News Archive

Nina Tecklenburg, Professor of Theater and Performance, Ramona Mosse (Bard Guest Faculty/Free University Berlin), Christian Stein (Humboldt University Berlin) and Janina Janke (free artist) win Volkswagen Foundation research grant for their joint practice-based project “Viral Theatres: Performing Pandemic Cultures in the Anthropocene”. The grant is part of the Volkswagen Initiative “Corona Crisis and Beyond - Perspectives for Science, Scholarship and Society” which aims to support “research projects from all disciplines whose findings not only contribute directly to overcoming the crisis, but can also provide impetus for overcoming major societal challenges in the medium to long-term."

In Viral Theatres, Nina Tecklenburg, Ramona Mosse, Christian Stein and Janina Janke combine digital making, creative practice and scholarly research in a highly interdisciplinary project that investigates the current radical transformation of theatrical performance. It does so by building a living archive, consistent of an online platform and a performance installation that documents and creatively reflects the current pandemic and newly emerging interactions between digital and analog worlds. The living archive addresses a novel split: while the consumption of creative content via digital media has accelerated due to lockdown, the production of such content in standard modes of presence and collaboration has undergone a drastic arrest, threatening particularly the performing arts in their dependence on embodied exchange. Viral Theatres considers how these substantial shifts change work processes, institutional infrastructures, and the future of going to the theatre. 

Nina Tecklenburg and Ramona Mosse will also co-teach a practicing arts seminar at BCB in the Fall 2021 as part of the project to include students in the processes of creative archiving and reflecting the post/pandemic culture.

You can find the project summary at the Volkswagen Foundation.

Meta: Type(s): Berlin,Faculty | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

BCB Comparative Literature Professor Laura Scuriatti has published a piece on British born Modernist artist and poet Mina Loy, in the blog of Italian Feminist literature collective l’Orique. The piece is accompanied by audio clips of Scuriatti reading Loy’s Poetry (article in Italian, readings in English).

In the piece Scuriatti gives an account of the life of Mina Loy and the reasons she has remained forgotten as a Modernist for such a long time. She also analyzes Loy’s poems on Florence, as well those covering the subjects of giving birth and the aging female body, showing how Loy gives original accounts of the objects of her poetry and the radical way Loy puts the female body at the center of lyrical discourse. The piece is accompanied by audio recordings of Scuriatti reading some of Loy’s poems in English.

Laura Scuriatti has published a book on Mina Loy’s Critical Modernism, in which she focuses on the influence of the Italian avant-garde on Loy’s work.
 

Meta: Type(s): Berlin,Faculty | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

BCB Professor for Art and Society Dorothea von Hantelmann will be discussing the new art work Future Fossil together with Andy Merritt (one half of creator duo Something & Son) and architectural theorist and editor Nick Axel. The discussion is the second in a series of online events leading up the the unveiling of the art work in April.
Future Fossil is a public artwork located in Oxley Park, Milton Keynes. The installation features a section of an ordinary house rising from the ground as if excavated, “fossilized” through the passing of time. The intention is to create a new public space around the art work, where community activities and cultural programs can take place.

Event Page >>
 

Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

BCB Faculty member Aysuda Kölemen was asked to comment on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's intentions to change the Turkish constitution by media outlet France24.
Read the full article >>
 

Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Berlin | Subject(s): Politics,Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

BCB Professor of Politics, Boris Vormann discussed the currently ongoing impeachment proceedings against former president Donald Trump in an interview with German national news broadcast Tagesschau.

In the interview he explained the procedure and possible political consequences of the impeachment process set into motion by the storming of the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. 

Watch the full interview on tagesschau.de >>

Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Bard College Berlin congratulates Marie Schleef on her performance piece NAME HER. Eine Suche nach den Frauen + being chosen to be part of the "10er Auswahl" at Theatertreffen Festival 2021.

Theatertreffen takes place every May in Berlin and is one of the most prominent German speaking theater festivals. The festival showcases remarkable productions from German speaking countries as well as international young talent. At the heart of the festival program is the “10er Auswahl” (selection of 10). Every year an independent expert jury visits hundreds of productions in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and chooses the ten best to be shown in Berlin.

In her piece Marie Schleef unearths a hidden female history. Forgotten women are called to the stage by their name, independent of their social and cultural background, in encyclopedic fashion from A-Z. Schleef and her collaborator Anne Tismer tell their stories through video, music, dialogue and dance, shedding a light on the erasure of women and opening up discussions around the relation between given names, gender, power and stigma.

Marie Schleef completed her Bachelor's in Theater and Performance at Bard College and spent the spring of 2013 at Bard College Berlin as part of the Study Abroad Program. She went on to study directing for theater at the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst “Ernst Busch” in Berlin. NAME HER. Eine Suche nach den Frauen + is her first independent theater production.
 

