Kultur Magazine 23: 2012

kultur magazine of the Goethe-Institut in AustraliA edition 23 SEPtember 2012

02 : German-Australian Anniversaries 05 : Thomas Demand’s The Dailies in Australia 09 : 18th Biennale of Sydney 11 : Sibylle Bergemann 13 : Audi Festival of German Films 16 : Rimini Protokoll presents Real experts 18 : Two German Poets in Australia 20 : Zafer Senocak about the German Dream 21 : citytales

HERZLICH WILLKOMMEN and HAPPY BIRTHDAY This year, we are commemorating a number of very special anniversaries: we are not only celebrating 60 years of diplomatic relations between Germany and Australia, but also the Goethe-Institut’s 40TH birthday in Australia.

Our annual Festival of German Films has proudly carried the name of its principal sponsor, Audi, for the fifth consecutive year. In 2012, we opened with Leander Haussmann’s film Hotel Lux, which could be described as a comedy about Stalinism. What sounds like a contradiction in terms turned out to be a terrific crowd-pleaser thanks to its unique sense of humour and its highly professional production.

Apart from the film festival, we saw Rimini Protokoll’s ‘experts of the everyday’ perform their astonishing reality theatre, witnessed exhibitions by highly acclaimed artists like Thomas Demand and Sibylle Bergemann, and were very taken by Iris Häussler’s imaginary worlds in her installation at the 18TH Biennale of Sydney.

And as if that were not enough, this issue of kultur features more highlights, including the exquisite performances of Freiburger Barockrochester, Zafer Senocak’s essay on the German dream and the international comic blog project CityTales.

As always, art is transformative, inspiring, and sometimes mysterious and obscure. There is so much to discover in Germany’s rich cultural landscape. I look forward to sharing this treasure box with you in Australia.

Herzliche Grüße,

German-Australian Relationships 02 Sixty Years of German-Australian Diplomatic Relationships

04

Forty Years of Goethe-Institut Australia

Gerhard Schulz

Thomas Demand in Australia

/

on the world premiere of Thomas Demand’s The Dailies

in Australia 05

John Kaldor

/

06

Circular Corridor The Dailies by Thomas Demand

Interview with Arpad Sölter

18th Biennale of Sydney

/

09

“Yes, my protagonists are often underdogs!”

Interview with Iris Häussler

Photography

/

11

Sibylle Bergemann

Matthias Flügge

Audi Festival of German Films 2012

/

13

Leander HaUssmann

Interview with Leander Haussmann

Performance

/

16

Rimini Protokoll presents Real experts: 100% Melbourne and Radio Muezzin (Sydney)

Ulrike Garde and Meg Mumford

Literature 18 Jan Wagner

Dr Arpad-Andreas Sölter Director Goethe-Institut Australien

/ /

Esther Blank and Frank Walker

/ / /

Writer in Residence

19

Ulrike Almut Sandig

Writer and Performer

Is there a German Dream?

On the perspectives of Germany

as a country of immigration

20

Zafer Senocak

CITYTALES 21 Urban Stories through

kultur

/

the Eyes of Comic Artists Jochen Gutsch

Outlook

Upcoming Events

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22

magazine of the Goethe-Institut in AustraliA edition 23 september 2012

acknowledgments publisher www.goethe.de/australia • Goethe-Institut Australia SYDNEY 90 Ocean Street, Woollahra NSW 2011 Ph 02 8356 8333 Fax 02 8356 8314 Melbourne Level 1, 448 St Kilda Road, Melbourne VIC 3004 Ph 03 9864 8999 Fax 03 9864 8988 editor Dr Arpad A Sölter, info@sydney.goethe.org coordinators Dr Arpad A Sölter, Jochen Gutsch • Views expressed by the contributors are not necessarily endorsed by the Goethe-Institut. No responsibility is accepted by the publisher for the accuracy of information contained in the texts and advertisements. design and artwork Torkos Ploetz Design, Melbourne printing Doran Printing Pty Ltd, Melbourne images The Goethe-Institut has taken every possible care to secure clear copyright permission for all images published here. Any enquiries to the editor. front cover Photo and copyright by Sibylle Bergemann, Thomas 1997.

02:

Sixty Years of German-Australian Diplomatic Relationships Sixty years ago the sheer geographical distance between Germany and Australia was a considerable obstacle. Now, modern communication and transport technologies make it increasingly easy for people to connect, and it is fair to say this unusual bond between two countries on opposite sides of the globe has never been stronger. The number of collaborative projects in the arts alone is evidence of how effortlessly we can work together.

Esther Blank is Deutsche Welle’s representative in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific. She also works as a foreign correspondent and producer for several German radio and TV stations, as well as Focus magazine. Esther has lived in Sydney on and off for more than 20 years. Her husband, Frank Walker, is an Australian journalist and author who spent many years living and working in Germany. He was in Berlin the night the Wall opened.

This important anniversary calls for reflection on the fact that diplomatic relations have a fundamental purpose — to enhance mutual understanding between governments and citizens of nations. kultur investigates the human face behind the bilateral relationship by asking two individuals to tell their ‘German-Australian’ stories.

Esther Blank Millions of young and not-so-young Germans dream of visiting Australia. They are fascinated by the country’s stunning natural environment with koalas, kangaroos and thousands of colourful parrots, with endless dusty red deserts, dark green jungles and deep blue ocean glittering under a bright warm sun.

They want to experience Australia’s ancient Aboriginal culture, the multicultural richness of her cities, the optimism and relaxed friendliness of her people.

Young Australians travelling across Europe are drawn to Berlin, ‘Europe’s coolest city’, a cultural flashpoint with provocative art, hundreds of bands, nightclubs, pubs and a lively multicultural and alternative scene.

Australian tourists visit Germany’s historic cities, her ancient fortresses and castles. They enjoy traditional festivals as well as music festivals from classic to techno. And they jump into fast German cars to race down fast German autobahns.

Germans and Australians understand each other. They have common values and positive views of each other.

The countries don’t have any bilateral political problems.

On the world stage Australia and Germany usually work closely together. They have close economic ties, cooperate in science and technology, and enjoy a lively cultural exchange.

Sixty years ago the relationship between the two countries was very different. Angry protests confronted Germany’s first Ambassador to Australia in 1952.

Ten thousand Australians died fighting Germany in two world wars.

Millions of Australians were haunted by the latest horrific reports of the holocaust.

Horror overshadowed the memories of German contributions to Australia’s history and society, the achievements of German born explorers, farmers, winemakers, artists and scientists.

After World War II Germans had to prove that they were serious about democracy, restitution, tolerance and human rights.

Hard working German migrants, growing political and economic cooperation, rapidly expanding tourism, the exchange of students, academics and journalists helped to change the image of Germany and the Germans in Australia and helped to reduce prejudices on both sides.

And there are thousands of personal relationships between Australians and Germans: take me for example, I am a foreign correspondent for German media and I am married to an Australian. I met him when he was working as a correspondent for Australian newspapers in Germany.

Our daughter is both German and Australian. She is bilingual and wants to do part of her PhD in Germany. Hannah was born in 1989, the year the Berlin Wall came down.

My husband was in Berlin when the first concrete slabs of the hated wall were torn down by the German people.

He reported history.

German-Australian Relationships Sixty Years of German-Australian Diplomatic Relationships

:03

Germany and Australia are celebrating sixty years of diplomatic relationships this year. Throughout this period, both countries have seen substantial political, social, economic, and cultural transformation, yet their strong friendship has continued to develop. Today, mutual understanding and trust are seen as a given.

