→

O

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ver recent months I have been asked by different people whether I think science is substituting religion, whether art is substituting religion, sport is substituting religion, politics is substituting religion, and so on. In each case the implication is that such substitutions would be detrimental, that each area of experience has its proper place and we shouldn’t confuse one with the other. In short, these questions come from anxious conservatives. Meantime, religion hardly seems to be on the retreat. Yet nobody asks me whether I think religion is substituting science, art, sports, politics etc.

Beyond the immediately practical needs of food, shelter, warmth and space, humans have other more complex requirements. Essentially, a state of mind has to be achieved, a framework of beliefs, or at least mental habits, that will allow us to perform the various activities society requires of us, without feeling imprisoned on the one hand, or overwhelmed by meaninglessness on the other. We need a vision of the world and life such that we are willing to get on with things.

This is not easy.

The religions of the world are many and more various than most people suppose; however, in general they organise life in such a way that it has meaning and momentum. A collection of creation myths and stories of the deity’s dealing with man allow the believer to have a sense of his position in the universe.

There is a blueprint for a good life which is also a framework for understanding a wide range of experience, from work to art to sex to mysticism. Above all, these beliefs are shared by a community, so that each believer is guaranteed a sense of belonging. He is not alone. He knows what his relationships to other human beings should be, more or less. When religious feeling is strong, a believer knows what life is about and the community sustains his convictions. This was quite an achievement – though it often results in one community fighting another.

We have needs that religion once satisfied Religion’s weak point is that it requires belief. If you can’t believe, it is not just your personal destiny that is called into question, but the whole glue on which society is based, the very pattern of life itself.

So it was inevitable that science would be a threat to religion. The history of the West in modern times could be understood in terms of the various pacts between science and religion such that society could reap the benefits of science while keeping its religion more or less intact. In this regard, the Cartesian split between a materialist realm of research and a spiritual realm of belief was invaluable.

But inevitably as geology, astronomy and above all biology wiped away one creation story after another, some people found it hard to go on believing, while in general a religion that is increasingly forced to see its main tenets as metaphors rather than straightforward facts, inevitably loses conviction. It was belief in an absolute that gave religion its force. More and more, contemporary religions are polarised between fundamentalists who yearn for old absolutes in the

teeth of scientific evidence, and liberals who seek to construct religious devotion without literal beliefs.

Fortunately religion is not quite the only way of constructing a world vision which allows us to live.

Reflecting on the “massacre of the illusions” which science had brought about, the 19th-century Italian poet and philosopher Giacomo Leopardi felt that the modern human condition would be characterised by a kind of double-think: one knew that there was nothing to believe in, yet since some framework of belief was necessary for action, people would create such frameworks, however flimsy, in other areas of experience. The areas Leopardi identified were … science, art and sport.

Science offers facts, perhaps truths, about ‘creation’, or evolution, and with it notions both of determinism and, more dubiously, progress. We can see our lives as locked into the onward march of the species.

Meantime technical advances based on scientific discoveries offer us the possibility of improving our lot.

Indeed science seems frequently to be seeking

What mattered was the immortal soul, the self f­orgiveness for having destroyed our illusions by offering, in compensation, discoveries that may make life better, or longer, or at least more comfortable, or simply more interesting. This is a pretty poor trade if one thinks of the universal view and the deeper comfort religion once offered, but if art can give voice and shape to our more elusive and noble intuitions, if politics and sport can offer frameworks for belonging and relatively harmless competition, if consumerism (itself largely dependent on science) gives people a series of desires to fulfil, then life can take on some form. And, of course, cultural inertia is a huge asset. We do the things our parents did.

There is nothing perverse or even strange about this. We have needs that religion once satisfied. For many of us, religion no longer works. Even those who profess belief frequently do so in a way hardly comparable to the total conviction of centuries ago. The world is not divided into believers and non-believers, but into people with different intensities and continuities of conviction, or you might say people who ‘use’ religion for different goals, a consolation in the face of death, a sense of militant community.

What strikes one is how precarious any modern mind set, whether religious or otherwise, inevitably is, how hard and how constantly we have to work to give direction to our lives. Above all, how difficult it is for us to find any reason for denying our individual selves in favour of society as a whole. As Louis Dumont suggested in his studies of human hierarchies, from the moment we no longer have religious belief to underpin a hierarchical vision of humanity, then every relationship between individuals is one of pure competition.

Which brings me to my interest in the project “Science as Religion?” by the German-American Institute in Heidelberg, where I will participate as a guest “intern”. One of the notions both Christianity and Western science hold in common is the supremacy, on earth, of the individual human consciousness, or mind, or soul. Christianity had already posited a direct relationship between the individual and God, beside which all other relationships were secondary.

What mattered was the immortal soul, the self. The Cartesian split between materiality and spirituality reinforced this view of things. The human mind was in some way separate from the world, a spiritual existence in a material skull. One could even imagine it

becoming immortal, if not through a passage to heaven, then in some sophisticated, yet to be designed software.

Over recent years with more and more research into the brain and the advent of sophisticated scanning instruments, scientists have tried to confirm this model by identifying the physical seat of consciousness. Nailing the soul down, as it were. This they have completely failed to do. No place has been found that constitutes the self, nor has any model of consciousness proved entirely convincing.

Recently I have become interested in the work of those ‘externalists’ who claim that the reason for this failure is precisely the mistaken notion that the mind is somehow locked inside the head and hence separate from the world. They suggest rather that consciousness is a continuum that exists only in the constant exchange between body and world. There is no self closed in the skull. There is no soul. This is an attitude much closer to some Oriental views of the relationship between man and the world. When I see an apple, for example, I do not as it were take a photograph of the apple and possess it in my head, separate from the apple. Rather the direct exchange between apple and mental receptors is the consciousness of the apple, and all later memories of the apple are reverberations of that exchange, not an image I own and manipulate in the photoshop of the mind.