Meta: Type(s): Alumni | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

BCB Professor of Literature Laura Scuriatti will give a talk about her book Mina Loy's Critical Modernism (University Press of Florida, 2019) at the British Institute of Florence.

"When the British-born Mina Loy (1882-1966) moved to Florence from Paris in 1907 with her husband, the painter and illustrator Stephen Haweis, she was a budding young artist who had made it into the Salon d'Automne. She lived in Florence until 1916, at first with her husband and then just with her children, and in this period she developed into an extremely original avant-garde poet and writer, whose work was published in the most renowned literary magazines in the US. She learned to speak Italian and responded in her works both to the politics and aesthetics of the vociferous Futurists and to the vital intellectual debates internal to the Anglo-American expatriate community."
 
Laura Scuriatti will discuss Loy's aesthetic and feminist commitment to the nascent avant-garde in the context of her life in the Tuscan capital, and show how Florence functioned as a vibrant international nexus for the exchange and elaboration of modernist art.


To join this lecture with Zoom (no reservation necessary), simply click on this link at 6:00 pm on Wednesday, February 3. 
 
There is no charge to attend the event on Zoom, the British Institute asks that you consider making a donation to support the Institute and its beautiful library if you wish to attend an event.

Meta: Type(s): Berlin,Event,Faculty | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Helen Wolff’s autobiographical novel Hintergrund für Liebe (Background for Love) tells the story of a young woman’s emancipation in the early 1930’s. BCB faculty Dr. Marion Detjen, who is Helen Wolff’s great nice, published the novel posthumously almost ninety years after it was written and will give a talk about the book and its author at the Literaturhaus Köln.


Event: Thursday, January 28, 7.30 pm CET, Literaturhaus Köln, online
Please register for a ticket to the online conversation between Marion Detjen and Bettina Fischer.

The Book: Helen Wolff, Hintergrund für Liebe, edited and with an essay by Marion Detjen, Weidle, Bonn 2020 >>


For a review of the book please see:
"Julia Schröder empfiehlt Helen Wolff: Hintergrund für Liebe" - Clip and article on the "Lesenswert Quartett" on SWR2 >>
"Die Priesterin" - Article in Süddeutsche Zeitung >>
"Nach Saint Tropez, der Liebe wegen" - Article on Deutschlandfunk >>
"Ein Sommerhaus für sich allein" - Article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung >>
 

Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Bard College Berlin welcomes Dr. Aslı Vatansever (PhD University of Hamburg, 2010), a sociologist of work and social stratification from Turkey. Dr. Vatansever’s two year research position is made possible through a competitive fellowship by the Philipp Schwartz-Initiative for threatened scholars. In Turkey, Dr. Vatansever was dismissed from her office as associate professor at a private university in Istanbul and was banned from public service for having signed the Peace Petition of the Academics for Peace in 2016. She was subsequently hosted as a guest researcher at the Leibniz Zentrum Moderner Orient (October 2016-May 2017) and at the Centre Marc Bloch (June-July 2017). She was a Scholar Rescue Fund Fellow at the Department of Political Science, Law, and International Studies at the University of Padova (September 2017-August 2018), a research associate at the Re:Work Institute of the Humboldt University, Berlin (September 2018-August 2020), and a guest lecturer at the University of Padova (October-December 2020).
Dr. Vatansever’s work has a particular focus on precarious academic labor. At Bard College Berlin she will conduct research on recent mobilizations of precarious scholars asking: What are the main types of academic anti-precarity movements across Europe? How do migration trajectories and academic mobility figure in the constellations of academic labor activism? How do the various anti-precarity initiatives respond to forced internationalization and occupational migration?

Her books include Ursprünge des Islamismus im Osmanischen Reich. Eine weltsystemanalytische Perspektive (Hamburg: Dr. Kovač, 2010), Ne Ders Olsa Veririz. Akademisyenin Vasıfsız İşçiye Dönüşümü (Ready to Teach Anything. The Transformation of the Academic into Unskilled Worker, Istanbul: İletişim, 2015 – co-authored with Meral Gezici-Yalçın), and At the Margins of Academia. Exile, Precariousness, and Subjectivity (Brill: 2020).

Dr. Vatansever will co-teach the Internship Seminar in the Fall Semester 2021 and will also be available as a thesis supervisor for senior students at Bard College Berlin.

