Features, reports and interviews from around the world
The Latest at Goethe 2018

Photo: Goethe-Institut

SEASON'S GREETINGS
Happy Holidays

The Goethe-Institut wishes you happy holidays and a happy New Year 2019!

At the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding in Luanda

Museum Partnership Luanda – Berlin
The Ties that Bind

The Ethnologisches Museum Berlin houses one of the world’s oldest collections of Angolan art. It is closely linked to the collection of the Museu Nacional de Antropologia in Luanda. In December, the two museums will start a partnership with the Goethe-Institut with goals set by the partners at a workshop in Berlin. They signed a Memorandum of Understanding to signal their longer-term cooperation.

Cracks appear as traces of drought on land in Al-Buhaira. Detail from "We, the Living Dead, 2018"

Prinz Claus Fund
Sustainability culturally conceived

The Goethe-Institut and the Dutch Prince Claus Fund have jointly initiated a call with the aim of providing cultural and artistic answers to the complex changes in the environment.

The Freiraum project makes a stop in Carlisle and addresses overcoming isolation

Freiraum Tandem Carlisle-Thessaloniki
Countering Isolation

The Freiraum project is a grassroots movement that aims to build bridges. In 42 cities, Goethe-Instituts and their partners from culture and civil society are addressing questions about Europe. The Carlisle-Thessaloniki city tandem is grappling with the questions: How can isolation be overcome? How can identity become a free space? The focus is on discussions with the residents of both cities.

Foto: Monika Skolimowska

An Interview with Johannes Ebert
Strengthening civil society actors means social participation

“Germany is a country that relies on international exchange.” As a “living” network, the Goethe-Institut makes present-day issues visible and enriches discourse in Germany with new stimuli and international viewpoints. In an interview, Secretary-General Johannes Ebert explains what focal points of the Goethe-Institut’s international cultural and language work will play a special role in 2019.

The symposium in New Delhi explores the Bauhau’s to educational movements in the Indian subcontinent.

“bauhaus imaginista” in New Delhi
A thorough education

The symposium "Moving Away - Bauhaus Pedagogy" in New Delhi focused on Bauhaus pedagogy and its connection to other important educational concepts of the 20th century. With the involvement of local research, experts dealt with art, design and architecture on the Indian subcontinent.

The Goethe-Institut and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation invite to an international conference

Heritage Deferred
Museum Subjects

How to deal with colonial heritage? In Berlin, the international conference Heritage Deferred? held by the Goethe-Institut and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation examined colonialism’s past and present.

Architects and scientists at the symposium "Decolonizing the Campus" in Lagos

bauhaus imaginista in Lagos
A Sort of Tropic Modernism

At the Decolonizing the Campus symposium in Lagos, numerous local and international architects will take a critical look at design theory and university buildings from the early and transitional years of Nigerian independence as part of bauhaus imaginista. The focus of the discussion is Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria, which was founded in 1961 in protest against British education policies at the end of colonial rule.

Johannes Ebert, Heiko Maas and Klaus-Dieter Lehmann at the presentation of the Kulturakademie Tarabya in Berlin

Kulturakademie Tarabya
Free Place of Inspiration

Kulturakademie Tarabya is presenting itself in Berlin for the first time as Studio Bosporus. The artists’ house, operated by the German Embassy in Ankara and curated by the Goethe-Institut, contributes to strong German-Turkish cultural exchange even in times of cultural-policy tensions.

Performance by Sahad and the Nataal Patchwork at the ACCES Conference in Nairobi

Music in Africa – ACCES 2018
Music: An Identity-Creating Force

The Music in Africa Foundation launched the ACCES conference in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut and the Siemens Stiftung to gain insights into current topics in the African music industry and to facilitate cooperation. This year, the Nairobi platform brought together around 40 African and international music enterprises for workshops, live performances and panel discussions.

The game „Moon Drop“ from Nicole Benítez and Laiz Garcia as a projection on a facade in Sao Paulo.

Girl Games: Code-A-Thon for digital games
When the Princess Rescues the Prince

Young female game designers from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Germany, Colombia and Peru came together for the Girl Games in São Paulo to revolutionise the game industry. The participants in this project by the Goethe-Institut all agree: the industry needs more women.

The Tashweesh Festival brings feminist positions together

Tashweesh-Festival in Cairo
Loud, Louder, Tashweesh!

At the Goethe-Institut’s Tashweesh Festival, artists and intellectuals from North Africa, Europe and the Middle East met to discuss stereotypical gender images. After Brussels, the mammoth project stopped in Cairo for a week and brought together feminist positions.

Welcoming address by Johannes Ebert, secretary-general of the Goethe-Institut, at the international conference 1968 and the New Right

1968 and the New Right. European Perspectives
Reft and Light

At the conference 1968 and the New Right. European Perspectives, organised by the Goethe-Institut and Kursbuch Kulturstiftung, international experts discussed the impact of the events of 1968 on our European present.

Curator Nontobeko Ntombela speaks about the role of African museums in socio-political discourse

Museum conversations in the Democratic Republic of Congo
“A radical shift of consciousness“

In the series "Museum Conversations", the participants discussed various exhibition formats in Kinshasa. Curator Nontobeko Ntombela spoke in an interview about this and about the role of African museums in socio-political discourse.