Frank Walker It was the middle of a clear star-filled night on 9 November 1989 and I was in a West Berlin taxi rushing to the Brandenburg Gate.

I’d heard on radio the astounding news that East Germany had opened its borders and East Berliners were pouring through the border gates. I had to get to the historic Brandenburg Gate to witness this incredible moment in history.

Just a day earlier I’d been in East Berlin looking west through the Brandenburg Gate over open ground dotted with security guards and the stark wall that divided East and West Berlin. Rumours were flying that the East German government was on the verge of caving in to its peoples’ demands for freedom. But there was the constant danger the military would open fire on their own people as the old regime clung to power.

The taxi couldn’t get through the crowd rushing towards the Wall at the Brandenburg Gate, so I got out and joined the throng. I got to the Wall and already hundreds of people, mainly young, were dancing and cheering on top of the hated Wall. I reached out my hand and two smiling young German men took it and pulled me up.

I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing. The metre wide wall was packed with people laughing and hugging each other in sheer joy.

Down below a line of grim looking East German guards in their stiff grey uniforms stood still, guns shouldered. They looked nervous, constantly glancing to their stern-looking officer on what to do.

I knew if he commanded them to shoot, some of them would do so. He stood there unmoving, hands clasped behind his back.

On the Wall a pretty young woman leaned down and offered the officer a small bunch of flowers. She stayed there for some time, her hand reaching down to him, offering them in the name of peace. As his soldiers watched, the officer stepped forward, reached up and accepted the flowers. She blew him a kiss.

Das Freiburger Barockorchester In March 2012 the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra performed at the Adelaide Festival. The performance was part of the Intermusica Project, which took the orchestra on a three-part tour to Adelaide, Shanghai and Beijing. www.barockorchester.de/mediathek/klangbeispiele/

He smiled and nodded back to her. The crowd on the wall cheered and cried. The soldiers visibly relaxed. Some dared to smile to the people on the Wall. It was a historic and magical moment that will stay with me forever.

Over the next days I followed several East Germans as they nervously ventured through the border and explored the West for the first time. I saw dozens of them cramming into the rich leather seats of BMWs and Mercedes in car showrooms, I joined groups of ‘Ossies’ as they crowded into bars, cafes and shops staring in wonder at the wealth around them. I joined an old man who laid flowers at the grave of his wife who’d been trapped on the West side when the Wall went up in 1961. I stood with many others with tears in my eyes at the memorials for those killed while trying to cross the Wall.

I’d spent many years of my life in West Germany, first as a student and then as a journalist, and rarely have I seen such joy and happiness consume an entire people. I’d been fascinated by the historical roots of pre-war Germany, tried to understand the evil that took over the people in the 1930s and 1940s, and admired the achievements in the way Germany had turned itself around in post-war politics and reconstruction. I’d marveled at the beauty of the countryside and relished folk legends, culture and traditions like Karneval and Fasching.

The Wall at the Brandenburg Gate is now gone, torn down as it should be. But whenever I visit Berlin I stand on that spot and remember that fantastic day I stood on the Wall and witnessed a West German girl giving flowers to a gnarled old East German officer and making him smile.

04:

Herzlichen Glückwunsch Gerhard Schulz

By the 1950s German studies had already acquired a respectable status in the universities of this young country, especially in Sydney and Melbourne. Both had taken German language and culture studies under their wings and allowed them to grow. And expand they did, but so did tertiary teaching all over the continent, until in the 1960s some twelve Australian universities could boast of their own Chair of German or, in its Melbourne version, of Germanic Studies, because here it accommodated also Dutch and Swedish.

It became a time of eager cultural exchange — via the link with ‘Goethe’ in Munich. German authors came as visitors: Siegfried Lenz read from his novel Deutschstunde (German Lesson ) before it had been published in Germany to become one of the most popular books of contemporary German literature, and Horst Bienek presented his Silesian tetralogy with its first novel Die erste Polka. Triumphantly German theatre celebrated its first appearance on an Australian stage with Lessing’s Minna von Barnhelm in the early 1960s. Antje Weis­gerber, one of the great names of the German stage, appeared as Minna.

Later, Government interests in academic connections tended more and more towards the Asian neighbourhood of Australia, and it was at this point that the Goethe-Institut established itself here as a cultural institution in its own right to protect and support the teaching and study of German. Goethe’s name took on the task of guardian for the continuation of German Studies on the fifth continent.

So how is this vision playing itself out today? Are we looking through a glass darkly or is it rather a vision bright and joyous?

Probably neither. The modern technology of cultural communication has made long intercontinental flights for theatre companies unnecessary. By opening up new media, language teaching and learning within the framework of German culture has been enriched.

History has energetically supported this development.

The huge changes that have affected the German-speaking area in the late 20th and early 21st centuries and, above all the unexpected and once almost incredible fact of the restitution of a united Germany which carried a peaceful mission as credible partner of other European countries, became a task for those who were by personal history or vocation linked to pursuing the study of all matters German in Australia.

Whatever may happen to the currently troubled Euro-Zone ten years from now, the Goethe-Institut Australia will hopefully continue to develop its cultural identity, and then rightfully celebrate half a century of guiding and supporting German culture and studies ‘down under’.

Herzlichen Glückwunsch und alles Gute!

Prof Dr Gerhard Schulz, Professor Emeritus at the University of Melbourne, in collaboration with fellow academics Dr Leslie Bodi, Professor Emeritus, and Dr Walter Veit, Adjunct Associate Professor, both from Monash University, initiated the founding of the GoetheInstitut in Melbourne. Among his many awards are the Goethe Medal in Gold (1974) and the Federal Cross of Merit.

Goethe-Institut Sydney (left) and Melbourne (right)

© Goethe-Institut (Sydney) / Wiebke Kleine (Melbourne)

In 2012 the Goethe-Institut in Australia celebrates its 40TH birthday.

The older ones amongst us will note it with satisfaction and at the same time smile somewhat benevolently. ‘Ich war all schon da’ — I have been here all the time, as the hedgehog says to the hare in Grimm’s fairytale. Yes, we had arrived in Australia well before that year 1972 when Goethe-Instituts were first established formally on this continent — but we were not the first pioneers.

Thomas Demand in Australia World premiere The Dailies in Australia

:05

on the world premiere of Thomas Demand’s The Dailies in Australia John Kaldor

I have been collecting Thomas Demand’s work since the mid 1990s, and was fortunate enough to meet him at an exhibition soon after. Usually when I collect an artists’ work I like to follow their career and will continue to collect their work for a number of years. This is the case with Thomas Demand.

When I was the Australian Commissioner to the Venice Biennale in 2005 Thomas had a major exhibition for the Prada Foundation in Venice. We spent a lot of time together and became good friends, and have kept in touch over the years.

I usually want the works I collect in-depth to also be seen by the Australian public. Thus I invite the artists to do projects for us.

Thomas responded very positively to our invitation and came for two site visits. On the first visit we explored several locations in Melbourne and Sydney, which varied from industrial spaces to art deco theatres, to tunnels under the city. None of them appealed to Thomas.

One evening, when Thomas was walking back to his hotel, he saw an interesting building which aroused his curiosity, and he went to explore it. It turned out to be the Commercial Travellers Association (CTA), and he decided that this is where he would like to do the project.

Initially I was concerned that the project would appear too subtle.

I was proved wrong.

Thomas Demand The Dailies turned out to be one of our most successful and important projects. The combination of Harry Seidler’s innovative architecture and the meticulous environment created by Thomas served as a wonderful stage for his artworks.

