Cultural Mediation: Creativity, Performance, Display. Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context", University of Heidelberg, 08.10.2014–10.10.2014.
Reviewed by Marlène Harles
Published on H-Soz-u-Kult (June, 2015)
From 8 to 10 October 2014, the Cluster of Ex‐ And what are the risks of and stakes in media‐ cellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context" tion? held its 6th Annual Conference “Cultural Media‐ In line with the Cluster’s objective to establish tion: Creativity, Performance, Display” at Heidel‐ the concept of transculturality as a basic ap‐ berg University. The conference was organized by proach in the humanities and social sciences, the the Cluster’s Research Area B “Public Spheres”, opening keynote lecture by ERIKA FISCHER- and revolved around the topic of "Cultural Media‐ LICHTE (Berlin) aimed at a better understanding tion". Two keynote lectures and twelve panels, of cultural dynamics in the feld of theatre studies comprising 45 senior and junior researchers, ex‐ through the introduction of the term ‘interweav‐ plored the various ways in which cultural practice ing performance cultures’. Fischer-Lichte thereby is transculturally communicated, negotiated, and distanced herself from ‘intercultural theatre’, a contested. While established concepts such as term coined in the 1970s and 1980s as a way of ‘contact’, ‘relation’, and ‘infuence’ risk a deper‐ reinterpreting the concept of ‘culture’ in the con‐ sonalized approach to cultural mediation, the con‐ text of postcolonialism. ‘Intercultural theatre’, she ference endeavored to apply a frame of reference critically argued, refers exclusively to the transfer that would do justice to both the position of indi‐ between West and Non-West, often resonating vidual mediators and the material and political with an underlying distinction between the mod‐ conditions from which they operate. Case-studies ern and the traditional. By exemplifying and criti‐ from a variety of disciplines, such as history, art cizing the rigidity of thinking in binaries such as history, literary studies, and social sciences, drew West and Non-West, self and other, performer and attention to the morphology of cultural mediation audience, tradition and modernity, Erika Fischer- in diferent times and places. In her introductory Lichte set the stage for the specifc case studies talk, CHRISTIANE BROSIUS (Heidelberg) raised presented by the speakers throughout the confer‐ questions that became central focus points ence. throughout the conference. How did/do individu‐ A pivotal question that rose from the abun‐ als, collectives or institutions constitute, appropri‐ dant variety of cultural mediators examined dur‐ ate, alter, and circulate cultural goods and pro‐ ing the conference (artists, performers, passen‐ cesses? How do cultural agents, as mediators or gers, preachers, etc.), concerned the advantages brokers, create in-between-spaces that are charac‐ and disadvantages of the two related terms, ‘me‐ terized by tension, diference and negotiation? diator’ and ‘broker.’ How do we create workable distinctions between diferent types of cultural H-Net Reviews mediators, and what distinguishes the term from Concepts“ addressed the need to challenge uni-di‐ other related concepts, such as broker or go-be‐ rectional approaches towards mediation. The tween? How do we analyze the interplay between spread of Evangelical and Charismatic forms of textual, oral, and visual forms of mediation? What Christianity throughout Asia has not only been are the peculiarities and specifc contextual char‐ underrepresented in the study of global Christian‐ acteristics of these mediators and the media they ities, but was mainly approached as a Western employ? What are their common traits, and how phenomenon migrating to the East. A focus on do their practices connect to wider spheres of cul‐ border-crossing images and individuals allowed tural exchange? the speakers of the panel „Transcultural Sartorial Drawing on examples of Christian writings, Mediations: Performing Identity, Nation, and Buddhist temple histories in medieval Japan, and Modernity through Fashion“ to explore the dy‐ translations in early modern India and Japan, the namics of fashion in 21st-century China and In‐ panel “Translating Concepts in a Religious Con‐ dia. By showing fashion in its moving