Participants of the Megagame-Workshop in Addis Abeba

“Enter Africa” – Megagame-Workshop
Gamify your City-Future!

“Welcome to Africa’s Future” were the words welcoming participants from 15 African countries to a workshop at the Goethe-Institut in Addis Abeba. The goal of the week: developing a game together. The focus was on the question of how to actively anticipate the transformation of African megacities.

Ethiopian artists and academics gather impressions in Shoa

Exhibition Shoa: A Geographical Passion
History is Made

Eight young Ethiopian artists and academics have embarked on an expedition to the Shoa region to juxtapose the Eurocentric image of Ethiopia with their own, contemporary perspective. The results will be presented in an exhibition in which the Goethe-Institut and the Alliance Ethio-Française explore the common European-Ethiopian cultural heritage.

Exhibition opening and symposium of bauhaus imaginista in São Paulo

bauhaus imaginista in São Paulo
Who Learns from Whom?

After stops in Morocco, China, the USA and Tokyo, the large-scale project bauhaus imaginista can now be seen in Brazil in an exhibition at the SESC Pompeia and a symposium at the Goethe-Institut São Paulo.

The slackline performance Building Bridges is a symbolic start for the Year of Germany in the USA.

Year of Germany in the USA: Slackline Performance
Fine Line

The opening ceremonies of the Year of Germany in the USA were brought to an end with the successful slackline performance #building bridges over Monument Valley. Niklas Winter of One Inch Dreams balanced on a slackline between two hot air balloons bearing the national colours of Germany and the USA.

(From left to right) Max Maldacker (German Consul General in Lyon), Ugo Ciarlatani (First Counsellor of the Italian Embassy in Paris), Anna Pastore (director of the Italian Cultural Institute of Lyon), Joachim Umlauf (director of the Goethe-Institut Lyon and Marseille), Susanne Höhn (director of the Goethe-Institut Brussels and the region of Southwestern Europe), Denis Broliquier (mayor of the second district in Lyon), Alberto Bertoni (Italian Consul General Lyon), Giuseppe Pastorelli (Counsellor of the Italian Foreign Office)

German-Italian Cooperation in Lyon
“New Territory for Foreign Cultural Policy”

It is an important step for the German-Italian cooperation: In Lyon, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura moved into the premises of the Goethe-Institut after extensive renovations. This is a strong signal against anti-European sentiments and populism. On 23 October, the shared building opened with a ceremony in the French city.

Excerpt from the film by Thi Nguyen

Das Goethe: 2/2018 Issue
45 Seconds of Solidarity

On 25 October 2018, the latest issue of das goethe will be published. The issue’s theme is freedom: not just freedom in far-away regions and authoritarian systems, but also our own. You can read here in advance how artists from all over the world deal in short films with the increasing restrictions to freedom of expression.

Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, president of the Goethe-Institut, at his opening address in Tokyo.

The Autonomy of the Arts in Times of Crisis
Art vs. Crisis

The Autonomy of the Arts in Times of Crisis: two international panels discussed the subject at the Goethe-Institut Tokyo. Their focus was migration as a disruption and an opportunity and the current crisis of the concept of art.

At his new workplace with the Berlin magazine zenith

Journalists’ Exchange Programme #goethecloseup
Berlin – The City That Never Laughs

Cultural journalist Mratt Kyaw Thu swapped his workplace in Yangon for one in Berlin. During his three-week stay as part of the Goethe-Institut’s Close-Up project, he is a guest of the Berlin-based magazine zenith and is reporting on his experiences in the German capital.

International cooperation and conflict prevention are priority subjects in the Digital Network University

Digital Network University
“We need spaces in which we can have incisive but open discussions.”

The preparations lasted two years. Now the Digital Network University, a project by the Goethe-Institut with universities from Germany, Austria, Russia, Georgia and Ukraine, has officially launched in Berlin. The focus is on international cooperation and conflict prevention.

Participants in the Merck Social Translating Project with partner Merck in Seoul.

FRANKFURT BOOK FAIR
The World Before Your Eyes

From 10 to 14 October 2018, the Goethe-Institut will be offering a variety of insights into its literary activities at the Frankfurt Book Fair. In addition to events about the Guest of Honour, Georgia, symposiums will look at present-day challenges in society and culture. The Merck Social Translating Project presents a new form of collaborative translation in the digital space.

Mutual launch of the Year of Germany in the USA in Washington, DC

Year of Germany in the USA
Our American Friends

A warm late summer evening on German Unity Day in Washington, DC offered Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas the perfect setting to open the Year of Germany in the USA in the garden of the German Ambassador’s residence. “For us Germans, America is and will remain our most important partner outside Europe.”

I Am Not a Witch

Framing the Shot 2018: Key Trends in African Film
Research that was long overdue

The study “Framing the Shot 2018: Key Trends in African Film,” produced in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut and funded by the German Foreign Office, analyses the greatest opportunities and challenges for the fast-changing African film industry.

Johannes Ebert: “Residency programmes promote openness, dialogue and cultural understanding”

Constantly Crossing Boundaries
The Gift of the Foreign Gaze

“Artist residencies are moments for self-realignment.” The Arbeitskreis deutscher internationaler Residenzprogramme (Working Group of German International Residency Programmes) offered insights into the diversity and significance of its programmes at HAU Hebbel am Ufer.