The reaction from the public was overwhelmingly positive, from art students to the general public. We had a constant flow of visitors, with a great number returning two or three times. It is very hard to anticipate beforehand the reaction of the public, but The Dailies struck a very positive chord with whoever saw it.

We were very fortunate that it was a world premiere, and I appreciate the help and enthusiasm of Dr Arpad Sölter and the Goethe-Institut in encouraging and assisting us with this project.

Kaldor Public Art Projects Suite 501b, 19a Boundary Street Rushcutters Bay NSW 2011 Australia p +61 2 9361 5066 f +61 2 9356 8164 www.kaldorartprojects.org.au

kultur SEPTEMBER 2012

06:

Circular Corridor The Dailies by Thomas Demand Interview with Arpad Sölter by Martin Bruch

For the 25th Kaldor Public Art Project, Thomas Demand presented a new series of images in Sydney, The Dailies, within the unique environment of the Commercial Travellers’ Association (CTA) club, part of the MLC Centre designed by celebrated Australian architect Harry Seidler in the mid-1970s.

Thomas Demand, known for his full-scale recreations of environments made entirely from paper and cardboard that he photographs and later destroys, so that they remain only as images, occupied the entire fourth level of the hotel in the CTA Building. His installation, displayed throughout the bedrooms that extend out from a circular corridor, had a disorientating effect.

Martin Bruch: The

Commercial Travellers’ Association is an exclusive hotel and as such an unusual location for an exhibition.

In your view, how do art and location interact?

Arpad Sölter: This iconic building by Harry Seidler looks like a mushroom. In downtown Sydney, it seems as lost as a UFO forgotten by aliens. Inside is a club. It’s a hotel for business travellers in which time stopped about fifty years ago. There is no internet connection, for example. People correspond in a genteel fashion, by letter. The whole ambience is somewhat reminiscent of Arthur Miller’s 1949 Death of a Salesman.

Or of the special charm of Soviet hotels.

The installation interacts with the surroundings of the building.

For example, the inclination of a broken off electrical outlet in one of Demand’s photographs is identical with that of objects the viewer sees when looking out the window. Demand has created a highly complex, mimetic assimilation between inside and outside. Decoding this synergy requires enormous concentration. Demand is a perfectionist down to every detail.

Prada even created a dedicated scent for this installation.

The experience is an intellectual as much as a sensual task.

All visitors are utterly fascinated! Demand’s show The Dailies is considered an absolute ‘must see’ in Sydney.

MB: What did you think of the exhibition opening?

AS: This installation is a world premiere for Demand’s work.

For the first time ever, Demand has created a Gesamtkunstwerk (‘total work of art’). Thomas Demand recreates crime scene and press photographs in minute detail and then photographs them.

Using cardboard and paper, he recreates a life-size model of what he finds in press and private photographs. Demand takes a picture of the model — and then disposes of it. It is these photographed reconstructions that are exhibited — because the model is always destroyed. The images generate the impression of a mysterious, fabricated reality. They depict events relevant to society. Demand used to build objects from paper, often in connection with such historical events (for example Barschel’s bathtub 1 ). He then took a picture of the object — and destroyed the original forever.

Room after room, the installation tells a story by novelist Louis Begley (Wartime Lies, Schmidt ). The narration is embedded in an arc of suspense between the written word and a visual snapshot.

Just like German contemporary art in general, Demand enjoys great esteem on Australia’s booming art market and is one of the most in-demand contemporary artists internationally. His large format photographs were last successfully exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Venice Biennale as well as the New National Gallery in Berlin.

MB: Thomas Demand himself compares his images to haiku poems.

AS: Demand’s works often seem enigmatic. And they initiate processes of reflection. The ‘haiku’ metaphor is fitting in the sense that in his elaborate artistic work, Demand presents seemingly minimalist creations that are characterised by extreme precision.

And by loving attention to detail, just like haikus.

Incidentally, humans are completely absent in Demand’s work.

Paradoxically, they are present precisely through their absence.

Demand consistently obliterates any signs of the depicted event from his built models. Likewise the humans that are present in the original photographs. Thomas Demand’s works often depict deserted architectures of socio-politically charged events or ‘crime

Circular Corridor The Dailies by Thomas Demand

:07

kultur SEPTEMBER 2012

08:

Circular Corridor The Dailies by Thomas Demand Interview with Arpad Sölter

scenes’ that are anchored in the collective consciousness. Yet the image content remains so striking that the subject can be clearly identified. In Presidency, Thomas Demand scrutinises one of the most prominent stages of power — the office of the US president in the White House. From paper, cardboard and confetti, he recreated a minutely detailed, original size model of the Oval Office, only to destroy it immediately after photographing it.

Similarly, here in Sydney, Demand is a photographer, a model maker, an interior designer, a documenter of our media worlds — and first and foremost an illusionist who sends the viewer on a journey through time.

Demand’s art relies on the indistinguishability between fact and fiction, between manipulation and authenticity. It also deals with the loss of an authoritative reality. Because perception is primarily a neuronal process. Reality, then, is not unshakeable fact but our very own creation. In this sense, Demand radically questions the depictive realism of artistic photography.

MB: How did the collaboration between Kaldor Public Art Projects and the GoetheInstitut evolve?

AS: Kaldor Public Art Projects have existed for over forty years.

They feature every important position of the champions league: Christo, Gilbert & George, Sol LeWitt, Jeff Koons, Vanessa Beecroft and Bill Viola. The cooperation between the Goethe-Institut and the Kaldors began in 2007 with a Gregor Schneider project. John Kaldor considers Thomas Demand one of the most intelligent and demanding artists on the planet. It made sense to approach him.

At the same time, this installation is completely new territory and a very exciting project — not least for Thomas Demand himself.

At this level, the only things that count are cultural capital, personal relationships, charisma and mutual esteem. The GoetheInstitut considers itself lucky to be involved in such projects, and to receive the international attention of the globalised art scene on top of that. The media response is positive, from the art magazine ART to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ ).

MB: What characterises the cooperation between both partners: who takes on which responsibilities?

AS: For this installation, Demand carried out a number of research trips which we organised and supported. The first and most important thing was finding a suitable location for the installation.

The Goethe-Institut supported the research process and is partially responsible for artist liaison as well as usually for the supporting programme surrounding the exhibition. Artist’s talks with curators and art theorists are a popular format and always well attended in Australia, especially if Kaldor Public Arts Projects is organising them.

John Kaldor is an entrepreneur, a philanthropist, an art collector and a true art lover, his closest German equivalent might be Ludwig.

Kaldor was forced to emigrate. In the best sense of the term, he is a representative of Old Europe, and one that the so-called New World is happy to have as a cultural role model. He invests his private assets into art projects in urban spaces. Sydney’s largest art museum, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, holds his exquisite collection. It comprises significant German contemporary art such as Richter, Polke, Neo Rauch, Gursky, Struth, Gregor Schneider.

Without John Kaldor’s initiative and enthusiasm, we couldn’t do anything. However, he asks us as the Goethe-Institut for our creative ideas, our active participation and our support, to create some ‘momentum’ in the international arts scene. And we are happy to help within our capabilities, from finances to international PR work.

FOR More information kaldorartprojects.org.au/project-archive/thomas-demand A new Thomas Demand exhibition will be shown at the National Gallery of Victoria International in Melbourne from November 2012. More information: www.ngv.vic.gov.au

1 Uwe Barschel (1944–1987), a German politician and former premier of Schleswig-Holstein, was found dead in a hotel bathtub in Switzerland in 1987.

