Proximity and Distance

Will wedding receptions in India be limited from now on to 10 guests instead of 1000? Will the elbow bump replace cheek-kissing as the standard greeting in Brazil? Is the private sphere being dragged into the public in Korea or vice versa? Will FFP2 face masks become a natural matter of course in everyday shopping and train travel in Germany? How do you maintain social distancing in mega-cities like Seoul, Delhi or Sao Paulo when four generations live in 12 square meters?

From Our Experts
Phenomena of Distance
Impact on Education and Equal Opportunities
The Way of Dealing with Death
Events

What is next? What is here to stay? What is gone?

From Our Experts

Editorials

Brazil
Time to Be Together - But Not That Close

Brazil has withstood the virus. When a kiss on the cheek could become synonymous with death, the population has to face the necessity to rethink socialising. Within this new reality, visual artist Rosana Paulino asks: What does it mean to be close and what does it mean to be distant?

South Korea
Life perspectives for a time after COVID-19

What role will state and society play in a post-COVID era? Kwang Sun Joo speaks about the meaning of freedom and rights in South Korea and why we should be thinking about a new world order.

India
Now It Is Come to Distances and Both of Us Must Try: Proximity and Distance in the Pandemic

The pandemic of 2020 befell in a hyper networked world, whose buzzword was, connected. The distance we were meant to observe for fear of infection, revealed the disconnections, which teem beneath the surface of networks and visible mobilities.

Illustration of Prof. Dr. Jan Paul Heisig

Germany
A Counterbalance of Regulations and Social Interactions

While its long-term impacts of the pandemic remain difficult to predict, sociologist Jan Paul Heisig discusses how COVID-19 has spotlighted previously unnoticed issues in German society, how it has changed social interactions, and how these changes interact with preexisting social inequalities.

Online discussion on 25 August 2021 - Participants (left to right): Paromita Vohra and Kwang Sun Joo (above), Jan Paul Heisig and Rosana Paulino (below)

Experts in Conversation
Reflections on the Pandemic

Associations, effects, outlooks - what do the Indian author Paromita Vohra, the South Korean professor of philosophy Kwang Sun Joo, the Brazilian artist Rosana Paulino and the German professor of sociology Jan Paul Heisig associate with COVID-19 and the worldwide pandemic in their countries and in a global context?

Phenomena of Distance

Digital Rooms

Project Colônia Juliano Moreira, Jacarapaguá, Brazil 2019. The photo was taken during an artistic residency of the programme CASA B at the Museum Bispo do Rosério for Contemporary Art, Rio de Janeiro.

Network Noise
Disruption Takes the Lead ahead of Courteous Disagreement

Throughout the world, especially in Brazil, social media algorithms have contributed to the rise in political radicalism, polarisation, and eroding human relationships. Why are networks keeping people away from each other when they could be bringing them closer together?

In times of social distancing, digital rooms allow proximity where physical contact is not possible.

Proximity in the Digital Age
New Rooms, New Connections

In 2020, as measures to contain the corona virus dominated social life, many people began to connect even more online. In an interview Dr Doo-Hun Choi, professor of journalism and broadcasting at Konkuk University in Seoul, speaks about the development of digital rooms in South Korea.

Remote Culture

Rhizome Project Collection: work developed during the Covid-19 pandemic, Belo Horizonte, 2020.

Insights into the Brazilian Art and Culture Scene
“What We Need Is to Imagine a More Porous Museum”

During the pandemic, museums opted for more open spaces and drew in a portion of the Brazilian population which is traditionally distant from art. On social media, the user substituted the visitor: actively demanding, provoking, and questioning curatorial strategies.

Visitors of a virtual reality exhibition at the ARKO Art Centre in Seoul.

Museum Work in Seoul
“I am anxious that national borders could remain closed.”

How do museums remain a place of encounter and exchange - even in a digital, post-pandemic world? An interview with Leeji Hong, curator of the National Museum of Contemporary Art Seoul (MMCA).

As part of their Project “4x4-Raum für Neues”, AMP Dance Company developed yellow square ´action spaces´ that were used for the first time at the Making Frankfurt Action Day in August 2020 on Frankfurt's Mainkai.

Art in the Public Domain
Raum für Neues – It’s Time for Something New

How can artistic productions be staged and brought to their audiences when everyone is forced to social distance by the pandemic? Florian Geiger, a dramaturgist and co-founder of the AMP Dance Company, describes an innovative new format that brings dance closer to audiences than ever before – beyond the big city theatres.

Distance Behaviour Scrutinised
Manifestations of Everyday Life: What Remains? What Comes?

The outbreak of the pandemic transformed our daily lives: Within families, at work, during free time and in interactions with each other - we experience ramifications and upheavals everywhere. The definitions of closeness and distance seem to have altered. Srishti Gupta Roy takes a closer look at how and where exactly. The illustrator examines diverse areas of life and artistically implements new proximity and distance behaviour in these spheres.

(Not) Allowed Contact

After a long lockdown, Jan and Undine, who were already a couple before the pandemic, spend the first warm summer day in May 2021 enjoying the fresh air in Leipzig. Photo taken: 09.05.2021, Leipzig.

Physical Closeness and Distance
Corona Rhapsody

“Corona Rhapsody” is a contribution to the discussion on the question of what has changed in our society since the pandemic. The photographer Rafael Heygster has captured various scenes of public life and diverse social situations.