The finalists

Jugend debattiert international
Pro und Contra

Finals excitement in Bratislava: For the twelfth time, Jugend debattiert international (Youth Debates International) invited the national winners of the only German-speaking debating competition for pupils in Central Eastern Europe to the international finals. The patron of the event was the President of the Slovak Republic Andrej Kiska.

Edith Kollath, Postcards v1 (2018)

Dynamics of Air
Who owns the clouds?

The Goethe-Institut Australia's exhibition "Dynamics of Air" wants to explain air and climate phenomena. The architect and intellectual theoretician Friedrich von Borries explains his fictional project UN-Mahac, which he developed for the exhibition.

Alice Creischer, “To Philipp Tolziner,” 2018 (Detail)

bauhaus imaginista
A Mosaic of Fragments

The next bauhaus imaginista exhibition Moving Away – The Internationalist Architect has opened at Moscow’s Garage Museum of Contemporary Art. In it, the curatorial team illuminates the forgotten work of the former Bauhaus director Hannes Meyer.

Helena Kanaan’s performance piece “Ritidomas,” performed by Augustē, Bela Leindecker, Maria Galant, Sandro Aliprandini

The Power of Reproduction
Printed graphics in the land of the gauchos

The Power of Reproduction, a project by the Goethe-Institut Porto Alegre, invites visitors to undertake an artistic and theoretical examination of today’s concept of duplication. Now fourteen German and Brazilian artists are exploring various facets of replication in the digital age at the Museu de Arte do Rio Grande do Sul.

Marcelo Rezende participated in the performative symposium of "Museal Episode"

Museal Episode
„We need to check the structure of power“

The series of events "Museal Episode" discussed the global future of museums over a period of three years in the framework of the "Episodes of the South". A performative evening at the Academy of Arts marked the end of the Goethe-Institut São Paulo's series in Berlin. In an interview, Marcelo Rezende, director of the "Archiv der Avantgarden" in the Dresden State Art Collections, speaks about the most important learnings.

The gentlemen (from left to right): Koran Bishtiwan, Hevar Mohammad, Newa Faris, Hezin Mereen, Omer Rafiq, Mohammed Abdulkhaliq, Rawa Ali

Mister Erbil Gentleman’s Club
The hipsters are in town

The fashion bloggers of "Mr. Erbil Gentleman’s Club" from Kurdistan are a worldwide success. They wish to tell the true story of life in their homeland. At the invitation of the Federal Foreign Office, they came to the capital city for a visit.

Marco Baravalle, Khavn De La Cruz, Alexander Kluge and Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

Alexander Kluge and Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
This is about the art now

As part of the Venice Film Festival, the Goethe-Institut Milan held a reading with the filmmaker and writer Alexander Kluge. He was accompanied by director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, whose new film Never Look Away is not only entering the Oscar race for Germany, but was also a template for an installation by Kluge.

"Shared Cities: Creative Momentum" wants to improve the quality of life in European cities

Shared Cities
What is mine is yours

Sharing and swapping seem to be in fashion. Nevertheless, sharing initiatives are gaining more popularity in the West than in Eastern Europe. In an interview, researcher Brian Fabo puts this into a historical context. The interview was first published in the second issue of "Magazyn Miasta: Cities Magazine", which his part of the European project "Shared Cities: Creative Momentum", a platform for architecture, art, urbanism and the sharing economy in Central and Eastern Europe.

The awardees of the Goethe Medal with the laudatory speakers and the president and executive committee of the Goethe-Institut.

Goethe Medal 2018
After Catastrophe

The Colombian theatre-makers Heidi and Rolf Abderhalden of the Mapa Teatro collective, the Swiss-Brazilian photographer and human rights activist Claudia Andujar and the Hungarian composer and conductor Péter Eötvös were awarded the Goethe Medal on 28 August. Claudia Andujar announced she would share her award with the speaker of the Yanomami, Davi Kopenawa Yanomami.

Natasha Humera Ejaz / Stupid Happiness Theory

Border Movement Residency
In search of Berlin sounds

Natasha Ejaz is one of three South Asian musicians participating in this years "Border Movement residency". The residency program, which is supported by the Goethe-Institut, gives the musicians the opportunity to come to Berlin for three months. Natasha Ejaz is living in the Holzmarkt and performed at the Pop-Kultur festival in Berlin.

Wunderbar Together

Year of Germany in the USA
Exchange and Getting to Know Each Other

The Year of Germany in the United States, sponsored by the German Foreign Office, implemented by the Goethe-Institut and supported by the Federation of German Industries (BDI), will begin on 3 October in Washington DC. Under the motto “Wunderbar together,” more than 1,000 events are planned in all of the American states. Now, the Year of Germany will be presented to the German public for the first time.

Journalist and photographer Heba Alshibani standing with a visitor

Portion of Libya
Every camera a suspect

Reports on Libya are often limited to the subjects of the militia and illegal migration. Ten young Libyan photographers set themselves the goal of showing a more diversified image of their homeland. The first event was an exhibition organised by the Goethe-Institut in Tunis.

Actors during the play "Die Kiwi von Neapel"

Cities on the Edge
Robots in Pottropolis

At the pottfiction camp in Herne, Cities on the Edge, the youth theatre project by the Goethe-Institut, celebrated its premiere. The three productions deal with the reality of the working world and the existential fears of young people.