confgura‐ text” focused on the diferent aspects of transla‐ tions of gender, economics, politics, and identity, tion as a process of cultural mediation. ANTJE the panelists revealed how fashion editors, de‐ FLÜCHTER (Bielefeld/Heidelberg) stressed that signers, and fashion photographers are not just the term ‘translation’ is often used carelessly, and mediators in their own right, but also provide the frequently reduced to mere metaphor. She thus opportunities and parameters for others to ex‐ emphasized the need for an analysis of the specif‐ plore, negotiate, and perform – to mediate – status ic conditions of translation. Religious translators, or national identity. for instance, frst required an understanding of In the second Keynote Lecture, NIKOLAS the local concepts and beliefs; they needed to JASPERT (Heidelberg) identifed specifc charac‐ draw on extant textual traditions and other prac‐ teristics of mediation by diferentiating between tices of religious experts, to fnd the points of con‐ manifest and latent brokerage. The Medieval nection to the central aspects of the religious dog‐ Mediterranean, as the meeting point between mas and concepts they wished to convey. The dis‐ Asia, Europe, and Africa, ofers a vast array of ex‐ tinctive conditions of mediation and the lack of amples for these processes. Cultural brokers, me‐ systematic research on these topics were common diators or ‘uomini virtuosi’, whether intentionally features in the panels, which brought unexpected or unintentionally, have always been key fgures and often neglected mediators and processes of in matters of trade, diplomacy and war. Elaborat‐ mediation to the fore. In the panel „Detecting Per‐ ing on Medieval lordship as a process inherently formance Brokers: Theatrical Agents, Managers, based on reaching a consensus, Jaspert further ar‐ and Impressarios in Global Theatre Histories gued that brokerage is often a very pragmatic un‐ (1850-1920)“, for instance, the speakers empha‐ dertaking that can leave its authors in a vulnera‐ sized that theater cannot function as an art form ble position. nor as a business without the patronage of profes‐ In conjunction with nuances between mani‐ sional cultural mediators. Yet their practices, con‐ fest and latent brokers and messy endeavors for nections, and circuits have been under-re‐ consensus, the media and places in which cultural searched. These brokers did not leave many mate‐ brokers operate revealed their often unexpected, rial traces, as their work took place primarily unintentional, and ambiguous disposition. Fisch‐ backstage. A lack of interest in or even recogni‐ er-Lichte, located performance within a liminal tion of the performative arts as a business might space; it comes into being only during its course be another reason for this neglect. The panel „Me‐ and thus is unable to transmit meanings inscribed diating Asian Christianities: Agents, Practices,
2 H-Net Reviews in the text. This repositioning reduces claims of cultural realities. The Panel „Heidelberg Research authenticity and enables the theatre performance Architecture (HRA): Digital Resources and Scien‐ – as in-between space – to test and experience in‐ tifc Annotations“ introduced the means, tools, terwoven cultural diversity. In the panel „Social and objectives of The Hachiman Digital Hand‐ Orders in Transit: Passenger Communities during scrolls Project (HDH) to enhance the digital pre‐ Long-Distance Ship Passages, c. 1770-1945“, ships sentation of movable text-image formats. The were taken as exemplary historical in-between main objective of the project is to mediate histori‐ spaces, where passengers would fnd themselves cal artifacts for contemporary viewers and facili‐ in a liminal phase of partial social suspension, tate access to historical, literary, and visual knowl‐ faced with unprecedented challenges, such as the edge. The HDH Project, serving as an example of mixing of classes and sexes, unthinkable on land. the possibilities of such new digital methods for Several panels stressed the importance of dis‐ both analyzing and presenting vulnerable, deli‐ tinguishing between particular forms of media‐ cate objects, involves the digitization of six sets of tion. The panel „The Display of Words and Narra‐ handscrolls. tives in Museum Space: a Transcultural Reading“ The conference also addressed the