The implications of this approach are enormous.

An understanding of our real position as radically within the world, an elimination of any notion of a division between a gross material world and a separate refined human consciousness, would inevitably change our relationship with the natural world and with each other. So this is what I would like to investigate a little further. Needless to say, the resistance to this notion will be considerable. Humans have spent hundreds if not thousands of years fuelling the idea that they are special and separate, above all that they possess an individuality that can somehow be abstracted from the material world, that can escape the law of change to which all matter must submit. The very expression, material world, was invented to suggest our superiority to it. Such prejudices will not disappear in a day.

Tim Parks, born in 1954 in Manchester, England, studied English and American Literature at the University of Cambridge and Harvard University. He has lived in Italy since 1981. Parks has written fourteen novels, numerous non-fiction books and essays. His most recent book, the thriller “Painting Death”, was published in 2014

by Harvill Secker, London. He has translated works by Moravia, Calvino and Tabucchi into English and teaches Literary Translation at the University of Milan. The German-American Institute in Heidelberg invited Tim Parks and other writers to participate as “interns” in projects by scientific institutions and subsequently report on their impressions. You can find more information about the project “Science as Religion?” on p. 19.

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New Projects Image & Space

Walker Evans: ­ Depth of Field A retrospective of his photographic oeuvre

The American photographer Walker Evans shaped the history of 20th-century photography like no other. Born in 1903, he studied literature at the Sorbonne in Paris in the 1920s, where he became ­increasingly interested in European photography. The influence of Eugène Atget and August Sander played a formative role in his own artistic works throughout his life. The “transatlantic” and remote view of American culture particularly characterised his oeuvre.

After returning to the United States, Evans began to realise that the artistic material he was looking for was right in front of him – on the streets and in middle-class apartments. He viewed America with the eyes of a stranger and discovered a new magic in the seemingly familiar. He was fascinated by the signs and symbols of the commercial world, the faceless, anonymous architecture, the neglected outskirts of industrial landscapes and people’s suffering during the Depression.

As early as the 1930s, Evans started down the path to becoming one of the world’s most influential photographers, and his works served as a significant artistic point of orientation for numerous artists who came after him. In fact, his works were even a role model for Pop Art in the 1970s.

The exhibition, developed by the Josef Albers Museum in Bottrop together with the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, is the first European retrospective of Evans’s oeuvre. A number of prominent museums in the United States have agreed to provide loans to the exhibition. In contrast to earlier exhibitions which primarily focused on his early works from the 1930s, this exhibition will also include works from Evans’s later artistic phases.

An extensive exhibition catalogue featuring numerous essays will accompany and document the exhibition.

Curators: John T. Hill (US), Brett Abbott (US), Heinz Liesbrock Artist: Walker Evans (US) Josef Albers Museum Quadrat, Bottrop: 27 Sep. 2015 – 10 Jan. 2016; High Museum of Art, Atlanta: 31 Jan.–8 May 2016; Vancouver Art Gallery: 29 Oct. 2016–22 Jan. 2017 ↗ www.bottrop.de

← Walker Evans: Roadside Stand near Birmingham, Alabama 1936

eigenvalue Technology as an active subject

In 1964, the media theorist Marshall McLuhan described technologies as the tools of humanity. In the 1980s, the literary scholar and media theorist Friedrich Kitt­ ler posited that humans are constituted through their technology and subjugated by it. Today technology has taken over so many tasks that technology itself has seemingly assumed the status of a subject. Actions and decisions, which had long been human prerogatives, are increasingly being outsourced to networked machines and their programming. The intuitive user interfaces, which determine much of our daily lives, are so advanced that their underlying technologies are practically invisible to us. Technology acts independently and makes decisions for the user even before they are perceived as such. At the same time, they create new forms of control.

The exhibition project “eigenvalue” aims to show to what extent technology has become an active subject and what impact this has on politics, enterprise culture and contemporary art. The exhibition presents artistic works highlighting the theme of technology which aim to increase our awareness of these developments. The project is designed to resemble a “trade show”, to which technology firms and in-

novative start-ups, such as Cogito Dialogue and Deep Mind, and international artists like Ed Atkins, Dora Budor, Constant Dullaart and JODI will be invited.

The media-theoretical basis of the project will be developed in cooperation with ­L euphana University in Lüneburg. A ­conference and extensive educational programme are also in planning.

18th century. It is associated with the name Christian Gottlieb Priber. Priber, an attorney from the Saxon region of Oberlausitz, took leave of his bourgeois life in Germany in 1735 to resettle in one of the newly founded British colonies in North America.

There he joined an Indian tribe and attempted to implement his concept of a commonwealth which he had drafted in secret while in Germany. In a community without private property, race, class or Artistic director: Inke Arns, Christian gender, he tried to achieve a paradise on von Borries earth. Inspired by this story, a multi-disciCurators: Inke Arns, Christian von plinary, long-term project will be develBorries, Nina Franz Artists: Simon oped in 2015 in cooperation with the ACC Denny, Dullaart (NL), JODI (NL), Galerie Weimar. It presents Priber’s utopia ÜBERMORGEN (AT) and others in connection with other historic and contemporary utopian visions of human coexDortmunder U, Dortmund: 31 Oct. istence and their depiction in art. In addi2015–21 Feb. 2016 ↗ www.hmkv.de tion to fine artists, the project’s participants include filmmakers, theatre artists, writers, songwriters, cultural historians, anthropologists, sociologists and philosophers.