Participants in the aesthetic intervention at a decommissioned railway line “500 metros de - abundancia y resistencia”

The Future of Memory
“Buenaventura doesn’t give up, damn it!”

With the large-scale project The Future of Memory, seven South American Goethe-Instituts from Bogotá to Montevideo created a public space almost 18 months ago to devote themselves to the work of memory. Now the multi-day closing event Road to the Sea took place in Colombia.

IDO participants at the concert.

Internationale Deutscholympiade
By the end, everyone could sing along

More than 140 teens took part in the 2018 International German Olympics (IDO – Internationale Deutscholympiade) in Freiburg. They experienced fourteen unforgettable days full of creativity, friendship, culture, and lots of fun.

bauhaus imaginista exhibition in the National Museum of Modern Art Kyoto

bauhaus imaginista
The Bauhaus at the Other End of the World

Following stops in Morocco, China and the USA, the large-scale project bauhaus imaginista is travelling around the world for the centenary of the Bauhaus and can now be seen in Japan – at an exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto and a symposium at the Goethe-Institut Tokyo.

Reading material for the vacation

Freiraum
On the Run

As part of the project "Freiraum", eight European authors have written about such diverse topics as freedom, identity and Europe. In the second part of this series, we're presenting a short story by the French author Wilfried N'Sondé today.

Vladimir Arsenijević

Freiraum
Simple, little things

What does freedom mean in today's day and age? As part of the "Freiraum" project of European Goethe-Instituts, eight authors are trying to establish their positions based on different narrative perspectives, allowing contradictory experiences and systems to come together. Today we present a short story by Serbian author Vladimir Arsenijević.

The Transatlantic Outreach Program visits Siemens in Munich

TOP
“The relationship with Germany is one of the most important for America”

As part of the Goethe-Institut’s Transatlantic Outreach Program (TOP), American teachers get insights in business and history during their study tour through Germany. A visit to Siemens AG was part of the programme in July.

Nina Los und Niklas John from the Peng! Collective present their installation „Call a Spy“

Manifesta 12
Ringing Up James Bond

Have you called a spy today? Nina Los and Niklas John from the artist collective Peng! are represented at the Manifesta 12 in Palermo with the installation “Call a Spy” and with videos for their campaign Become an Escape Agent!, which is supported by the Goethe-Institut Palermo. During an installation break we talked with Nina Los and Niklas John.

Bayern pro Gina Lewandowski shows the teens how to handle the ball.

PASCH Football Camp
Learn German and Shoot Goals

During the World Cup, just before the semi-finals, a girls’ football camp called “Dribbel dich fit” was held in a suburb of Tunis, followed by a football tournament. The Goethe-Institut Tunisia invited Gina Lewandowski from FC Bayern Munich and the experienced women’s football coach Carmen Grimm from Berlin to teach at the camp.

"Erdbeben. Träume" is a commissioned work after Heinrich von Kleist’s 1806 novella The Earthquake in Chili.

Earthquakes. Dreams
When the World Comes Undone

“He wished that the destructive power of nature would break over him again.” (Heinrich von Kleist) The opera project Erdbeben. Träume supported by the Goethe-Institut Tokyo celebrated its world premiere in Stuttgart on 1 July. In his interview, the Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa spoke about his relationship with Western and Asian music and about man-made disasters.

Together at the performance night „in 90 minutes around the world“

International German Olympics
Journey around the World with Taschengeld and Wanderlust

Besides the German language, the International German Olympics celebrate the Olympic spirit of international understanding. More than 140 teenagers will participate in the world’s largest German language competition in 2018, getting to know one another, Germany and the local population.

Audience members at the launch of Jeem in Cairo

Jeem
Making art in times of war

Jeem is a new website for young, Arabic-speaking people, dealing with the topics "love, sexuality and society". The idea was first conceived in 2015, when the team of the Goethe-Institut in Cairo wanted to establish a digital project for the youth in the region. We're publishing an excerpt from an article by Afrah Nasser about four Yemeni artists, who have been affected by war and displacement.

Maria Milisavljević, Susanna Fournier, Zainabu Jallo, Santiago Sanguinetti und Pat To Yan.

World / Stage
Dramaturges’ Paradise

Five young playwrights from different continents came together for an entire season to develop plays. They tell of opening and closing oneself, of the differences and the in-between spaces that make encounters possible in the first place. This summer, all of the works, which have been translated into German with the support of the Goethe-Institut, will premier at the Marstall in Munich.

Felicitas Then and Ozoz Sokoh

Food Crossroads (Part 2)
Home is where the jollof rice is

The Goethe-Institut Nigeria is supporting authors and publishers from Nigeria and the diaspora with the Literary Crossroads project, in the context of which literary trends and topics are discussed. The associated Food Crossroads aims to detect and understand similarities and differences between Nigerian and German cuisine. In the second and final part of the article series, German social media influencer Felicitas Then tells of her culinary experiences in Lagos.