political took author museums and contemporary art gal‐ circumstances that might limit the roles media‐ leries as felds where the visual narratives and tors want or are asked to play. Violence and fric‐ gallery texts function as underestimated yet cru‐ tion, as Nikolas Jaspert argued, is an often-neglect‐ cial media. Writers of such museum texts are un‐ ed part of mediation. More often than not, it is a known, latent brokers who hoist the artist or the pragmatic undertaking, contrasted with notions novelist on stage as manifest mediator, of harmony and tolerance generally associated (re)creating ‘the artist’ and ‘the author’ in the with mediating practices. What if artists, curators process. In the panel „Auditive Mediation of Cul‐ and art critics act as cultural mediators in mo‐ tures: Sermon, Prayers, and Recitation“, attention ments of political tension, like imminent warfare? turned towards the vocal recitations of poets and Which strategies do they pursue, and how do they preachers, and the way they create emotional re‐ employ their mediative skills for their own artis‐ sponses through the efect of speech. The pan‐ tic or intellectual objectives? The panel „Mediat‐ elists showed how the wide range of genres of Is‐ ing Art and Art Criticism in Times of Crises: Japan, lamic sermons and the mediating and framing of China, and Europe in the Mid-Twentieth Century“ text through vocal practice are infuenced by the highlighted the vast distribution and translations introduction of new rhetorical styles and revolu‐ of German philosophers and leftist writings and tions in media technology. The role of locality and analyzed their importance for the resistance the bodily presence of the performers, which movement in Kyoto, Japan as shown by MICHAEL were emphasized by the speakers, where put to a LUCKEN (Paris). MELANIE TREDE (Heidelberg) by practical experiment in the panel „Life-Action using the example of curator and museum direc‐ Roleplay; or the Performance of Realities“. BJÖRN- tor Otto Kümmel and the 1939 exhibition of Japa‐ OLE KAMM (Heidelberg) and JULIA BECKER nese pre-modern art in the Deutsches Museum in (Dortmund) guided the conference participants Berlin, looked at the relation between colonial/po‐ through a 90-minute collaborative performance litical interests and the accumulation and exhibi‐ ethnography. The “Life Action Role-Play”, entitled tion of art and artefacts. The panel also ofered an ‘Staying Alive’, served as a tool to step outside the insight into the transcultural situation of China’s conference environment and to play with collater‐ art production after 1937; SARAH E. FRASER (Hei‐ al realities. It thus established the audience/play‐ delberg) demonstrated how artists’ works were ers as cultural mediators between these diferent shaped by the concentration of academic life in
3 H-Net Reviews the center, related ethnographic encounters, the ings of mediation, in both their successful mani‐ rediscovery of folklore, archeology, and ethnic mi‐ festations and their failed attempts. By analyzing norities. The panel „Building the City Image: Cul‐ both emerging technologies of mediation and hid‐ ture, Creativity, and Contemporary Art“ focused den and latent forms of mediation that have been on notions of global urbanism, ‘city image build‐ overlooked, by identifying a wide range of media‐ ing processes’ as part of urban development pro‐ tors, and by looking at both the political and mate‐ grams, and the related promotion of creative clus‐ rial conditions and obstructions of mediation, the ters and a creative class. Artists hereby become conference served as a great vantage point for in-between, latent and sometimes manifest medi‐ such future explorations. ators between the public and the city’s less-fortu‐ Conference Overview: nate inhabitants. Art hubs can themselves be seen Joseph Maran (Heidelberg), Welcome Address as in-between spaces, a location for the negotia‐ tion of autonomous space for experiments and Christiane Brosius (Heidelberg) Introduction city politics of urbanization, state control, and to the Conference proftability. Examples from China, Japan, and Keynote Lecture I South Africa underlined the slippery nature of Erika Fischer-Lichte (Berlin), Interweaving Per‐ similarity across global cities that ‘brand’ creative formance Cultures: A Transcultural Approach industries