The exhibitions in Weimar and Zittau will be accompanied by an extensive proChristian Gottlieb Priber and contem- gramme of readings, interventions, workporary social utopias. ­Exhibition and shops, expeditions to Oberlausitz and disaccompanying ­programme cussions. A theatre project will also be developed in cooperation with the HillerSocial utopias of yesterday and today sche Villa Sociocultural Centre in Zittau, – a recurrent theme in times of crisis and along with a conference titled UTOPIEthe focus of a project by the Municipal Mu- LABOR (Utopia Laboratory) with reseums of Zittau. The title “Kingdom Par- searchers, politicians and writers. The exadise” refers to the unusual story of the hibition will also be shown in Providence, only known plan for a worldly utopia in the Rhode Island (USA) and Tromsø (Norway).

Kingdom Paradise

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↗ www.museum-zittau.de

Travesty for Advanced Performers A scenic performance in several acts

Collective social identities often develop through the exclusion of unconventional values. Rallying calls to preserve unique characteristics and traditions prove effective time and again with the result that changes or deviations from the norm are rejected or discriminated against. “Travesty for Advanced Performers” aims to undermine static, one-dimensional social models, closed-minded concepts and lifestyles. The project focuses on topics such as migration, homosexuality and inclusion, which neo-conservative and populist opinion-makers often pounce on in an attempt to control the narrative.

In the new wing of the GfZK in Leipzig, a theatrical exhibition on a rotating stage will serve as the venue for individual presentations, dance performances, lectures and workshops. The project is especially interested in collective and personal identities which find themselves in the process of transformation. A dramaturgical concept for the exhibition is being developed together with the choreographer Heike Hennig which expresses various aspects of transformation in staged scenes and dance routines. “Travesty for Advanced Performers“ reflects on how an art institution works. How can critical discourse and its artistic reflection exert influence on public perception? The project aims to reach a broad spectrum of audiences by collaborating with local and international institutions in Paris, Vienna and Moscow. The project will be accompanied by a publication in the form of a script which can be continued anytime.

Artistic director: Julia Kurz, Julia ­Schäfer, Franciska Zolyóm Assistent: Katrin Kappenberger Dramaturge for the dance and acting sequences: Heike Hennig Graphic appearance / set design: hoelb/hoeb (AT) Artists, performers: Christine Hill (US), Henrik Olesen (DK), Katharina Lampert (AT), Michaela Schwieger, ­Clemens von Wedemeyer, Ann-Sofi Sidén (SE), Anna Witt (AT), Katrina Daschner (AT) ­Dancers, actors: Julia Berke, Hong Nguyen Thai (VN), Catherine Jodoin (CA) and others brut, Vienna: March 2015; Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig: 27 Mar.–28 Jun. 2015, 10 Jul.–11 Oct. 2015, 23 Oct. 2015–31 Jan. 2016; Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, Paris: October 2015 ↗ www.gfzk.de

First retrospective in Germany

In the United States, Nickolas Muray (1892–1965) is regarded as one of the most influential portrait and advertising photographers of the first half of the 20th century – while in Europe, his works are largely unknown. Born in Szeged, Hungary, he learned his craft at the Technical University in Berlin and then moved to the USA in 1913 where he began working for such magazines as Vanity Fair, Vogue and Time. During his career, he photographed more than 350 famous figures and celebrities, such as Frida Kahlo, Claude Monet, Ingrid Bergmann, Jean Cocteau, Greta Garbo and Humphrey Bogart.

In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of his death, the Kunstmuseum Moritzburg will present a retrospective of his oeuvre in Germany for the first time ever – including numerous works which many today consider iconic of that period.

It is being coordinated in transnational cooperation and will kick off a series of special exhibitions of international photographers, which the Kunstmuseum Moritzburg wishes to present more intensively in light of its collection focus of over 60,000 photographic works. The accompanying exhibition catalogue will be the first German-language publication on Muray’s works.

Nickolas Muray Photo Archives © Nickolas Muray Photo Archives

ACC Galerie, Weimar: 29 May–9 Aug. 2015; Städtische Museen, Zittau: 1 Jul.–30 Oct. 2016

Nickolas Muray

← Frida Kahlo on White Bench (detail), New York, 1939, color giclee print, 48 x 33 cm

George Eastman House, Rochester, New York © Nickolas Muray Photo Archives

Artistic director: Frank Motz Artists: Caitlin Baucom (US), Robert Beske, Agyenim Boateng (GH), Samuel Draxler (US), Francis Hunger, Ursula Naumann / Henrik Schrat, Fabian ­R­eimann, Roberto Santaguida (CA), John ­Jeremiah Sullivan (US), Michael Townsend / Emily Bryant (US), Alex Young (US)

Artistic director: Thomas Bauer-­Friedrich Curator: Salomon Grimberg (US) Artist: Nickolas Muray (US) Kunstmuseum Moritzburg, Halle/­ Saale: 1 Mar.–10 May 2015 ↗ www.stiftung-moritzburg.de

The Beast and the Sovereign “Profanation” as an artistic and “queer” practice

How do processes of profanation work? What happens when they are consciously shaped? Things become profane when they are taken out of their religious context and used in a way that ignores or contradicts their sacredness, thus appearing “inappropriate”. Acts of profanation aim to transcend established, seemingly sacrosanct orders, categories and values.

Applying the term of religion in its broadest sense, the project focuses on artistic works and performative practices by international artists who question established norms with regard to sex and gender, ethnicity and class, and consciously use them “inappropriately”. Another group of works examines “queer”, non-­conformist methods of appropriating religious practices and iconography – not as a blasphemous gesture, but rather in the sense of probing a profane, individualistic treatment with the sacred. Other artists explore the relationship between religion and economy, the holy and the monetary.

← Martha Graham, ca. 1926, gelatin silver print, 24,4 x 19,7 cm

The works also focus on knowledge-oriented institutions and biopolitics along with their sacred spaces, classifications and forms of presentation. The project organisers are developing a design for the exhibition rooms at the Württemberg­ ischen Kunstverein and the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) which creates a profanation of the “white cube” venue.