Felicitas Then and Ozoz Sokoh at the food tour

Food Crossroads (Part 1)
Schnitzel with Yaji

The Goethe-Institut Nigeria aims to support authors and publishers from Nigeria and the diaspora through its “Literary Crossroads”, where trends, topics and themes prevalent in literature are discussed. The related “Food Crossroads” seeks to explore and understand similarities and differences between Nigerian and German cuisine. In our two-part series, Nigerian food blogger Ozoz Sokoh shares her views on her participation in “Food Crossroads”, while the report of German social media influencer Felicitas Then, who was invited by the Goethe-Institut Nigeria, will follow on Wednesday.

Lars Eidinger at the Forum on European Culture.

Forum on European Culture
A Culture that Unites Europe

Germany's cultural and political role in Europe was the focus of a discussion in Amsterdam entitled Europa: Wir schaffen das, which was organised in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut in the Netherlands. The speakers were the attorney and Muslim feminist Seyran Ates, the writer Simon Strauss, the actor Lars Eidinger and the Belgian historian and curator Chris Dercon. It led to a fiercely argued debate.

Johannes Ebert at the Cultural Heritage Summit.

Cultural Heritage Summit
Where society becomes community

During the Cultural Heritage Summit in Berlin, European experts exchanged views on cultural heritage. During the main event, Johannes Ebert, the Secretary-General of the Goethe-Institut, spoke about the importance of projects for young people and the opportunities and challenges of immigration and integration.

Meg Stuart

Performing Architecture
When a movement loses its meaning

Through "Performing Architecture", the Goethe-Institut is present at the Venice Biennale. Meg Stuart, who is being honoured for her life's work there, will stage her performance "Built to Last" and take part in a moving panel. In an interview, she speaks about her art and about things she hasn't dared to do yet.

Evening view of the new building’s façade

Opening: Goethe-Institut Myanmar
For a civil society in which everyone has a place

At the official opening of the new Goethe-Institut in Myanmar, a ceremony was held with concerts and exhibitions. Guests included the President of the Goethe-Institut, Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, and the Bundestag Vice President Thomas Oppermann, who are hopefully anticipating cultural cooperation with Myanmar.

Lump Sugar Memorial

Heirlooms
The story of the sugar cube

Many things that surround us daily arose through European exchange. The Goethe-Institut’s Heirlooms project tells their stories.

The cover of the latest print issue of C&.

C& América Latina
The Fight for Visibility

In 2013 Julia Grosse became an editor-in-chief of the online magazine Contemporary& for contemporary African art, which is produced in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut. Now the magazine Contemporary& América Latina is now available with an enhanced focus on the connections between Africa, Afro-Latin America and the Caribbean. In an interview Grosse talks about discrimination against the Black art scene and identity issues.

"Unsound"-Festival in the Goethe-Zentrum Baku

Opening: Goethe Centre Baku
Amidst Chapels and Mosques

In December of last year, two new Goethe Centres opened in Yerevan and Baku that see themselves as mediators between Europe and Asia. The Goethe Centre in Baku was now officially opened in the presence of Johannes Ebert, secretary-general of the Goethe-Institut. He emphasised the bridging function of Azerbaijan as one of the most open among the predominantly Islamic states in the region.

The Berlin premiere of "grenzenlos"

2018 Long Night of Ideas
When Dancing Vegetables Encourage Kids

The episode film grenzenlos – Geschichten von Freiheit & Freundschaft (Boundless – Stories of Freedom & Friendship) celebrated its Berlin premiere as part of the Long Night of Ideas. The film, produced in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut, tells stories without language so it is understandable for children of different backgrounds. Following the screening, filmmakers discussed the medium of film in their work with refugee children and adolescents.

Klaus-Dieter Lehmann and Johannes Ebert answer questions from the press

Press Breakfast
“International cultural and educational work is not an accessory”

At a press conference in Berlin, the Goethe-Institut presented the focuses of its work for the upcoming years. The spotlight will be on international networking of feminist positions and German-French cooperation.

Hilmar Hoffmann

On the death of Hilmar Hoffmann
A courageous champion of culture

Hilmar Hoffmann leaves us a legacy: domestic and foreign are not separate worlds. Klaus-Dieter Lehmann writes a personal obituary.

„Der Schädel das Mangi Meli“ is a Tanzanian-German co-production

The skull of Mangi Meli
“As a German, I can’t describe things from an African perspective”

In our interview, actor, author and director Konradin Kunze talks about his video sculpture of Mangi Meli’s story being made in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Dar es Salaam.

The tour was an opportunity for musical and cultural exchange

Symbiz
On Tour with Music Nomads

In April with the support of the Goethe-Institut, the Berlin electro band Symbiz travelled East Africa. They met African artists and held concerts and music workshops.

Ranga Yogeshwar takes a selfie with the audience

Ranga Yogeshwar
It affects us all

The science journalist, physicist and author Ranga Yogeshwar toured Turkey with his lecture “The Future of the Digital World.” In our interview he speaks about his appearances at the Goethe-Instituts in Ankara and Istanbul, about Artificial Intelligence and about what the Turkish and German audiences have in common.

Actors in the production by Patricia Fagundes

Transit Beben
No Duet with David Hasselhoff

The end-time play Tremor by Maria Milisavljevic celebrates its premiere at the Goethe-Institut Porto Alegre in two productions. It starts with Patricia Fagundes and her theatre group, followed by the version by Lucca Simas. In our interview, Milisavljevic talks about her play, which deals with the state of the world in our day, as well as migration, war and escaping from reality.