Even today, the circumstances surrounding his death are not entirely clear.

18TH Biennale of Sydney

:09

“Yes, my protagonists are often underdogs!”

Interview with Iris Häussler by Alix Landgrebe

The 18th Biennale of Sydney features not only German-born artists such as Susan Hefuna and Iris Häussler, but also countless artists who chose to live and work in Germany at some point in their career, including Nina Canell and Robin Watkins, Monika Grzymala, Ewa Partum, Amalgul Menlibayeva and Robin Rhode.

Participating artist Iris Häussler operates at the intersection of art, literature and theatre. She creates environments using both authentic and fabricated artifacts to explore real and fictional biographies. The viewer is immersed into the artwork, believing that they are experiencing a ‘real’ rather than ‘created’ world, thus the artwork itself reshapes reality and the demarcation between life and art is blurred. By providing physical props as undeniable evidence of imaginary worlds, Häussler’s work posits fundamental questions about our understanding of ‘hard facts’. Iris Häussler’s exciting and enigmatic work is on display in Building 2 on Cockatoo Island during the Sydney Biennale.

She lives and works in Toronto, Canada.

Your installation at the Biennale of Sydney is something very special. Nowhere else does one find such material variation and inventive ingenuity — from wax configurations through embryonic roots to commercial logos.

How can the observer best tap into this world created by you?

Alix Landgrebe:

Iris Häussler: Visitors experience my work as a ‘discovery’, an odd encounter with the legacy of a reclusive. Listening and dialoguing with a tour guide they often later describe their experience as “having walked through a three-dimensional novel.”

Touring the work is a complex unfolding of a life-story being told, showing the legacy of this now missing person. Questions are raised about the creative potential of any human being, and how some people develop their own methods in making objects and using them as a language to communicate their dreams, obsessions and fears. However, when these installations are ultimately revealed as contemporary art projects, they also challenge the role truth and fiction plays in culture and history telling, and the ethical standpoint of museums presenting an artwork not labeled as such in the first place.

AL: Your

work breathes unexpected life into the stories of completely unknown people. And yet historical figures such as Kokoschka also play a role in these unique worlds. Why this?

IH: Yes, my protagonists are often underdogs, people who live unassuming lives, but in their free time dedicate all their energy and imagination to something that is bigger than life. I believe in the rich inner worlds of any persons I meet. However, as I am a trained artist and the author and choreographer behind the scene, I enjoy connecting my protagonists’ work to art history, art brut and current Western culture. Thereby, I relate it back to the art world. I feel I owe it to the work to ultimately name and position it in the contemporary art context.

AL: When

entering one of your installations, a broad palette of feelings is aroused in the observer. Some find the work jocular, some sad, some are moved to compassion. The work lives through its interaction with the observer.

What is important to you about the reception your work evokes?

IH: I want to offer the visitor truly interesting artefacts to contemplate, things you don’t really know how to make sense of. Not beautiful objects per se, or not only such, but rather what I call ‘non canonical’ objects that remind us of forms, shapes and textures found in nature. The objects in my installations are man-made artefacts that make you curious about “how they were made” and “who made them”. I think visitors are tempted to identify with my protagonists, ponderings about his/her life, getting the idea that even under economic, social or physical constraints one can be creative and playful, and that it is worth living for a dream. Even more the work suggests that obsessive creating may be a way to deal with traumas, frictions and pain in life. Later, when one learns that ‘the discovery’ actually is a contemporary artwork, I hope that the visitor is not regretting having invested emotionally into his experience, but feels his/her understanding of contemporary art is widened in an imaginative manner.

kultur SEPTEMBER 2012

18TH Biennale of Sydney Interview with Iris Häussler

AL: Could

I ask you to talk about the symbolism in your work, especially in respect to the materials that you employ? What does wax symbolise in your work, a material much used by Beuys? Or wood?

AL: Your

IH: I have been working with wax for the last twenty-five years.

That is a long time for a material to not become exhausted for an artist. Recently, my use has shifted from industrial wax to beeswax and my protagonists explore it deeply with their limited material equipment and self-taught skills.

IH: Yes, the work generates different types of responses: people who need a pest control company to inspect their property and do not identify the website as an art project, those who get involved in the story and suggest to me how it should develop, there are those who receive the site as a tool for their research on haptic conceptual art, and also fan-fiction visitors who integrate the piece into their own work.

So, why wax? I think it has a lot to do with the ambiguous quality of wax: that it is on the one hand the foremost material to conserve things, from Egyptian encaustic portraits to strawberry jam, and on the other a highly vulnerable material that loses its shape easily to the heat of the human body. Symbolically for me, it is the most transformative material, and when produced by bees it reflects nature’s creative, social and architectural spirit.

Beyond this, it is the reference to art history. You mention Joseph Beuys where the circle of nature and art comes together beautifully. Of course Beuys is essential to my artistic thinking and understanding.

installation and its story are accompanied by a website through which you can be contacted. Do you receive many enquiries and what is the nature of this contact with the public?

Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney has supported this project through its Artist-in-Residence program.

Independent Pest Control Sydney www.haeussler.ca

www.ipc-sydney.com

www.wagenbach.org

www.anthserv.ca

Iris Häussler, He Dreamed Overtime, 2012 (detail) Mixed media installation, dimensions variable. Installation view of the 18TH Biennale of Sydney (2012) on Cockatoo Island

© Courtesy IRIS Häussler / Photo Tai Spruyt

10:

Photography

:11

Sibylle Bergemann

Katharina Thalbach, Berlin, 1974 © Sibylle Bergemann

Matthias Flügge

“It’s the fringes of the world that interest me, not its centre. The noninterchangeable is my concern.

When there’s something in faces or landscapes that doesn’t quite fit…”

Sibylle Bergemann in Birgit Walter: Abschied vom Schiffbauerdamm (Quoted in the Berliner Zeitung, 15 April 2004)

kultur SEPTEMBER 2012

12:

Photography

Sibylle Bergemann Matthias Flügge

Sibylle Bergemann is one of the most important artists to have worked in the East. Her work is pivotal for what we call subjective ‘author’ photography. Bergemann’s photography is defined by the legacy of history, documentary ethos, artistic aspiration, a certain distance from the prevailing ideas of social idealism and from the media, an acute awareness of form, and an emotional involvement with what is visually perceived.

The ‘guardians of socialism’ were slow to recognise photography as an art form and long underestimated its power of shaping people’s consciousness and awareness. Bergemann’s pictures penetrate far below the polished surfaces of a controlled, pseudo-egalitarian society.

Along with her teacher and partner Arno Fischer, Bergemann formed an artistic nucleus that acted liked a catalyst for the scene as well as a connection point to international developments. They offered a space for artistic images and progressive ideas. The pictures produced by the couple, as well as Helga Paris, Ute and Werner Mahler, Roger Melis, Christian Borchert and others were initially part of a niche — yet later proved to be of central importance.

Bergemann began her photographic career in East Berlin in the late 1960s. Her first published photographs appeared in Sonntag and then, shortly after, in Das Magazin and the fashion magazine, Sibylle. These publications were known for a degree of artistic quality and relative independence in the GDR, which distinguished them from most other media. However, the publishers’ intention was not outright political opposition; they rather took the ‘promise of a new beginning’ seriously: each individual had the right to express his or her own personality.