Artistic director: Iris Dressler Curators: Hans D. Christ, Valentin Roma (ES), Beatriz Preciado (ES) Artists: Edgar Endress (CL), Oier Etxeberria (ES), León Ferrari (AR), Geumhyung Jeong (KR), Julia Montilla (ES), Ocaña (ES), Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (GB), Wu Tsang (US), Sergio Zevallos (PE) and others MACBA, Barcelona: 18 Mar.–28 Jun. 2015; Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart: 9 Oct. 2015–18 Jan. 2016 ↗ www.wkv-stuttgart.de

27

New Projects Music & Sound

Alif::split of the wall

500 Years with Luther

a musical exhibition space

Events series as part of the Lux aeterna Festival

The concert “Alif::split of the wall” is a musical experiment. The production features a viewer-accessible performance space, a kind of living, musical organism, which incorporates the audience members. The performance itself is a combination of a concert, experimental music theatre production, art performance and club night.

The project uses existing music composed by Samir Odeh-Tamimi and Stefan Goldmann, but also features several new works specially composed for this production. Samir Odeh-Tamimi’s musical style is very distinctive and draws from a combination of West European avant-­ garde and Arabic musical tradition. Stefan Goldmann develops conceptual music based on forms and techniques used in house and techno music. The performances are based on a “musical matrix” developed by Jeremias Schwarzer, Samir Odeh-Tamimi and Stefan Goldmann.

The matrix is comprised of structured time intervals, Arabic harmonics and rhythmic transformations. Compositions and improvisations are interwoven so that they mutually influence one another. The title of the project refers to an ancient Sufi parable about a student who transcribes the letter Alif, the first letter of the alphabet, over and over again. The repetition of this familiar symbol cracks the wall, creating an opening into an alternate reality. The fabric of familiarity is torn and something completely different is allowed to gain unfettered access.

The concerts will be performed at Radialsystem in Berlin, at the Hamburger Kunsthalle and other venues in selected cities throughout Europe.

Five hundred years ago, Europe and the world were shaken by the Reformation.

Five projects in a series titled “500 Years with Luther”, which will take place at the “Lux aeterna” festival in Hamburg, reveal the far-reaching consequences of this event which forever changed the European order. The five elaborate productions, which also make reference to the motto of the Luther Decade “Image and Bible”, feature a selection of musical works from that era and combine them with light and video art, readings and contemporary dance.

The projects focus on central topics of the Reformation, such as faith, power and communication, and present them against the reality of modern life. In this way, they offer new approaches for understanding Luther’s world and ideas and those of his fellow Reformers of the 16th century. The events will be accompanied by an academic lecture series held at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg.

The Water Passion, written by the Chinese composer Tan Dun, is a 21st-century version of the Passion of St. Matthew. He recreates the scenes in the Gospel of St. Matthew with unconventional instrumentation.

In War and Peace, the Catalan gambist and historian Jordi Savall examines the religious conflicts and upheaval in European power structures which resulted from the Reformation. One hundred years of war and peace are dramatically depicted in the form of a musical fresco.

United by faith and the desire for renewal, Martin Luther and Erasmus von Rotterdam were in frequent correspondence with one another. Passages from these letters will be read aloud in Erasmus von Rotterdam – Praise of Folly, accompanied by musical works which show how greatly the Reformation influenced all areas of life.

In iTMOi – in the mind of igor, the London-based choreographer Akram Khan examines the sacrificial ritual at the centre of Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” with regard to the Biblical story of Abraham and Isaac.

Location, music and imagery merge into one spatial-acoustic experience in Darkness & Light. The music from the organ, the most important instrument in Protestant church music, is performed to large-scale video projections created by the Australian artist Lynette Wallworth.

Artistic director: Christoph LiebenSeutter Composer: Tan Dun (CN) ­Soloist: ­Bernard Foccroulle (BE) Musical ­director and soloist: Jordi Savall (ES) Camera: Lynette Wallworth (AU) Ensembles: Akram Khan Company (GB) (dance), Chorakademie Lübeck, ­Hespèrion XXI (ES), La Capella Reial de Catalunya (ES), Le Concert des Nations (ES) St. Katharinen, St. Michaelis, St. Petri, Kampnagel, Hamburg: 3 Feb.–2 Mar. 2015 ↗ www.elbphilharmonie.de ↗ www.lux-aeterna-hamburg.de

Artistic director: Jeremias Schwarzer Installation: Chiharu Shiota (JP) Music: Samir Odeh-Tamimi (IL), Stefan Goldmann, Jeremias Schwarzer Musicians: Zafraan Ensemble V ­ ocals: Salome Kammer Spatial design: ­ Folkert Uhde Dramaturgy: Ilka Seifert ­Production: Zafraan Ensemble, ­Sebastian Solte

A contribution to the MaerzMusik Festival of the Berliner Festspiele

The topic of the upcoming festival is the phenomenon of time – time as an individual and social pacemaker; time as a limited, non-renewable resource of acceleration and deceleration, time as a metronome for the production of economic and artistic products. Time plays a constitutive role for the design and development of artistic works in the areas of music, film and performance, and time-based art forms are capable of offering recipients concrete temporal spaces for experience and reflection.

The festival sees itself as a forum for discussion about our relationship with time. Over ten days, it will offer audiences the chance to become acquainted with the prevailing terms of time, its structures and experiences from an artistic, scientific and philosophical perspective. Current discourse and theories will be intricately linked with our concrete experience of time in a variety of concerts, installations, performances and film projects, all of which will offer visitors diverse modes of access to the phenomenon of time. The multimedia accompaniment of the festival will guarantee an extensive range of documentation.