Grandfather Günther and Granddaughter Lara

Everyday Life
“LET’S TALK ABOUT FOOD!”

How has eating culture in Germany changed? In this conversation grandfather and granddaughter explore what separates and what connects the generations.

Performer Val Souza during Carol Barreto's “Coleção Asè”

Echoes of the South Atlantic
The south is everywhere

In April, the future of Southern Transatlantic relations between Europe, South America and Africa were discussed at the "Echoes of the South Atlantic" conference in Salvador, Bahia. Katharina von Ruckteschell-Katte, director of the Goethe-Institut São Paolo, spoke to the Indian anthropolist Arjun Appadurai about the concept of "Theory of the South".

Foreign minister Heiko Maas (centre) with two of the awardees, Gert Engels on his right and Otto Pfister on his left

German Football Ambassador
Well rounded

People like Gert Engels show the difference football can make. Three of them have now been named Football Ambassadors.

bauhaus imaginista: Opening in Hangzhou with Johannes Ebert

bauhaus imaginista
Beyond Kitsch

In April, the first of five bauhaus imaginista exhibitions opened in Hangzhou in the presence of Johannes Ebert, the Secretary General of the Goethe-Institut. Throughout the year, studies by international researchers and artists will be published in the associated online journal. The curator of the exhibition chapter in Hangzhou, Eduard Kögel, writes about Walter Gropius and his relationship with Chinese architecture.

Performance of Emilio García Wehbi und Maricel Àlvarez

Marx Nace
Whence cometh the wind

This year, Karl Marx turns 200. In the run-up to the anniversary, the Goethe-Institut Buenos Aires organised the birthday celebration Marx Nace together with the Argentinian Teatro Nacional Cervantes. The theatre let the writings of the great thinker speak for themselves.

The performance Sweet Dreams Sweet right after the symposium

Museum and Curating Practices in Southeast Asia
The Museum as a Sounding Board

European and Southeast Asian curators and museum directors met in Berlin on the invitation of the Goethe-Institut Jakarta. In a panel discussion, they exchanged views on the changes in exhibition practices.

Shanty Megastructure

African Mobilities
Cityscapes and Science Fiction

In Africa, cities grow faster than anywhere else. The exhibition "African Mobilities" addresses the complex mobility within the continent. In an interview, South African architect and curator Mpho Matsipa speaks about what to expect from the exhibition and what she hopes for the future.

Panel with Bruna Fetter, Maria Amélia Bulhôes and Nei Vargas das Rosa

Art beyond Art
Skyscrapers and Graffiti

In Brazil, there is a dispute going on over who owns art. At the beginning of April, three art historians, in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Porto Alegre, launched a symposium seeking answers parallel to the 11th Biennial.

Digitization at the Startklar Conference

Workshop Conference Startklar?!
The best of both worlds

The workshop conference Startklar?! at the Berlin Spreewerkstätten provided an important boost for digital language learning. One of the most important insights of the three-day event in March 2018 was that the distribution of roles between technology and actors in learning processes needs to be reformulated.

Jan Wagner in conversation

Jan Wagner in Athens
The poem as sanctuary

On the occasion of Athens being appointed the world capital of literature, poet Jan Wagner, together with his translator and fellow poet Kostas Koutsourelis, presented an anthology of 25 poems at Goethe-Institut Athens. In the interview he talks about German-Greek relations, what awards mean to him and the form and structure of a poem.

The author Yiftach Ashkenazy reads from "Fulfillment" at the German-Israeli Literature Days 2018.

German-Israeli Literature Days 2018
Parting from the Ideals of our Parents

What is just? Israeli author Yiftach Ashkenazy observes the transformation of the Israeli identity into which he was born. He is a guest at the German-Israeli Literature Days organised by the Goethe-Institut together with the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

Journalists and scientists should build a team.

Scientific Storytelling
The Fight against Fake News

Science journalism versus fake news. The Scientific Storytelling project unites scientists and journalists in a collaboration between the Goethe-Institut, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the ONA Academy.

Jan St. Werner from Mouse on Mars while composing in a roundabout way.

Artist Residency for Mouse on Mars
Composing in a Roundabout Way

Where to go with the sound? With the support of the Goethe-Institut, the electro duo Mouse on Mars will be guest in an artist residency at the MIT in Boston. They explore new sound design and mixing technologies. We interviewed Jan St. Werner about multi-perspective experimenting and composing.

Johannes Ebert, CEO of the Goethe-Institut and Thomas Krüger, president of the Federal Agency for Civic Education.

Cooperation Agreement: Goethe-Institut / Federal Agency for Civic Education
Elective Affinities

The Goethe-Institut and the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) are further expanding their existing cooperation. Johannes Ebert, secretary-general of the Goethe-Institut, and Thomas Krüger, president of the Federal Agency for Civic Education, spoke with us about the Cooperation Agreement they signed on 22 March 2018.

Intermedia artist Em’kal Eyongakpa in his studio.

Award for African Artists
Em’kal Eyongakpa wins the Henrike Grohs Award

For the first time, the Goethe-Institut is conferring the Henrike Grohs Award for African Artists. It goes to the Cameroonian intermedia artist Em’kal Eyongakpa. The award is meant to continue the life’s work of Goethe employee Henrike Grohs who was killed two years ago by a terrorist attack in Ivory Coast.