During these early years, Bergemann was mainly involved in fashion photography. As a backdrop for her shootings, she chose ordinary places such as grey streets, damaged houses, circus tents, beaches, or old industrial buildings. She knew how to arrange and compose each situation, suggesting a frozen piece of reality in the context of what happened before and after this particular moment.

Bergemann’s fashion pictures should be considered side by side with her series of Berlin photographs. In this work, she circumnavigates the typical representative and social iconography of the divided city, capturing scenes that are dominated by atmospheres, spaces, and perspectives, rather than buildings.

The GDR government commissioned Bergemann to document the construction of the Marx-Engels Forum in Berlin. The result was a series of images that already anticipated and projected the end of the GDR. Another stunning body of work is the series of pictures Bergemann took in African countries. Here, she shows beauty without resorting to exoticism, life as an assertion in the face of the circumstances surrounding it, everyday situations involving people who are proud and vulnerable as they find themselves in ambivalence between traditional culture and a globalised way of life.

In 1990, Bergemann was one of the founding members of the photographers’ agency, Ostkreuz. After the wall came down, powerful Western magazines and papers such as Spiegel, Stern and GEO recognised the quality of her art and entrusted her with challenging projects.

Sibylle Bergemann passed away in November 2010. The GoetheInstitut Australia and the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa) presented an extensive exhibition of her work during August 2012.

Images from the exhibition: Sibylle Bergemann. Photographien An Exhibition of the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e. V. (ifa/Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations), Stuttgart, Germany

Katharina Thalbach, Berlin, 1974 (previous page); Dakar, Senegal, 2001 (below left); Kumasi, Ghana, 2000 (below right)

© Sibyll Bergemann

The history of German photography has demanded a closer look since the fall of the Berlin Wall shed light onto the creative photography produced in the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

The body of work that was produced in the socialist East has been the subject of growing interest in Germany and abroad.

Audi Festival of German Films 2012

:13

An Interview with Leander HaUSSmann

kultur SEPTEMBER 2012

14:

An Interview with Leander HaUSSmann Interview by Domik Baur

In Germany, Leander HauSSmann has received a great deal of praise for his film Hotel Lux, but also some criticism. For the 2012 Audi Festival of German Films the Berlin director presented it to the Australian public. We spoke about history, festivals, cave painting, lots of money, and words of praise from Michael Ballhaus shortly before the festival.

Dominik Baur: Mr

Haussmann, the Goethe-Institut has invited you to present your latest film Hotel Lux at the Audi Festival of German Films in Australia. Can you tell me what the film is about?

Leander Haussmann: It’s about a German comedian who emigrates from Germany too late. He has to flee from Nazi Germany and wants to go to Hollywood. But, because the American passports have run out, he first has to take a whistle stop at a hotel in Moscow, which we then learn is the hotel of the Communist Internationale, and things begin to go wrong for him because of a mistaken identity. In a nutshell: it’s a comedy.

DB: You have described this film as your most multifaceted. Why is that?

LH: I meant that quite literally: the film has very many facets and that involves some challenges. For one, it deals with a very bleak theme in an extremely brutal and uncompromising time that we want to tell as a comedy without deriding the victims. Then, I had to communicate the complex circumstances of this special hotel to a public for whom the historic background is to the most part new.

In addition, when handling such a sensitive subject matter, one has to be historically unassailable. There’s some dynamite in it. It’s not for nothing that they don’t want to show the film in Moscow.

DB: So, the film is also a bit of a history lesson?

LH: History lesson sounds a little too didactic, but of course we can’t circumvent it altogether. Ultimately there are also positive examples of filmic history lessons, for example Schindler’s List or Titanic. And I wouldn’t mind if the audience finds out a little more about this or that context because of my film. It’s our job to tell the stories that history is made of. Of course, we have to fib just a little.

DB: Is it true that Hotel Lux was originally supposed to be made by Helmut Dietl?

LH: The idea was his originally. For a while he also wanted to make it himself, but eventually he sold it to Constantin, where producer Günter Rohrbach revived the project and came to me with it.

DB: The reviews of Hotel Lux were very varied: there was lots of praise, but also a few scorchers. Do you follow what the papers write about you?

LH: It was really very interesting in this case. There’s never been such a wide spectrum of reactions: some papers were positively rapturous, while others were all the more spiteful. But do you know who is a big fan of this film? Michael Ballhaus. For me, that’s enough of a reward.

DB: What kind of responses do you expect now in Australia? Although the plot takes place to the most part in Moscow, Hotel Lux does tell a very German story.

LH: You’re mistaken there. It doesn’t become a German story simply because Hitler and the Nazis are in it. The film shows what can become of a young democracy and in particular it asks the question, what would I have done? How far does one’s own loyalty go? What side would I have been on? My characters are always a little capricious and also cowardly. They are perfect projection screens for these questions, because it’s easy to identify with them, perhaps even more so overseas than in Germany.

DB: Have LH: No.

you ever been to Australia?

DB: But, you have made a film of an Australian book.

LH: Not that I know of. Which one?

The non-fiction book Why Men Don’t Listen and Women Can’t Read Maps by Allan and Barbara Pease.

DB:

LH: I see! Yes, you’re right; they are Australian. That was even one of my more successful films. In the meantime I have made it so much my own story that I was not aware of it.

DB: In an interview Michael Herbig describes the main character he plays in Hotel Lux, Hans Zeisig, like this: “He doesn’t consider any consequences. And he makes everything a little ridiculous. But in a very charming way.”

Are you a little bit of a Hans Zeisig yourself?

DB: Now you’d have an opportunity to meet them…

LH: By all means. All of my films are also — to various degrees — about me. NVA and Sonnenallee certainly; even Herr Lehmann is a little like me in the film although the character was invented by the writer Sven Regener. He wasn’t all that thrilled about it, but I can only make convincing films if I am telling something about myself, too. Even if it’s merely a fantasy about how I’d like to see myself.

DB: What significance do film festivals have for you?

LH: That’s true. I’d like to know what they think of the film.

The book was a wonderful template. Still, we made our own story of it and even poked some fun at the tone of the book.

LH: I am happy that I am invited and recognised and always find the dialogue on site very interesting. But, ultimately, I wouldn’t overestimate it. Of course, it also depends very much on the respective festival. It is important that you can really get to know people and are able to talk with them. That is what makes a good festival. Sadly, this aspect is increasingly lacking today.

You can experience it the most at the students’ festivals.

Audi Festival of German Films 2012 Interview with Leander Haussmann

:15

DB: For some directors the attention they receive at a festival helps them gain funding for new projects. How important is money for a good film?

LH: That depends on the film. I quite frequently draw from chaos and from poverty. Something can evolve from that. What are 500 people on a market square opposed to an empty market square with autumn leaves wafting across it? In a film, 500 people are still not many, but cost an awful lot of money. And I sure can never top The Lord of the Rings or Titanic. For films like that, money is extremely important. But, I would like to have a lot of money available, of course. Or as Sammy Davis Jr once said: “I have been poor and I have been rich. Rich is better.”

DB: What was the LH: 11 million euros.

budget for Hotel Lux?

DB: That could buy a couple of houses.

Is that kind of responsibility a burden?

LH: No. Of course, grandma has to knit a long time for that kind of money. But, it’s relative. Films are the cave paintings of our times.

Maybe cave painting was a little cheaper back then, but perhaps their price was very high — compared to what time was worth back then. Maybe the guy who painted them was always very tired out and ultimately eaten by a sabre-toothed tiger because he spent all night painting in the cave.

DB: Do you, as a cave painter of our times, have an idol? And please don’t say Ernst Lubitsch or Billy Wilder!