Artistic director: Berno Odo Polzer Artists: Ictus Ensemble (BE), Ensemble Mosaik, Minguet Quartett, Ensemble Adapter, Phill Niblock (US), Cédric Dambrain (BE), Eva Reiter (AT), Bruce McClure (US), Caspar Langhoff (CH), Yaron Deutsch (IL), Leif Inge (NO) and others Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Kraftwerk Berlin, Berlin: 20–29 Mar. 2015 ↗ www.berlinerfestspiele.de

Vienna: November 2015; Radialsystem V, Berlin: March 2016; Nuremberg: June 2016 © Louis Fernandez

Festival for Matters of Time

↗ www.zafraan-ensemble.com

↑ iTMOi (in the mind of igor), Akram Khan Company

28

New Projects Theatre & Movement

RomAmoR

In many places, the public perception of the Roma and Sinti is still characterised by unyielding prejudice. Seldom does one encounter an unbiased view of this “minority” of millions of people around the world who are seeing an increase in aggressive, antiziganistic attacks and crimes.

In its new project “RomAmoR”, Hellerau examines cultural identities and the current situation of the Roma and Sinti.

It consciously avoids exotically romanticised clichés, but uses them instead as a foil for productive discussion. International artists with and without a Roma background are given the opportunity to participate in a forum which conveys the manifold and heterogeneous cultural and artistic wealth of the Roma.

A widely diverse, cross-disciplinary programme, developed through transnational cooperation, provides insights into the real world of the Roma and Sinti and creates links between contemporary and folkloric, and traditional and experimental positions. Embedded in an extensive accompanying discussion and educational programme, “RomAmoR” hopes to contribute to sharpening and changing ↓ Halil Altındere: Wonderland, February 2013, video, 8:25 min the broader public’s awareness of the before in Europe. The programme will be Roma and Sinti. supplemented by discussions with authors, artists and other artistic contributions. As Artistic director: Vera Marušić International theatre festival at the a lead-up to the festival, a series of themeChoreographers, dancers: Israel Galván Schauspiel Stuttgart based events will be organised in cooper(ES), Akram Khan (GB) ation with partners in Stuttgart, such as Musicians: Jacobo Abel (ES), Roma and In the 2013/2014 season, the Schaus- the Haus der Geschichte and the Haus des Sinti Philharmonic Orchestra Frankfurt/ piel Stuttgart began cooperating with the Dokumentarfilms. Terrorism is a subject Main, Shukar Collective (RO) Oslo National Theatre, the Israeli Nation- which evokes disquieting memories in Artists: Lita Cabellut (ES), Delaine & al Theatre in Tel Aviv and the Comédie de Stuttgart; many RAF (Red Army Faction) Damian Le Bas (GB) Photographers: Joakim Eskildsen (DK), Reims through the international theatre members originated from Baden-Würtnetwork Union des Théâtres de L’Europe temberg and the Stammheim trials polarAnnette Hauschild (U.T.E.). The collaboration has already ised German society 40 years ago. resulted in the development and several Curators: Timea Junghaus (HU) world premieres of productions based on Artistic director: Armin Petras Various venues, Dresden: 7 Sep. ­ the subject of terrorism. The production Directors: Iva Milosevic (RS), Shay 2015– 30 Apr. 2016 ↗ www.hellerau.org “A More Peaceful World” by the Oslo Na- ­Pitowski (IL), Jonas Corell Petersen tional Theatre, for example, offers a pan- (NO), Ludovic Lagarde (FR), Armin orama of terroristic phenomena based on Petras, Jan Gehler, Wojtek Klemm and Steven Pinker’s opus magnum “A History others Writers: Milena Markovic (SRB), of Violence”. The piece “Dragonslayers” Aiat Fayez (FR), Maya Arad (IL), Fritz from Belgrade makes subtle and ironic Kater, Dirk Laucke, Hanoch Levi and reference to events of the past century in others Serbian history. In the play “God Waits at the Station”, produced in Tel Aviv, the Schauspiel Stuttgart: 25–28 Jun. 2015 actors attempt to reconstruct the life of ↗ www.schauspiel-stuttgart.de a female suicide bomber.

The Schauspiel Stuttgart is planning to hold a festival on the topic of terrorism which will feature five separate productions in a joint presentation like no other

TERRORisms

Courtesy the artist and Pilot Gallery

A HELLERAU tribute to the Roma and Sinti cultures

Impulse Theater ­Festival 2015 “Parlour games” – International special projects for presentation at the festival

The Impulse Theatre Festival is the most important international platform for independent theatre productions in the German-speaking world. For the upcoming edition in 2015, the organisers have implemented several structural changes which will ensure long-term planning security and a viable basis for the future. Impulse will continue to be staged once a year, but only at one venue per year, alternating between the participating cities of Mülheim, Cologne and Düsseldorf.

The 2015 festival in Mülheim will explore the structural resemblance of theatre and politics. Where and how is participation possible in theatre which goes beyond taking part, playing a role, or joining in? Most of the independent theatre productions invited to the Impulse 2015 directly intervene in social processes and regard theatre as a political “Laboratory of the Contemporary”.

29 In future, the festival will strengthen its ties to the international scene. For example, the Federal Cultural Foundation has agreed to fund a special international project in 2015 which invites three artists to develop site-specific works. The Kurdish artist Ahmet Ögüt will operate the “Silent Ruhr-University” for a period of two years – a platform for exchanging knowledge with refugees and asylum seekers. The aim is to bring together those who used to work in the academic field in their home countries, but can no longer pursue their careers in Germany because of their respective status. The Dutch theatre artist Lotte van den Berg often investigates the relationship between viewing and taking action in her works. She is developing a performance in Düsseldorf which presents a different view of the city every day. During the festival, the British artist Phil Collins will create and stage performances in a “travel centre” with a symbolic bus terminal. Part of the accompanying festival programme will be staged inside these buses, for example, presentations and performative lectures by artists and researchers, e.g. Milo Rau, Hans-Thies Lehmann and Carl Hegemann.

on the current crisis as well as zones of resistance. The project Balagan will be the main feature of the sixth edition of the Nordwind Festival in 2015. Founded in 2006 in Berlin, the biennial Nordwind Festival has gained a reputation in recent years as an important venue for performing arts from northern Europe. The invited artists from Scandinavia, the Baltic countries, the United States and Germany will also incorporate the theme of the Balagan project into their featured works.