Sol Rezza performs a sound collage about time.

Radio Art Residency
Different forms of silence

A sound map of Halle, a live broadcast from the water tower: In cooperation with Radio CORAX, the Goethe-Institut awarded an international scholarship for radio art for the first time. The Argentinean artist Sol Rezza is the first scholarship holder of the Radio Art Residency. We asked her about her sound experiments in Halle.

Klaus-Dieter Lehmann

Interview with Klaus-Dieter Lehmann
Neighbourship means Partnership

Klaus-Dieter Lehmann has been president of the Goethe-Institut for the last 10 years. In the interview, he speaks about the coalition agreement of the new government, which envisions a strengthening for foreign cultural and education policy, along with a focus on Africa. He also discusses future perspectives, such as digitization, and the role of Europe for the work of the Goethe-Institut.

Online courses are booming.

Das Goethe: Issue 1/2018
I Understand You!

The fifth issue of das goethe will be published on 15 March. It is dedicated to language, learning languages and multilingualism in South Africa, Estonia and China. We also ask whether computers could ever make the dream of all people being able to understand one another come true. Alexander Görlach spoke about it with the French linguist Thierry Poibeau.

Marla Stukenberg is Director of the Goethe-Institut Korea. She is responsible for the East Asian region

Winter Paralympics 2018
When division unites

This year's Winter Paralympics are being held in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Marla Stukenberg is the director of the Goethe-Institut in Korea and talks about cooperation projects of the institute, especially about the cooperation with the Paralympics Zeitung.

Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Claudia Hahn-Raabe, director of the Goethe-Institut Lisbon.

Günter Grass Exhibition
“Beyond the final hill, the sea”

Günter Grass had an especially close relationship with Portugal. The travelling exhibition Encontros presents works that emerged from his encounters with the people and the natural landscape of the country. The exhibition in Porto, which originated in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut, was also visited by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Bill Koélany

Visual Arts in Central Africa
"Few women assert themselves in the arts"

In the Congo, the art scene is largely dominated by men. The project Kinshasa 2050: Les femmes d’abord aims to empower female artists to develop and present their own projects. The project has asked the artist Bill Kouélany to the workshop.

Nthato Malope

Cultural Entrepreneurship Hubs
„It brings us closer together“

The library of the Goethe-Institut Johannesburg houses a "cultural entrepreneurship hub". Curator Nthato Malope speaks about the special place, the work he does with the different hubbers and his participation in the Munich Creative Business Week.

Thirty Mercedes-Benz managers from India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Germany began their intercultural journey last Friday.

Mercedes-Benz in Nashik | February 23, 2018
Experiencing how others think

Success through intercultural competence: The Goethe-Institut is enhancing its portfolio of programmes by offering intercultural training for managers. In late February, a groundbreaking course for thirty managers from Mercedes-Benz was held near Mumbai.

Avi Feldman, new curatorial resident of Ludlow 38.

Ludlow 38 Residency
Meet Avi Feldman

This year’s curatorial resident at MINI/Goethe-Institut Curatorial Residencies Ludlow 38 in New York talks about his curatorial practice, the NSU trial, and his fascination with the intersection of art and law.

Ceren Sevinç, Deniz Gürzumar and İsmail Sağır in rehearsals for "Auch Deutsche unter den Opfern in Istanbul".

NSU Stage Play
That should not have happened

The NSU trial is one of the most complex in recent German history. For the first time, Tuğsal Moğul’s NSU play Auch Deutsche unter den Opfern (Germans also among the victims) can be seen in Turkish in Istanbul. The idea for the play arose during a scholarship stay at the Kulturakademie Tarabya, which the Goethe-Institut operates together with Germany’s Foreign Office.

Director of the MainOFF Festival Piero Maltese.

Land of Festivals
Habermas and a very brutal drummer

Land of Festivals in Palermo aims to help festival professionalize and network. Eight festivals in southern Italy, Sardinia and Sicily enter into a productive dialogue. The Goethe-Institut spoke with Piero Maltese, the artistic director of MainOFF, a festival for electronic and experimental music in Palermo.

Frederick Lau in front of the Casto Theatre in San Francico, which is the site of the Berlin & Beyond Film Festival.

Berlin & Beyond Film Festival
“I fell in love with what I do.”

Between the Golden Globes and the Berlinale, there is another important date for the best German-language films in San Francisco. The 22nd Berlin & Beyond Film Festival by the Goethe-Institut awarded Frederick Lau the Spotlight Award for acting. In an interview, he tells us what it was like to play the close pair of brothers in My Brother Simple together with David Kross.

Munich is the first of 30 stops: Secretary-General Ebert in the PASCH Mobile (Photo: Cordula Flegel)

Ten Years of PASCH
Goethe’s Secret Formula

2,000 schools, 600,000 pupils and a flourishing network: The PASCH Initiative is ten years old. A success story.

Raggabund concert in Mumbai.

