Kromme Nieuwegracht 70 3512 HL Utrecht
Postbus 532 3500 AM Utrecht
Lezing van Femke Halsema, Vrede van Utrecht Leerstoelhouder 2012.
Prikkelende lezing direct na dodenherdenking
Bevrijdingsfestival Utrecht bestaat al sinds 1993. In 2012 belooft het ook weer een groot feest te worden!
Festival deBeschaving is een ontdekkingsreis met o.a muziek, theater, wetenschap, gaming, comedy en installaties.
Trek de stad uit voor het echte buitenleven. Met slowfood, jazz, klassieke muziek, kindertheater, beeldende kunst in de wijde natuur.
Vrede van Utrecht is uiteraard ook in 2012 aanwezig bij de opening van het culturele seizoen in Utrecht!
Het European Youth Olympic Festival is een tweejaarlijks multisportevenement voor talentvolle sporters uit Europa.
Still on show in FOAM, Amsterdam’s photography museum, till the 5th of February: Stanley Greene. He is a war photographer. And was active in regions such as Chechnya, Iraq, Rwanda and Sudan. Besides being a photographer he also is one of the founders of NOOR . At show in Amsterdam is not only his work, but, surprisingly enough, pics from his private life as well. The burden of working in such intense circumstances as war photographers do surely has consequences for private lifes. Everybody who has seen the documentary War Photographer on James Nachtwey’s life knows so. In the book and project Black Passport Stanley Greene offers us an insight in his life and his doubts concerning his work. And that reminds me of a story I read last week. Dutch photographer Roel Visser published a story on the why and how of conflict photography. Why would we want to see that? Why would newspapers want to publish that? Why would photographers go out and take those pictures? All arguments in favor of taking, publishing and seeing those papers revolve around the question of raising awareness, of “stories that the world needs to know”. And hell, argues Visser, that argument has been the same ever since. And the world did not yet become a better place for all of us. In the North war photography shocks us, yes, but than reaffirms us in our comfort zone. War photography than becomes kind of ‘disaster porn’ – satisfying our need for news fixes. War photography than becomes a cynical business. A business of cynicism Renzo Martens touches upon in his project Enjoy Poverty. Click, see and decide for yourself. By the way, if you want to elaborate on questions like these. Next week Friday, 3rd of February, FOAM organizes a night with Stanley Greene, Teun van der Heijden and Arnold Karskens. These professionals talk about the idealism of photographers, the addiction the work provokes, and the perception of the audience of their work.
Lebanese singer and underground hero Zeid Hamdan is coming to the Netherlands. Last summer Zeid caused some waves when he was arrested by Lebanese authorities for a song he posted online more than a year ago. It seemed as Lebanon, a country ‘escaping’ many of the Arab Spring unrest, wanted to make up. As you can see in this beautiful timeline of the Guardian Lebanon saw none of the unrest surrounding countries had to face. But of course, they had more than their share over the last decades. In the song General Suleiman is kindly asked to step down. Well, apparently he wasn’t planning on doing so. Zeid Hamdan will be performing in Amsterdam where cultural centre de Balie is hosting a great weekend programm on the Art of Revolution II. Check here for his performance. And here for some other parts of the programm. De Balie’s website announces the weekend as follows: The second weekend of December De Balie presents in cooperation with Dancing on the Edge a versatile festival with cutting edge, contemporary art and culture from the Middle East. Curator Neil van der Linden also presents a great programm of clips and storytelling on the saturday afternoon. Don’t miss out on this festval…
Since a few years Utrecht, homebase to this blog, has the luck of having the Eastern Neighbours Film Festival taking place in this town. Intention of the main organizers Aleksandar Velinovksi, Rada Sesic and Mak Kapetanovic was to bring those countries not yet in the EU into focus by presenting the best films of these eastern neighbours. One can say they did make quite an appearance on the festival scene: suddenly the LHC cinema was bustling with languages that were not spoken so loud in this little town. One could hear all Jugoslav accents, smoking was a logic thing and the concerts by amongst others Fatima Spar connected all present. In the words of the festival organizers: ”We feel that cinema brings people closer to each other, makes them understand each other’s culture better and deeper, gives an inside view into the mentality and history of our neighbours, makes us appreciate and enjoy each other genuinely.” With Western European countries closing the borders again, and at some points acting against the Schengen Agreements allowing EU members free travel within the Schengen countries, it is necessary to have cultural artefacts such as films stating people there are just as here: people. Policymakers do have the same urge and some official conferences were called together – to no avail it seems. Now that the Iron Wall is no longer there, the differing historical backgrounds do play a role. According to the article Seven circles of European memory the European nations still need to develop a common story, a shared history. One country that deserves some special attention in these matters is Turkey. Since decades the country is an associate memberstate of the EU, but never did it become a full member. This reluctant approach pushed elites in Turkey to develop stronger ties looking east- and southwards. Now with Turkey’s economy booming the EU needs to come to terms with a feeling of ‘ooops, something went wrong here’. In addition to this the Netherlands and Turkey share 400 years of diplomatic ties in 2012. In this perspective as well – it might be the right country to put in focus at this years’ festival.
A short post. Today is the day. Get out. Show everybody you too want that other world. That world that seemed approaching ten years ago: Seattle, Prague, Genua. An approach which was cut off by 9/11 and its’ consequences. Now the kids are out in the street again. And they sing. They hope. They show activism and beauty do go well together. Enjoy the day!
Was the last sentence in an interesting article in a Dutch daily on the new militairy museum opening in Dresden, Germany tomorrow. It was the answer by one of the museum curators on the question whether soldiers would not be shocked by the items on display and the ‘narrative’ of the museum. The Militärhistorisches Museum der Bundeswehr according to their site [German only] uses various perspectives, is modern, is critical and scientifically up to date. It is not only a museum focusing on the technical aspects of war, but rather on the cultural sides of war. How that works out? No clue, as the opening is only tomorrow. But a striking fact already is that whereas militairy museums of the early 20th century were merely heralding the national army, this one seems to really focus on war as a human condition. A condition in which all suffer. And therefore the museum doesn’t want to beautify war, not for regular visitors like you and me, neither for soldiers. The design of the museum is by Libeskind, the architect who also was responsible for the Jewish Museum in Berlin. His website runs the following text on the new museum: “Since its 1897 founding, the Dresden Museum of Military History has been a Saxon armory and museum, a Nazi museum, a Soviet museum and an East German museum. Today it is the military history museum of a unified and democratic Germany, its location outside the historic center of Dresden having allowed the building to survive the allied bombing campaign at the end of World War II. In 1989, unsure how the museum would fit into a newly unified German state, the government decided to shut it down. By 2001 feelings had shifted and an architectural competition was held for an extension that would facilitate a reconsideration of the way we think about war.” Now that reconsideration apparently is one of war as a a tragedy embedded in human history. Greed and stupidity play a role, but so do empathy and sacrifices. “This museum is a museum on people,” said one of the curators in the earlier mentioned interview. But whereas Creveld sees war as a necessary and driving force in human history the musem in Dresden seems to tend to Achterhuis‘s opinion we need rituals and ceremonies to curb it.
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