Artistic director: Ricarda Ciontos Curators: David Elliot (HONS), Cornelia Puschke Artists: Fine arts: AES, Bakhut Bubikanova, Vladislav Mamyshev-­ Monroe, Natalie Maximova, RECYCLE, Anastasia Vepreva, Oleg Ustinov ­Performance: ZIP Group, Voina Group (all RU) HAU, Sophiensaele, Volksbühne, Berlin; Kampnagel, Hamburg; Hellerau, Dresden; Dampfzentrale, Berne: 9 Nov. – 16 Dec. 2015 ↗ www.nordwind-festival.de

Paul McCarthy – Stage Coach & Theo ­A ltenberg – Invite Performative Utopias of Viennese Actionism and the American West Coast

The American performance artist Paul McCarthy and the protagonists of Vienna Actionism strongly influenced the themes, methods and aesthetics of 20th-century and contemporary art. ­Fifty years since the debut of their first works, the American and European pioneers of the neo-avant-garde will be reunited for the first time at the Volksbühne in Berlin.

As the kick-off production of Frank Castorf’s final season as general theatre director, the Volksbühne will present ­McCarthy’s works for the first time in a ­theatrical venue. Together with his son ­Damon, he will create a complex of works titled “Stage Coach” – a melange of walk-­ through installation and film, perfor-

Artistic director: Henning Nass Artists: Paul McCarthy (US), Theo ­Altenberg, Günter Brus (AT), Harald Falckenberg, Jörg Heiser, Carolee Schneemann (US), Barbara T. Smith (US), Jaki Liebezeit, Burnt Friedman, Bernhard Schütz, Jeri Jeri (SN), Attila Muehl (AT), Charly Roussel (AT) Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin: 10 Sep.–4 Oct. 2015 ↗ www.volksbuehne-berlin.de

ORFEO A music-theatre installation in eight rooms based on the opera by Claudio Monteverdi

This version of “Orfeo” will premiere during the Ruhr Triennial 2015 at the former coal mixing plant Zeche Zollverein, whose industrial backdrop promises to lend a spectacular atmosphere to the performance.

Artistic director: Florian Malzacher Artists: Lotte van den Berg (NL), Silent University (TR), class of Phil Collins (GB) and others Selected venues in Mülheim a.d. Ruhr, Düsseldorf, Cologne: 11–21 Jun. 2015 ↗ www.nrw-kultur.de ↗ www.festivalimpulse.de

Balagan!!!

Courtesy of the artists and Galerie Volker Diehl

Zones of Resistance.

Focus on Russia

Like Germany, the Baltic and eastern Scandinavian countries have close and lively ties with Russian culture. The project Balagan examines this relationship, conscious of the strained political relations with Russia at present, and has invited over 70 artists and cultural producers to present their artistic positions at shows in Berlin, Hamburg and Dresden.

In the section titled “Balagan Dreams”, young Russian artists present their strategies in times of upheaval. Activists team up with theatre artists, while performers and fine artists, who have had their works exhibited in galleries, collaborate with artists who operate in the underground scene. The section “Balagan Works” features guest performances of important contemporary Russian directors while “Balagan Express” serves as a bilateral platform of exchange, organised in cooperation with Kampnagel in Hamburg, the Volksbühne Berlin, Hellerau Dresden and other institutions. Russian and German artists have been invited to discuss their work and working conditions in various workshops. The term “Balagan” in the project’s title is a word which Russian immigrants brought to Israel and the United States, and means chaos, instability and disorder. Consequently, the project invites artists to present their perspectives

← Blue Noses: Mask Show

mance, music and painting. At the same time, various cross-genre events based on the motto “Invite” will highlight the themes and works of Vienna Actionism.

Theo Altenberg will direct a project which primarily focuses on staging re-enactments of key films produced by the Austrian-based movement.

By engaging both artists in intensive collaboration, the project wishes to explore how the fine arts and theatre mutually influence one another and to generate synergistic effects for both genres through new aesthetic inspiration from the fine arts – with the aim of exploring the political relevance of art utopias of the 1960s in our current socio-political situation.

The young German director Susanne Kennedy, the Dutch artist duo Suzan Boogaerdt & Bianca van der Schoot, and the soloist ensemble Kaleidoskop have teamed up to adapt Monteverdi’s “Orfeo” as a music theatre installation and individual walking tour through several rooms. In this way, the artists intend to create an experiment in perception based on this well-known opera.

The special character and visual impact of the mixing plant of the former colliery is countered by a room designed to be both banal and hyper-realistic. Here, Hades is presented as a “modern-day limbo”, comprised of cheap kitchenettes, bedrooms and waiting rooms: the “aesthetics of a room in suburbia”.

30 Monteverdi’s composition forms the musical basis of the production. The Kaleidoskop ensemble will also develop new works, as well as electronic samples based on fragments of the original composition.

Like in Monteverdi’s opera, the principle of echoing will play a decisive role in this production. The individual rooms of the installation can “perform together”, in other words, the music in one room can influence the acoustic experience of the music in another room. The audience will be allowed to walk through the rooms in small groups. They will encounter Orpheus, wandering restlessly, occasionally taking the audience members with him and then leave again. After about an hour, the tour of Hades concludes, but for those who choose to enter once more, new variations and a new version of this mythical tale await.

plinary project is a collaboration between several departments of the University of Jena and the Buchenwald Memorial. An extensive accompanying publication will provide an in-depth discussion of specific aspects of this thematic complex.