LH: It would be Quentin Tarantino. Many consider him only an action film director, but for me, he is a great writer of dialogues.

He never takes the easy way; his characters never talk about the plot of the film in their dialogues. That is a great art.

© Dominik Baur

This interview first appeared on Goethe Aktuell

For updates on current films and archive visit goethe.de/filmguide

Leander HauSSmann was born in Quedlinburg in 1959. He comes from an old artistic dynasty; his father was actor Ezard Haussmann and his mother is the costume designer Doris Haussmann.

After being trained as a printer, Haussmann began acting in the 1980s. As such, he celebrated a variety of successes on the stages of the GDR. After reunification, he switched to directing. In the 1990s he caused some sensations with in part controversial productions in various German theatres. He was theatre manager of the Bochum Schauspielhaus from 1995 until 2000. Since then, he has mainly made films, among the most well known of which are his first film Sonnenallee (1999) and Herr Lehmann (2003).

kultur SEPTEMBER 2012

16:

Rimini Protokoll presents Real experts Ulrike Garde and Meg Mumford

The Berlin-based performance collective Rimini Protokoll is renowned for their innovative documentary theatre that has been at the forefront of a ‘Reality Trend’ in German theatre. Since 2000 Stefan Kaegi, Helgard Haug and Daniel Wetzel have worked in a wide range of collaborative partnerships, producing diverse forms of performance that engage with the ‘facts’ of social reality, particularly through (re) presenting contemporary people. One trademark feature of Rimini Protokoll’s diverse œuvre has been the replacement of professional actors with ‘experts of the everyday’, that is people who are specialists in a particular field of their life, which may be more or less familiar to their audiences. This year, Australian audiences were able to experience first hand Rimini Protokoll’s unique version of Reality Theatre through two productions sponsored by the GoetheInstitut: Radio Muezzin, which toured the Sydney Festival in January, and 100% Melbourne, developed together with the City of Melbourne Arts and Participation Team and staged in May.

100% Melbourne “I have only been on stage once” says Anton Griffith, 32, senior research advisor for the City of Melbourne, and the first of 100 Melbournians to represent their city at the iconic Melbourne Town Hall. In order to put faces to the anonymous numbers of statistics, Anton was charged with starting a Statistical Chain Reaction. For this purpose, he selected an acquaintance in accordance with criteria developed by the production team. The acquaintance in turn had 24 hours to suggest one further person, and so on, until the cast was complete. As in previous 100% shows (the first in Berlin, the most recent in London), each cast member represents a percentage of the local population — according to sex, region of birth, age, residential location and family composition. What follows is a revue-like presentation, on a revolving stage, of each cast member. Some participants get extended time in the spotlight so that we can gain deeper insights into particular aspects of their lives, such as experiences of migration, war, social prejudice, political engagement, family life and love. After the introductions the experts arrange themselves in various colourful formations as statistical responses to a range of prepared and improvised questions by Rimini Protokoll, the cast and audience. Reactions to questions such as “Who are fare evaders?” (accompanied by audience cheers) to “Who is in favour of the death penalty?”

(with a surprisingly large vote from the cast) are projected, from a bird’s eye view, as a living pie chart onto a large screen at the back. The generally celebratory atmosphere, created by the experts and their audience, is enhanced by the funky music provided by the Melbourne band Bombay Royale.

Radio Muezzin Sound of a different kind is at the heart of Stefan Kaegi’s documentary performance Radio Muezzin which begins with the live vibrations of the azan, or call to prayer.

Four muezzins from Cairo share with us their professional expertise as callers of the azan, teachers of the Qur’an and ‘good souls’ of the mosque. One muezzin tells us that he is pleased to be in Sydney, where loud calls to prayer are allowed, unlike in Berlin, where this show opened in 2009. While 100% Melbourne offers temporary access to a broad range of experts of the everyday, the muezzins, together with a radio engineer, provide complex and deep insights into the professional and private lives of less visible members of Egypt’s institutionalised Islamic faith. Their carefully arranged autobiographical stories, illustrated through still images, video footage, and soundscape, together with the presentation of religious rituals on stage, gradually draw us into the complex issue at the centre of this show. As the radio engineer informs us, “the call to prayer in Cairo will no longer be called from thousands of voices” because the Egyptian Ministry for Religious Affairs has decided to create a centralised radio broadcasting of selected voices. In contrast to 100% Melbourne, where participants openly display their opinions and values, the experts in Radio Muezzin offer only selective access to their choices and statements, including to their opinion of recent political change in a country.

In the last section of the performance, Kaegi and his team point out the impact of regulatory forces that limited what could be said and shown on stage. While the blind muezzin Hussein Gouda renders a religious song centre stage, a metacommentary in Arabic rolls silently across the streetscape footage on the upstage screen, revealing to us some of what the authorities saw fit to ban: “On the screens there should be no donkeys or dogs. And also no garbage or actors. Muezzins cannot play dominos on stage… What can’t be said in the presence of one’s mother, sister, daughter or wife one should not say in front of any woman.” Radio Muezzin reveals that Rimini Protokoll strive to maintain a balance between revealing the individual human being behind a voice or a statistical number, and protecting their experts of the everyday.

Stefan Kaegi (above left); 100% Melbourne (main image right); Radio Muezzin (insets)

Real Performance 100% Melbourne and Radio Muezzin

:17

Rimini Protokoll in Dialogue at the Goethe-Institut Australia

© 100% Melbourne, City of Melbourne Image by Carla Gottgens / Radio Muezzin, Photographer_Claudia Wiens / Stefan Kaegi, Rimini Protokoll

In order to further explore the artistic possibilities which Rimini Protokoll open up through their astutely mediated access to ‘experts of the everyday’, the Goethe-Institut Australia hosted two panel discussions, each with a distinct point of focus. In Sydney, Helgard Haug joined local practitioners also known for their innovative contribution to Reality Theatre: artistic director Alicia Talbot (Urban Theatre Projects), performer/producer David Williams (version 1.0), playwright Alana Valentine and producer Claudia Chidiac (Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre). Chaired by Ulrike Garde (Macquarie University) and Meg Mumford (UNSW) the event demonstrated the panellists’ shared commitment to creating art that invites a type of social inquiry not usually offered within mainstream theatre, reality television, or the mass media.

The discussion also enabled a lively cross-cultural exchange.

For example, Haug demonstrated Rimini Protokoll’s interest in reconfiguring the conventions of the state theatre system in Germany as well as its relation to contemporary society. The Australian panellists, by contrast, emphasised the relation of their work to specific social groups and communities of interest as well as to national democratic process. The second discussion, shed light on 100% Melbourne. The panel consisted of three members from the Melbourne production — Haug, Kaegi and Anton Griffith — who were joined by Jennifer Bowen (ABC Radio National), Richard Watts (3-RRR) and the authors of this article. Chaired by Denise Varney (University of Melbourne) the discussion highlighted the many ways this particular show sought to create a process of complex social interaction rather than a marketable product. For example, Rimini Protokoll expanded on their interest in incorporating the social differences and marginalisations that exist even within a city that gave them the impression of being comparatively laid back and comfortable. The discussion also illuminated the extensive nature of Rimini Protokoll’s collaborative process with the City of Melbourne, as well as with the cast and audiences. This process was foregrounded as one of the factors that made 100% Melbourne an event offering a large-scale and ongoing sharing of expertise beyond the limits of reality television formats. During their time in Australia, Rimini Protokoll and their productions amply demonstrated the capacity of their unique form of Reality Theatre to swing the doors of the theatre wide open.