Distance proverbial

Collage – Illustrationen von Beatrice Davies (oben links), Nik Neves (oben rechts), Anjali Mehta (unten links), Jinyoung Choi (unten rechts)

Multifaceted Illustrations
How Proverbs Connect Us

There are many sayings and proverbs that we use almost on a daily basis without thinking of the meaning behind them. For many of them an image instantly springs to mind – and sometimes that image is incomprehensible, amusing or just wrong. Yet, proverbs are a core element of every language culture. Four artists approach a different language culture in the form of illustrations. This is how Beatrice Davies from Germany and Nik Neves from Brazil got to know each other. On the other hand, Anjali Mehta and Jinyoung Choi try to overcome cultural distances with the drawing pencil. Despite all the geographical distance, the results reveal one or two things they have in common.

New Culture of Availability

Remote Work
“A New Availability”

People never worked remotely as much as they did throughout the pandemic. Now, professionals working from home are just as available as when they were working from the office. In many cases, even more. In the end, what is gained and what is lost when work does not require physical proximity?

Impact on Education and Equal Opportunities

Digital Education Opportunities

The pandemic has challenged school and education systems worldwide. From one day to the next, students had to stay at home because they could only be taught at a distance – in other words digitally. In a letter exchange, the Indian author Paromita Vohra, the Brazilian artist Rosana Paulino, the Korean philosophy professor Kwang Sun Joo and the German sociologist Jan Paul Heisig discuss the new possibilities based on the situation in their respective homeland.

Illustration of Rosana Paulino and Paromita Vohra

India's New Normal
Is Distance Learning an Equaliser in an Unequal Education System?

As brick-and-mortar educational institutions remained shut, digital education became the new normal. Filmmaker and author Paromita Vohra starts the letter exchange by answering how sustainable this model in India is. Will digital learning close or intensify the educational gaps or take a new form altogether?

Illustration of Rosana Paulino and Kwang Sun Joo

Brazil's Way Out of Poverty
The Internet as an Educational Tool

Brazilian artist Rosana Paulino answers the question posed by Indian author Paromita Vohra: "Which questions regarding Brazil's education system arise as a result of the pandemic?" Here, the issue of social inequality in the education system becomes particular apparent. However, the internet also creates new opportunities.

Illustration of Kwang Sun Joo (right) and Jan Paul Heisig (left)

South Korea’s Way of Digitalisation
Education Means Isolation

South Korean philosophy professor Kwang Sun Joo answers the question posed by Brazilian artist Rosana Paulino: “How do parents in South Korea react to their new role as digital educators alongside teachers? How are families supporting students in regard to an educational setting that places strong emphasis on digital content?” It becomes clear that digital education causes isolation and poses major challenges for single parents.

Illustration: Jan Paul Heisig (left) and Paromita Vohra (right)

Needs of Children Should Be Put First
Germany’s Insufficient and Patchworky Data Infrastructure

Jan Paul Heisig, Professor for Sociology at Freie Universität Berlin, answers questions raised by the South Korean philosophy professor Kwang Sun Joo: ”In the era of digital learning has the social inequality in Germany increased its influence on education? If so, how has it increased? And what can be done to solve this problem?” While school closings seem to have had negative effects on learning outcomes, particularly for disadvantaged students, there might also be some positive long-term effects of the crisis.

The Collective Memory

“What will happen to the generation whose desire for freedom is considered a crime?”

Remembrance culture among young people
Collective memory of the pandemic

Today, children and adolescents are growing up in the midst of restrictions on physical contact and bans on recreational activities. What will they remember once it’s all over? How will their experiences shape the collective memory? In her comic, the illustrator Beatrice Davies looks for answers.

Care and Community

It wasn’t just help that was in demand during lockdown. Sometimes it was about social interaction as well.

Neighbourhood help
Better neighbours thanks to corona

Along with the coronavirus, a wave of helpfulness spread through German neighbourhoods in 2020. But will the new solidarity continue “post-corona”?

The Way of Dealing with Death

Project Collection: “Como costurar às margens?" (How to sew on the Margins?), São João del-Rei, Brazil, 2019. 81-meter-long installation made with the artists Hana Brener and Ana Pi Videira.

Loss and Reinvention
“There Is Much Talk about Death, But Not as Much about Mourning”

In some Afro-Brazilian religions, certain funerary rituals cannot be shared on social media. Among indigenous communities, traditions associated with death were made invisible due to the virus. In Brazil as a whole, there was more talk about the number of deaths than about ways to mourn them.

Leaving a family member alone to die was painful for many relatives. The grieving process has changed.

Funerals during Corona in Germany
Stolen Time and No Goodbyes

A funeral director talks about grief counselling and saying goodbye to loved ones during the pandemic in Germany, how several things had to change and why a personal face-to-face contact is difficult to replace.

Events

29.11.2021
Launch Event: Proximity and Distance
11:00 AM
Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan New Delhi, New Delhi

Back to Overview “Lockdown Lessons”

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Proximity and Distance

From Our Experts

Editorials

Brazil Time to Be Together - But Not That Close

South Korea Life perspectives for a time after COVID-19

India Now It Is Come to Distances and Both of Us Must Try: Proximity and Distance in the Pandemic

Germany A Counterbalance of Regulations and Social Interactions

Experts in Conversation Reflections on the Pandemic

Phenomena of Distance

Digital Rooms

Network Noise Disruption Takes the Lead ahead of Courteous Disagreement

Proximity in the Digital Age New Rooms, New Connections

Remote Culture

Insights into the Brazilian Art and Culture Scene “What We Need Is to Imagine a More Porous Museum”

Museum Work in Seoul “I am anxious that national borders could remain closed.”

Art in the Public Domain Raum für Neues – It’s Time for Something New

Distance Behaviour Scrutinised Manifestations of Everyday Life: What Remains? What Comes?