Malmö. At every location, the “apparatus” will provide opportunity for lectures, performances and concerts. Each run will culminate in “Dirt: The Show” featuring a presentation of the compiled results. A blog will document the process.

Artistic directors: Giselle Vegter (NL), Ilil Land-Boss (IL) Musical director: Bart van de Lisdonk (NL) Concept development / ­performance: Nenad Fiser (BA/NL) Pedagogical advising / performance: Charlott Dahmen (BA/NL) Performance: Tina Keserovic (AT) Dramaturgy: Friederike Weidner, Marcel Klett

Artistic director: Stefanie Wenner Room design: Thorsten Eibeler Participating artists: Simone Aughterlony (NZ/CH), Quast & Knoblich, cobratheater.cobra, Manuela Infante (CL), Liz Rosenfeld (US), Colin Hacklander (US), Farahnaz Hatam (IR/US)

Theaterhaus Jena: 7–17 May 2015 ↗ www.theaterhaus-jena.de

Uferstudios, Berlin: 1 Jun.–14 Jul. 2015; drugo more Rijeka: 15–30 Sep. 2015; Kampnagel, Hamburg: 26 Oct.–8 Nov. 2015; Inkonst, Malmö: 4–14 Feb. 2016 ↗ www.uferstudios.com

The conference will also feature plays on climate-related issues, produced by such theatre artists as Philippe Quesne and Katie Mitchell. The programme will be supplemented by actions, lectures and discussions. For example, in the “Climate Oasis”, renowned scholars and philosophers will discuss climate and growth research. “A Meeting of Minds” will offer visitors an opportunity to have a one-onone conversation with a climate expert.

An educational programme for children and young adults will allow the participants to put themselves in the shoes of political decision makers.

The congress is being organised by the Theater Bonn in cooperation with the Beethoven Festival in Bonn. The Theater Bonn will continue its collaboration with other organisations headquartered in

Directors: Susanne Kennedy, Suzan Boogaerdt (NL), Bianca van der Schoot (NL) Musical concept and direction: Michael Rauter Singer: Hubert Wild Ensemble: Solistenensemble ­Kaleidoskop Kohlenmischanlage Zollverein Essen: 20 Aug.–6 Sep. 2015; Berlin: ­September 2015; Operadagen ­Rotterdam: May 2016 © Dr. Patricia Corcoran, Sedimentary Petrologist, University of Western Ontario

↗ www.kaleidoskopmusik.de

Seven Rooms Incomprehensible Performance installation

The Holocaust, Srebrenica, Rwanda – genocide confronts us with the incomprehensive monstrosities of human behaviour. Time and again, the human race succumbs to this “problem from hell” (Samantha Power, 2002). Yet within this hell, there are some who stand up to tyranny and violence with a simple act of human kindness. What influences human behaviour and morals, and what can lead to genocide and excessive violence? The performance installation “Seven Rooms Incomprehensible” features seven rooms, through which audience members pass and begin to comprehend that these questions never only concern the “others”, but oneself as well. Based on ethical, psychological, sociological and artistic positions, the project investigates the universal mechanisms of group conformity, exclusion and humiliation, and examines the resources which enable people to exercise resistance.

The visitors are invited to walk through the rooms, each of which deal with a different aspect, e.g. “Humanity”, “Game”, “Poetry”, “Legends”, “Story” and “Questions”.

Through the interplay of reception and interaction, the audience is encouraged to solve various problems and assume different perspectives and roles. In the final “Room of Justice”, the visitors are presented with a staged tribunal, based on real legal proceedings, such as those at which Adolf Eichmann or Ratko Mladić were tried.

Following the presentation in Jena, the performance will go on tour to Amsterdam and other cities. The interdisci-

↓ Plastiglomerates

Dirt An apparatus for producing better depictions of reality

This project highlights an unusual subject: the dirt and other detritus of society, along with the remnants and waste of artistic production. These supposedly worthless materials serve as the starting point for a process-oriented artistic project whose goal is to generate a new awareness of material. The project laboratory “Dirt” attempts to process this seemingly neglected material as a subject for art and theatre.

Eight artists, including Manuela Infante, Simone Aughterlony and Thorsten Eibeler, will conduct various experiments with materials of all kind and reflect on their ephemerality and permanence. They will begin what they call the “Dirt Apparatus” at the Heizhaus at the Berlin Uferstudios, where, over the course of several weeks, they will design rooms for performances based on the Chinese philosophy of the Five Elements. From there, the project will go on tour to Rijeka, Hamburg and

Save the world A utopian expedition with experts, artists and scientists

CO2 emissions have rapidly increased in recent years, causing global temperatures to rise. The consequences of the changing climate are evident in various ways – be it the threat of mass extinction, scarcity of drinking water or extreme weather phenomena. Consequently, the global climate is the focus of this year’s “Save the World” congress – a forum for new ideas and performances for a utopian expedition to the year 2030. The theatre congress will invite international experts, artists, researchers and audiences to engage in dialogue about climate change.

The centrepiece of the conference is a climate tour consisting of six themebased stations, jointly developed and staged by researchers and artists from different artistic disciplines, including Prue Lang, Anna Mendelsohn and Milo Rau.

Bonn, such as the Federal Agency for Civic Education, the German Development ­Institute, the Centre for Development ­Research and various UN institutions.