Ulrike Garde, Senior Lecturer in German Studies at Macquarie University, and Meg Mumford, Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Performance Studies at The University of New South Wales, are currently undertaking a joint research project on Reality Theatre. Aspects of the panel discussions will feature in J Birgfeld, U Garde, M Mumford (eds), Rimini Protokoll Close-Up: Lektüren, to be published by Wehrhahn Verlag in 2013.

kultur SEPTEMBER 2012

18:

Poetry Jan Wagner

Jan Wagner champignons

chamäleon

teebeutel

wir trafen sie im wald auf einer lichtung: zwei expeditionen durch die dämmerung die sich stumm betrachteten. zwischen uns nervös das telegraphensummen des stechmückenschwarms.

älter als der bischofsstab, den es hinter sich herzieht, die krümme des schwanzes. komm herunter, rufen wir ihm zu auf seinem ast, während die zunge als teleskop herausschnellt, es das sternbild einer libelle frißt: ein astronom mit einem blick am himmel und dem andern am boden — so wahrt es den abstand zu beiden. die augenkuppeln, mit schuppen gepanzert, eine festung, hinter der nur die pupille sich bewegt, ein nervöses flackern hinter der schießscharte (manchmal findet man seine haut wie einen leeren stützpunkt, eine längst geräumte these). komm herunter, rufen wir. doch es regt sich nicht, verschwindet langsam zwischen den farben. es versteckt sich in der welt.

I

später in der küche hielten wir die pilze ans ohr und drehten an den stielen — wartend auf das leise knacken im innern, suchend nach der richtigen kombination.

From Probebohrung im Himmel, Berlin Verlag, Berlin 2001

champignons we met them in the woods within a clearing: two expeditions passing through the twilight eyeing one another silently. between us the nervy telegraphic buzzing of a swarm of gnats. my grandmother was renowned for her recipe for champignons farcis. she locked it in her grave. whatever’s good, she said, needs filling with little more than with itself. later in the kitchen we held the mushrooms to our ears as we turned the stems — listening for the gentle clicking from inside, as we tried to hit on the right combination.

Translated by Georgina Paul, in Literary Imagination, Boston 2007

From Australien, Berlin Verlag, Berlin 2010

chameleon

II nichts als ein faden führt nach oben. wir geben ihm fünf minuten.

From Achtzehn Pasteten, Berlin Verlag, Berlin 2007

tea bag I draped only in a sackcloth mantle. the little hermit in his cave.

II a single thread leads

to the upper world. we shall it is older than this bishop’s staff give him five minutes. which it drags behind itself: crook of the tail. come down to us, we call Translated by Iain Galbraith upward to his perch when the tongue, become a telescope, shoots out, devours a constellation’s butterfly, astronomer with one gaze toward the sky and the other to the ground — thus keeping its distance from both. the eye’s cupola, armored with scales, a fortress; behind which only the pupil moves, a nervous glittering within its loopholes (some days you come across its skin like an empty barracks, a long-abandoned belief). come down, we call. but it doesn’t move, slowly disappears between the colors. it hides in the world.

Translated by David Keplinger and Katharina Norden

Jan Wagner was born 1971 in Hamburg and has been living in Berlin since 1995.

He is a poet, a translator of Anglo-American poetry, a literary critic and has been working as a co-publisher.

For his poetry, which has been translated into thirty languages, he has received various awards, most recently the Ernst-Meister Award for Poetry and the Kranichsteiner Award for Literature.

Jan Wagner was in Sydney in August 2012 as a writer-in-residence at the University of Technology Sydney and the University of Western Sydney. The residency is a part of a literature exchange program organised by the Goethe-Institut, UTS/UWS and Literaturwerkstatt Berlin. Jan will be a guest author at the Brisbane Writers’ Festival.

Poems reprinted with kind permission of the author.

© Jan Wagner

meine großmutter war berühmt für ihr rezept der champignons farcis. sie schloß es in ihr grab. alles was gut ist, sagte sie, füllt man mit wenig mehr als mit sich selbst.

nur in sackleinen gehüllt. kleiner eremit in seiner höhle.

Poetry Ulrike Almut Sandig

:19

Ulrike Almut Sandig Gänse

Schmale Schatten

nein. sie fliegen gar nicht nach Süden

ich werde vom Flirren der Bäume im Licht nichts sagen, auch nicht von den Bäumen an sich.

denn im Süden ist man allein. ich hörte sie fliegen bei Nacht und mit anfangs noch rauschenden Flügeln, vereinzelten Schreien, hoch auf und höher und bis auf den Mond, auf dessen erdabgewandter dunkelster Seite sie landen und lange lang stehen. Flügel an Flügel und eng an den andern gedrängt: Gänse, Gänse auf dem luftleeren, fliegenden Mond.

Geese no. they don’t even fly south at all because you’re alone in the south. I heard them fly by night with wings which still swished at the beginning, isolated cries high and higher and to the moon on whose furthest darkest side they land and stand very long. wing on wing and crowded close to the others: geese, geese on the airless, soaring moon.

kein Wort von der Buche im Hinterhof der Ärztin deren Tochter im Schlafzimmer stirbt, kein Wort vom Blauglockenbaum im eigenen Hof, unter dem ich und du bis spät in der Nacht sitzen und so tun als sei die Tochter der Ärztin nur in den Gedichten die ich aufschreibe, echt. ich werde vom Flirren der Bäume im Licht nur die Kronen preisgeben die Kronen der Bäume im kreiselnden Wind und die Nadeln, die immer grün sind, daran. ich werde so tun, als sei nur das hitzige, flimmernde Licht eingestickt in die Kronen der Fichten, ganz echt. aber nicht ihre eng stehenden Stämme darunter, nie schmale Schatten, der Wald, die Bäume an sich.

Slim Shadows I won’t say a word about the trees’ shimmering in the light, not even about the trees themselves. not a word about the beech in the doctor’s courtyard whose daughter dies in the bedroom, not a word about the foxglove tree in my own courtyard where you and I sit together till late in the night and pretend that the doctor’s daughter is only real in the poems I write down. I will only betray the crowns of the trees shimmering in the light, the crowns of the trees in the circling wind and the needles, which are always so green on top. I will pretend only the hot, shimmering light

© Ulrike Almut Sandig

stitched into the crowns of the spruce is real. but never the close trunks below, never the slim shadows, the forest, the trees themselves.

Ulrike Almut Sandig was born in 1979. In 2001, together with the songwriter Marlen Pelny, she founded the literature projects augenpost (eyemail ) and ohrenpost (earmail ) in which they pasted poems onto construction fences, spread them using flyers and free postcards and gave their first performances. In 2010 she received her diploma from the German Creative Writing Program Leipzig. Since then she has lived in Leipzig and Berlin. She has been granted a literary residency in Sydney and in Helsinki. Her works have been awarded several Literary Prizes, in May 2012 she was granted the Droste Junior Award.

Ulrike Almut Sandig travelled to Australia and New Zealand in June this year as a guest of the Goethe-Institut and the International Festival of Literatures, Ideas and Translation.

kultur SEPTEMBER 2012

20:

Literature Zafer Senocak

Is there a German Dream?

On the perspectives of Germany as a country of immigration Zafer Senocak

Every country of immigration needs a special vision of the future that extends beyond its own description of itself and must be more than the preservation of existing structures. This vision can be perceived as endangering one’s own self-conception, but also as a chance to expand the self. However, society first requires a consensus on this self. The fact that many people have arrived from abroad in order, for example, to settle in Germany, would initially suggest that this country exudes an allure.

