Nadia von Maltzahn (OIB)
Tuesday, 23. October 2018, 06:00-07:00
Abstract
This lecture revolves around the relationship of Lebanese artists and cultural players to state institutions, in particular the ministry of culture. Why do cultural players in Lebanon call for the state's involvement in cultural production, while in most countries of the region they wish for less involvement? What is it that artists and cultural players who are not content with the status quo ask for? It will be argued that artists and intellectuals look for state support of culture as long as it does not intervene in their artistic freedom, showing that this search is connected to the idea of citizenship and rights to culture. By highlighting the debates around the establishment of a ministry of culture in Lebanon in the early 1970s and 1990s, the formulation of cultural policies in Lebanon will be interrogated.
Biography
Nadia von Maltzahn is the Deputy Director of the Orient-Institut Beirut (OIB). Her research interests revolve around cultural policies and cultural diplomacy, artistic practices and the circulation of knowledge in the modern Middle East.
This lecture is part of the Arab-German Young Researchers Exchange "Cultural Policy and Cultural Mediation in Transforming Societies", organised by the University of Hildesheim (Department of Cultural Policy, UNESCO Chair Cultural Policy for the Arts in Development) and the Université Libanaise (Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines-1-Beyrouth) in cooperation with the OIB, the Université Libanaise (Faculté des Beaux-Arts) and the Goethe Institut. The Exchange is funded by the DAAD.
Following the lecture, parallel working sessions will take place on the following subjects:
Workshop A: Researching Cultural Policies: Achievements and Challenges in Lebanon (by Nadia von Maltzahn/OIB and Meike Lettau/University of Hildesheim)
Workshop B and Film Screening: Art and Marginalized Communities with screening of "When the sea speaks" (by Hicham Kayed/Al-Jana & ARCPA)
Workshop A: Film and Politics: The Correlation of the Moving Image and the World it Documents (by Vera Klocke/University of Hildesheim)
Workshop B: Theatre and Politics: Strategies for Inclusion of Refugees in German Theatres (by Dorothea Lübbe/University of Hildesheim)
The lecture is public and open to all, without prior registration. If you would like to participate in one of the workshops, please register by emailing Meike Lettau (lettau at uni-hildesheim.de). Places are limited and will be given on a first come first served basis.