New Orientalism? A Creative Collider Lab

Description

The project is a laboratory of a new orientalism in scholarship and art. A series of initiatives in three global cities is planned: Berlin, Beirut, and St. Petersburg. The goal is to bring contemporary European intellectual and cultural codes in active dialogue and creative exchange with living traditions of the Arab World. Berlin is chosen as a centre of Western contemporary art and a birthplace of academic orientalism. Located in the heart of the Levant, Beirut represents the Orient’s multiple cultures as such. As the Russian ‘window to Europe’, St. Petersburg offers a historic example of mediation between East and West. Conducting the project at these distinguished locations will strongly stimulate intellectual and artistic exchange and establish tangible contacts between representatives of various traditions of Orientalism in Germany, the Arab World and Russia. Colliding their different perspectives on the phenomenon of Orientalism, will, as we hope, unleash new forms of creative collaborations in the artistic domains enjoying an outstanding public visibility and impact: architecture and street art, music and performance, calligraphy and fashion design, photography and cinema.

The project runs for 12 months and includes public lectures and masterclasses for students conducted by a carefully selected young scholars, artists, architects, and musicians (24 people in total). Moreover, the project could be linked with a one-week Summer School to be organized in Cairo (Egypt) in 2019 as a follow-up project.

Period	2018 → …
Event type	Other
Location	Berlin, GermanyShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International