Raggabund in South Asia
“It’s great when music awakens interest in a language”

Wherever Raggabund performs they create a great atmosphere. The two pairs of brothers Don Caramelo and Paco Mendoza from Germany as well as the Italo-Swiss De Luca and Mikey Board know how to tear pupils from their seats with reggae, Latin and dancehall music. They toured Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India in October and November 2017 at the invitation of the Goethe-Institut for eleven concerts and several workshops. The tour was so successful that they are now back in the region. We interviewed Paco Mendoza shortly before the launch of the new tour.

The “Facing the same direction” campaign by Maja Čule calls for a choice between working and not working.

Exhibition: A Better Version of You
Would you take my job, Alexa?

Artists laud products of a brave, new world that does not even exist. The boundaries are blurring between business, technology and art. In Seoul, A Better Version of You questions the social and political consequences of artificial intelligence and scientific progress. The exhibition by the Goethe-Institut will travel on to Beijing in March.

DAAD prize winner Soufiane Bouhsaine and presenter Kate Maleike.

Language Brochure
Learning German for Studies

The number of foreign students at German universities is rising. German language skills are particularly important for their academic success. A representative study by the Goethe-Institut and CHE Consult now shows for the first time where and how students learn German prior to their studies.

Wolfgang Tillmans at the exhibition opening on 12 January 2018 at the Musée d’Art Contemporain et Multimédias in Kinshasa.

Wolfgang Tillmans in Kinshasa
A picture of the times

For the first time, a solo exhibition by Wolfgang Tillmans can be seen on the African continent. Entitled Fragile, it opened in Kinshasa on 12 January 2018 in the presence of the artist. In an interview with Patrick Mudekereza, Tillmans talks about his impressions of the first station of the ifa touring exhibition, which is realised in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Kinshasa.

Spirit Transcends collection by Joyphie Yu from Berlin

Beyond Seeing
“Don’t just look at me with your eyes.”

They say “first impressions count” and “clothes make the man,” but what do outward appearances matter if you cannot see? That is a question dealt with by the project Beyond Seeing, which was initiated by the Goethe-Institut Paris in collaboration with four European fashion institutes. An exhibition at the WIP Vilette in Paris shows the collections the project produced.

Kafka and virtual reality

VR Metamorphosis: VRwandlung
Kafka in virtual reality

“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.” Thus begins the most well known novella of the twentieth century, Die Verwandlung or The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. In the “VRwandlung” theme room of Prague’s Goethe-Institut, with VR technology you can wake up as a huge insect in a room faithfully reproduced after the original.

Christine Auerbach and Elise Wilk at the BR sound studio.

Close-Up 2017
Finding Stories in the World

In 2017, twelve cultural journalists swapped their workplaces for three to four weeks for the Goethe-Institut’s Close-Up exchange programme. Christine Auerbach described her impressions of Romania in the Allgemeine Deutschen Zeitung für Rumänien. Elise Wilk reported from Munich for Bayerischer Rundfunk. They speak about their experiences in an interview

Carola Neher as Polly Peachum in G. W. Pabst’s adaptation of Brecht’s Threepenny Opera (1931).

"The Theatre of Carola Neher’s Life"
Death in Exile

A German émigré trapped between two ideological extremes. The exhibition The Theatre of Carola Neher’s Life opened at the Moscow branch of the international human rights organisation Memorial in December. The show, supported by the Goethe-Institut Moscow as general partner, illuminates both the light and darker sides of the life of an outstanding stage actress of the Weimar Republic.

Shirin Barghnavard in the storage room of the Harun Farocki Institut in Berlin.

Harun Farocki Residency
Creative Stopover: Everyday Life in an artist residencey

From Tehran to Berlin: The Goethe-Institut supports the residency of Shirin Barghnavard at the Harun Farocki Institut in Berlin. For three months, the Iranian artist is living in Berlin where she is working on her new film.

"Useful Nature, Useless nature" (2017) an artwork by Robert Zhao Renhui.

Touring Exhibition: Disappearing Legacies
The World as Forest

The exhibition space as a forest. Until 29 March 2018, the Centre of Natural History in the Zoological Museum at the Universität Hamburg is showing Disappearing Legacies: The World as Forest. The series of exhibitions supported by the Goethe-Institut Singapore looks at European colonialism in the tropics and the destruction of the rain forest.

(From left to right) Max Maldacker (German Consul General in Lyon), Ugo Ciarlatani (First Counsellor of the Italian Embassy in Paris), Anna Pastore (director of the Italian Cultural Institute of Lyon), Joachim Umlauf (director of the Goethe-Institut Lyon and Marseille), Susanne Höhn (director of the Goethe-Institut Brussels and the region of Southwestern Europe), Denis Broliquier (mayor of the second district in Lyon), Alberto Bertoni (Italian Consul General Lyon), Giuseppe Pastorelli (Counsellor of the Italian Foreign Office)

German-Italian Cooperation in Lyon
“New Territory for Foreign Cultural Policy”

It is an important step for the German-Italian cooperation: In Lyon, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura moved into the premises of the Goethe-Institut after extensive renovations. This is a strong signal against anti-European sentiments and populism. On 23 October, the shared building opened with a ceremony in the French city.

The new Goethe-Institut in Oslo is inaugurated

Reopening of the Goethe-Institut Oslo
A Beacon for Culture

On 10 January, the Goethe-Institut Norway celebrated its reopening with about 170 invited guests. The dedication ceremony in Oslo also focused on international cultural and educational policy.

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