Artistic director: Nicola ­Bramkamp, ­Andrea Tietz Direction: Milo Rau (CH), Jose Miguel Jimenez / The Company (CL/IE), Anna Mendelssohn (AT) ­Choreography: ­Jochen Roller, Prue Lang (AU) ­Musicians: Amund Sjolie Sveen (NO), Blumio (JP) Company / ensemble / orchestra: Philippe Quesne / Vivarium Studio (FR) Speaker: Pablos Holman (US), Richard Tol (NL) Light installation: Oliver Bienkowski Halle Beuel, Bonn: 18.–20.9.2015 ↗ www.theater-bonn.de

31 Imprint Publisher Kulturstiftung des Bundes Franckeplatz 2 06110 Halle an der Saale T +49 (0)345 2997 0 F +49 (0)345 2997 333 info@kulturstiftung-bund.de ↗ www.kulturstiftung-bund.de Executive Board Hortensia Völckers, Alexander Farenholtz (responsible for the content) Editor-in-chief Friederike Tappe-Hornbostel Editorial advisor Tobias Asmuth Final editing Therese Teutsch Translations Robert Brambeer Design Neue Gestaltung, Berlin

Printed by BUD, Potsdam Photographs Boris Mikhailov (courtesy by the artist) Copy date 10 Mar. 2015 Print run 26.000 By-lined contributions do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editor. © Kulturstiftung des Bundes – All rights reserved. Reproduction in part or whole without prior written consent from the German Federal Cultural Foundation is strictly prohibited.

The Magazine If you would like to receive this Magazine on a regular basis, you may sign up for a free subscription on our website: ↗ www.kulturstiftung-bund.de/­ magazinbestellung If you do not have Internet access, you may also call us at: +49 (0) 345 2997 131. ­ We would be happy to place you on our mailing list!

The Website The Federal Cultural Foundation maintains an extensive, bilingual website where you can find detailed information about the Foundation’s activities, responsibilities, funded projects, ­programmes and much more. Visit us at: ↗ www.kulturstiftung-bund.de ↗ facebook.com/kulturstiftung ↗ twitter.com/kulturstiftung

Committees of the German Federal ­Cultural Foundation Board of Trustees The Board of Trustees is responsible for making final decisions concerning the general focus of the Foundation’s activities, its funding priorities and organisational structure. The 14-member board reflects the political levels which were integral to the Foundation’s establishment.

Trustees are appointed for a five-year term.

Chairwoman of the Board Prof. Monika Grütters Minister of State in the Federal Chancellery and Commissioner for Cultural and Media Affairs Representing the Federal Foreign Office Prof. Dr. Maria Böhmer Minister of State Representing the Federal Ministry of Finance Steffen Kampeter Parliamentary State Secretary Representing the German Bundestag Prof. Dr. Norbert Lammert President of the German Bundestag Dr. h.c. Wolfgang Thierse Former President of the German Bundestag Dr. h.c. Hans-Joachim Otto Former Parliamentary State Secretary Representing the German Länder Boris Rhein Hessian State Minister for Science and Art Stephan Dorgerloh State Minister of Education of Saxony-Anhalt

Dr. Volker Rodekamp Director of the Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig Prof. Dr. Oliver Scheytt President of the Cultural Policy Society Johano Strasser German P.E.N. Center Frank Werneke Deputy Chairman of the ver.di labour union Prof. Klaus Zehelein President of the German Theatre Association Olaf Zimmermann Managing Director of the German Cultural Council

Juries and curatorial panels The Federal Cultural Foundation draws on the scientific and artistic expertise of about 50 jury and curatorial panel members who advise the Foundation on thematic and project-specific matters. For more information about these committees, please visit the corresponding projects posted on our website: ↗ www.kulturstiftung-­bund.de

The Foundation Executive Board Hortensia Völckers Artistic Director Alexander Farenholtz Administrative Director

Representing the German Municipalities Klaus Hebborn Councillor, Association of German Cities Uwe Lübking Councillor, Association of German Towns and Municipalities

Secretarial offices Beatrix Kluge / Beate Ollesch (Berlin office) / Christine Werner

Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Cultural Foundation of German States Dr. Dietmar Woidke Minister-President of Brandenburg

Contract Department Christian Plodeck (legal advisor) / Susanne Dressler / Katrin Gayda / Anja Petzold

Representing the fields of art and culture Prof. Dr. Bénédicte Savoy Professor of Art History Durs Grünbein Author Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Wolf Lepenies Sociologist

Advisory Committee The Advisory Committee makes recommendations on the thematic focus of the Foundation’s activities. The committee is comprised of leading figures in the arts, culture, business, academics and politics.

Assistant to the Executive Board Dr. Lutz Nitsche

Press and Public Relations Friederike Tappe-Hornbostel (dept. head) / Tinatin Eppmann / Bosse Klama / Juliane Köber / Julia Mai / Arite Studier / Therese Teutsch Programme Department Kirsten Haß (dept. head) / Torsten Maß (head of Project Department) / Teresa Darian / Dr. Marie Cathleen Haff / Markus Huber / Antonia Lahmé / Anne Maase / Dr. Annette Schemmel / Uta Schnell / Karoline Weber Programme Management and Evaluation Ursula Bongaerts (dept. head) / Marius Bunk / Kristin Dögel / Kristin Duda / Marcel Gärtner / Bärbel Hejkal / Steffi Khazhueva / Dörte Mocbeichel / Philipp Sauer

Prof. Dr. h.c. Klaus-Dieter Lehmann President of the Goethe-Institut, Chairman of the Advisory Committee

Project Controlling Steffen Schille (dept. head) / Antonia Engelhardt / Franziska Gollub / Frank Lehmann / Fabian Märtin / Antje Wagner

Dr. Dorothea Rüland Secretary General of the DAAD, Vice Chairwoman of the Advisory Committee

Administration Andreas Heimann (dept. head) / Margit Ducke / Maik Jacob / Steffen Rothe / Saskia Seidel

Prof. Dr. Clemens Börsig Chairman of the board of the Deutsche Bank Stiftung Jens Cording Commissioner of the Gesellschaft für Neue Musik Prof. Martin Maria Krüger President of the German Music Council Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen Secretary General of the Cultural Foundation of German States