which need to be studied in their par‐ Morning Panel I: Mediating Art and Art Criti‐ ticular emplacements. In the panel „Migrating Im‐ cism in Times of Crises: Japan, China, and Europe ages as Transcultural Mediators“, CATHRINE in the Mid-Twentieth Century BUBLATZKY (Heidelberg) focused on moving im‐ Speakers: Michael Lucken (Paris), Melanie ages and their relation to political agendas. In the Trede (Heidelberg), Sarah E. Fraser (Heidelberg) context of the ‘Indian Highway’ travelling exhibi‐ Chair: Melanie Trede (Heidelberg) tion’s arrival in China, Indian artist Tejal Shah’s artwork “I love my India” faced censorship, turn‐ Morning Panel II: Translating Concepts in a ing the exhibition into a contested space. In the Religious Context same panel, visual artist ANGELIKA BÖCK (Mu‐ Speakers: Anna Andreeva (Heidelberg), Hans nich) presented 5 ongoing projects, in which she Martin Krämer (Heidelberg), Ines G. Županov promotes a dialogical strategy of framing the (Heidelberg) artist as a subject to be studied by other contribu‐ Chair: Antje Flüchter (Bielefeld/Heidelberg) tors. The role of the artist as the sole performer Afternoon Panel Ia: Social Orders in Transit: and the status of the researcher as an outside ob‐ Passenger Communities During Long-Distance server were called into question. Ship Passages, c. 1770–1945 This critical refection resonated with con‐ Speakers: Dagmar Bellmann (Darmstadt), Eóin cerns about the position of academics, addressed Phillips (Cambridge), Jonathan Staford (London) during the fnal discussion. Focusing in detail on Chair: Roland Wenzlhuemer (Heidelberg), Johan‐ the intricate processes of mediation might lead to na de Schmidt (Heidelberg) negligence of the ‘big picture’. The multitude of Afternoon Panel Ib: Transcultural Sartorial transcultural connections should not overlook the Mediations: Performing Identity, Nation, and fact that there are borders, and attention towards Modernity through Fashion the obstruction and malfunction of transcultural Speakers: Paola Zamperini (Evanston, IL), Laila mediation, combined with a scrutiny of the re‐ Abu Er-Rub (Heidelberg) sponsibility of academics, is essential. Yet this can only encourage further research into the work‐
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Afternoon Panel IIa: Mediating Asian Chris‐ Martin Loebel (Berlin), Heinz-Günter Kuper tianities: Agents, Practices, Concepts. (Berlin), Peter Matussek (Siegen), Melanie Trede, Speakers: Robbie Goh (Singapore), Esther Berg Katharina Rode, Violetta Janzen (Heidelberg) (Heidelberg), Matthias Deininger (Heidelberg), Concluding Roundtable Katja Rakow (Heidelberg) Afternoon Panel IIb: Migrating Images as Transcultural Mediators Speakers: Cathrine Bublatzky (Heidelberg), Ange‐ lika Böck (Munich) Chair: Henry Keazor (Heidelberg) Keynote Lecture II Nikolas Jaspert (Heidelberg), Cultural Brokerage: A Medieval Mediterranean Perspective Morning Panel IIIa: Detecting Performance Brokers: Theatrical Agents, Managers and Impre‐ sarios in Global Theatre Histories (1850-1920) Speakers: Christopher Balme (Munich), meLê yamomo (Munich/Amsterdam), Nic Leonhard (Munich) Morning Panel IIIb: Building the City Image: Culture, Creativity, and Contemporary Art Speakers: Fiona Siegenthaler (Basel), Meiqin Wang (Los Angeles), Minna Valjakka (Helsinki) Discussant: Christiane Brosius (Heidelberg) Morning Panel IVa: Auditive Mediation of Cul‐ ture: Sermons, Prayers and Recitation Speakers: Max Stille (Heidelberg), Jan Scholz (Hei‐ delberg), Hans Harder (Heidelberg), Ines Wein‐ rich (Heidelberg) Morning Panel IVb: The Display of Words and Narratives in Museum Space – A Transcultural Reading Speakers: Elke Pfeil (Berlin), Emily Graf (Heidel‐ berg), Martijn de Rooj (Heidelberg) Chair / Discussant: Günter Leypoldt (Heidelberg) Afternoon Panel IIIa: Life-Action Roleplay; or the Performance of Realities Organisers: Björn-Ole Kamm (Heidelberg), Julia Becker (Dortmund) Panel Heidelberg Research Architecture: Digi‐ tal Resources and Scientifc Annotations Speakers: Peter Cornwell (Westminster), Jens-
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Citation: Marlène Harles. Review of Cultural Mediation: Creativity, Performance, Display. H-Soz-u-Kult, H-Net Reviews. June, 2015.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=44600
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