Is this allure limited to its economic success? How strong is Germany’s cultural appeal today and how is it communicated to the outside world? Many of Germany’s current difficulties with migration and its consequences are homemade. They have their roots in a German dilemma with historical causes that are scarcely broached as issues nowadays. [ … ] From the outside Germany appears to be an economic colossus.

From the inside, however, it is highly strung. Ecstatic and brokenhearted is the German disposition. They are a manic depressive and industrious people who, even sixty years after the end of the Second World War and twenty years after reunification, are by no means at ease with themselves. The Germans become nervous when they have to deal with others, because they need all their energy for themselves. The German monologue continues to turn in on itself when communication with others takes place.

It is as if a closed room for memories had been constructed in order to prevent them from contact with the multitude of voices outside. Thus it is that in debates on integration we deal with a strange Germany without history. It is as if this country had no experience whatsoever of migration, immigration, emigration or cultural debates on German identity. [ … ]

Assimilation that takes place by invitation and on a voluntary basis testifies to a society’s ability to accept, and is proof of its openness towards foreigners. Yet only a dominant culture that lives out its own dominance, not as a ritual of exclusion and isolation, but as a civilising alternative to tribal society, an open minded alternative to national culturalism, can assimilate. The Germans, however, are not very good at dominating. When they do, it is inept and full of self-doubt, like the many debates that repeatedly spark up around the ‘deutsche Leitkultur’ (dominant German culture).

A dominant culture that sees itself as a civilising system of values orientated towards the values of the Enlightenment would have cross-cultural aspirations. ‘Deutsche Leitkultur’, however, has a national touch. The dominant German culture is upset that German football players who are not of German origin do not join in singing the national anthem. However, the Enlightenment, the German constitution, democracy and pluralistic society have a universal claim that relates to a value system that is open to everyone, independent of their ethnic, religious or cultural affiliation. People in Germany therefore talk about integration when they mean assimilation. The consequence is that the results of integration cannot be satisfactory. [ … ] What vision of the future does the Berlin Republic have two decades after German unification?

From Deutschsein. Eine Aufklärungsschrift (Being German. An Essay on Enlightenment ) Translated by Jack Corrigall and Silke Lührmann

Zafer Senocak is a leading voice on issues of multiculturalism and cultural identity, and a mediator between Turkish and German culture. Born in Ankara, he moved to Munich with his parents in 1970 where he studied political science, philosophy, and literature. The widely published poet, essayist, journalist and editor has received many literary awards. He focuses on the question of culture and identity: what forms the identity of a person — language, genes, the country in which one lives in or the country in which one was born?

Discover Zafer Senocak’s thoughts on ‘Being German’.

CityTales

:21

CityTales: Urban Stories through the Eyes of Comic Artists Jochen Gutsch

Following the huge success of the CityScapes Blog in 2011, Goethe-Institut was quick to organise a follow-up project that is equally as urban, international and inspiring: CityTales However, this time we chose to utilise a specific art form as a vehicle for the presentation of the nine participating cities: Comics

Over the course of twelve months, CityTales literally paints a picture of everyday life in Bangkok, Berlin, Hamburg, Hanoi, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Melbourne, and Singapore.

Goethe-Institut prompts the nine participating artists to respond to a new theme every month, so each one creates a different story based on the same impetus. In doing so, the key protagonists are being sent on a journey, experiencing a variety of situations in their respective urban environments.

The project kicked off in May 2012, and after only a few weeks we could already see a great variety of drawing styles and narrative techniques. While some follow a humorous approach, others bring up thought provoking ideas or focus on a specific artistic aesthetic.

The result is a creative, colourful and curious mixture of styles and imagery — an entertaining adventure that tells you more about living in the big cities of South-East Asia and Germany than any tourist guide ever could.

Š Nguyen Thanh Phong / Sascha Hommer / Mawil / Mandy Ord / Songsin

blog.goethe.de/CityTales

22: Goethe-Institut Australia Upcoming Events

OUTLOOK So… what does Goethe-Institut Australia have in store over the coming months? …plenty!

There’s language, literature, music, visual art, politics, and so much more on our schedule.

In the coming months, we will be working with our partners on the following highlights: Film

Music

Lore

Christina Fuchs

CityTales

German Film by Cate Shortland

No Tango — Jazz Quartet

International Comic Blog Project

The Shore Duo for New Music

Antenna

Semele Walk

Screenings at Documentary Festival

Opera at Sydney Festival

Audi Festival of German Films

Language

The 12th edition in 2013

EUNIC European Day of Languages

Literature

Celebrate in Sydney and Melbourne

© www.mawil.net

YELLOWCAKE Film Premiere

Online

Jan Wagner

Sommerschule

Visual Art

Festival Appearances

Education and Enjoyment

13 Rooms Exhibitions and Installations

© Alex Nikada / istock.com

Zafer Senocak Is there a German dream?

JOHN STREHLOW Book Launch Photography

Sibylle Bergemann © Sibylle Bergemann Marisa and Liane, Sellin, 1981

Eastern German Photography

COMICS, MANGA & CO

Tage der deutschen Sprache

Comics Exhibition

German Language Days

Intercontinental Faces Exhibition

Schülertage@ Goethe Our Office Hosts Students

THE PILGRIMS WAY TO SANTIAGO

SKYPETRAIT

KLAUS STAECK

EUNIC Exhibition

Nothing is Done — Program for Schools

Design

GERMAN SCHOOL FILM FESTIVAL

Design Exhibition

New Olds

Adelaide • Melbourne • Sydney Discourse

Mediendialog Collaboration with Deutsche Welle Dance

Labor Gras Collaboration with Critical Path Humour

Paco Ehrhard Five Steps to Being German

For more information and program updates please visit goethe.de/australia Keep in touch: facebook.com/goetheinstitut.australien Sign up for our newsletters: goethe.de/ins/au/lp/knt/mll/deindex/htm Information correct at time of printing.

Destination n3xt.

Introducing the new Audi Q3 urban SUV. Blending the strengths of an SUV with advanced driving dynamics, exceptional efficiency and coupé-inspired lines, the new Q3 is the urban SUV that only Audi could create.

Perfectly attuned to a contemporary urban lifestyle, it is equally at home on busy city streets or a weekend adventure. Performance is also assured, with quattro® permanent all-wheel drive* and dual clutch S tronic transmission* that combines the sportiness of a manual with the convenience of an automatic. The new Audi Q3. It’s the driving experience you’ve been waiting for - and Destination n3xt for progressive drivers.

To experience the new Audi Q3 urban SUV for yourself, visit your preferred Audi Dealer or audi.com.au

AUDI5389/KU/FPC/JULY *Not available on 2.0 TDI manual.

Fresenius Medical Care The RENAL Company

The only and unique company offering comprehensive solutions to renal patients.

Everywhere, Everyday.

Fresenius Medical Care Australia Pty Ltd Level 17 • 61 Lavender Street • Milsons Point • NSW Australia 2061 • www.fmc-ag.com

Bringing the best new films from Germany to the world‌ Scan to visit www.german-films.de!

THE BIGGEST STARS IN GERMAN CINEMA ARE ON WORLD MOVIES

German: another dimension.

Enrol in a German Course in Melbourne or Sydney Melbourne 448 St Kilda Road, Melbourne P: 03 9864 8917 E: learngerman@melbourne.goethe.org Sydney 90 Ocean Street, Woollahra P: 02 8356 8366 E: learngerman@sydney.goethe.org www.goethe.de/australia