The Philipp Schwartz-Initiative
Named after the Austrian Jewish pathologist who lost his professorship in 1933 in Frankfurt, the Philipp Schwartz-Initiative was founded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the German Federal Foreign Office. It supports scholars at risk who are unable to work in their home country because of prosecution and enables them to continue their work and research at German institutions.
The Initiative works closely together with the Scholars at Risk Network, the IIE Scholar Rescue Fund, and the Council for At-Risk Academics and has been made possible through generous support from the Federal Foreign Office, the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, the Gerda Henkel Foundation, the Klaus Tschira Foundation, the Robert Bosch Stiftung, the Stifterverband, and the Stiftung Mercator.

Scholars at Risk Network
Bard College Berlin is a founding member of the German chapter of the "Scholars at Risk," together with 19 other German academic teaching and research institutions. Kerry Bystrom, Associate Dean of Bard College Berlin and Professor of Human Rights & English Literature, is a member of the German SAR's Steering Group.

Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Bard College Berlin is proud to announce that third year student Lucas Engel of the Economics, Politics and Social Thought Program has won a highly competitive Studienstiftung fellowship.

Lucas came to Bard College Berlin looking for an environment that encourages open discussion and an approach to education that pushes beyond the boundaries of a narrow major. Thanking his classmates for the numerous discussions they have had since he started at the college, Lucas said: "my admission to the Studienstiftung is due in no small part to our spirit of critical examination and the inspiration that comes with the pursuit of a broad base of knowledge.”

The Studienstiftung is one of the oldest, largest, and most prestigious scholarship foundations in Germany that supports young scholars with exceptional talent who can be expected to make a meaningful contribution to society. Lucas was first nominated by his Professor Boris Vormann and then passed through several rounds of a very competitive selection process.

Congratulations, Lucas!

Meta: Type(s): Student,Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin |

Bard College Berlin Professor of Migration Studies, Agata Lisiak, will discuss international collaboration, challenges and opportunities under Brexit at the online event "Art, International cooperation and Brexit" that is hosted by Centrala - a space for Central and Eastern European art and artists located in Birmingham, UK. Prof. Lisiak will be joined by Centrala's director Alicja Kaczmarek, Simina Neagu (Iniva - Institute of International Visual Arts), and Piotr Michalowski (European Network of Cultural Centres).

Join the discussion on Facebook Live>>

For more information visit Centrala and Centrala Berlin>>

Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Event | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Bard College Berlin congratulates Agata Lisiak, Professor of Migration Studies, on winning a VolkswagenStiftung research grant for her project “Migration, Space and Power: Learning from Rosa Luxemburg and Doreen Massey. The grant is part of the VolkswagenStiftungs initiative “Original - isn’t it? New Options for the Humanities and Cultural Studies" that awards outstanding researchers funds to explore “‘original', ‘new’ or ‘innovative’” topics that "contradict the established knowledge or generally accepted intuition.” It encourages researchers to develop new approaches to research, form new hypotheses and theories, observe new phenomena, and discover knowledge gaps.

In her book-length project, Professor Lisiak proposes to radically rethink migration with the help of two exceptional scholars, teachers, and activists: Rosa Luxemburg and Doreen Massey. As the conceptual and political commonalities in their work have not been recognized to date, this project will not just be the first attempt to bring Luxemburg and Massey into conversation, but also the first exploration of the profound possibilities that their complementary theorizations of space, capital, and power provide to rethink migration in the 21st century. Rejecting neat, linear theories of development, both Luxemburg and Massey repudiated binary models that juxtaposed the West and the rest, reform and revolution, global and local. Rooted firmly in feminist epistemologies, the project considers Luxemburg’s and Massey’s intellectual contributions in their full scope, reading their work in light of their positionalities and life stories. In doing so, Professor Lisiak will focus on how their vivid examinations of economic exploitation, structural inequalities, solidarity, and democracy can help us rethink migration in ways that go beyond the usual focus on human mobility, and acknowledge the importance of movements of capital, goods, and ideas.

Prof. Lisiak will update and share her findings throughout her year of research (2021-22) with the BCB Community.

Read the German project description at the Volkswagenstiftung >>

Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Together with Prof. Graf Lambsdorff from the University of Passau, Bard College Berlin Professor of Economics Marcus Giamattei has developed classEx, a tool to create experiential learning situations. The tool allows the instructor to run experiments, interactive surveys, and quizzes online and in the physical classroom space. Students are assigned roles and groups in which they interact. They make their decision via their smartphones or the computer and results are immediately shown on the instructor's screen and can be discussed in class.

"Students are put in the perspective of the decision maker, they interact and they relate their decisions to emotional feedback about the outcome which is shown live,” says Giamattei, who regularly uses the tool in his own teaching. "This allows an interactive approach to models, problems or polls. Rather than just discussing the results of others, students are confronted with their own behavior and decisions.”

Currently, the tool is used in 68 countries around the world at over 500 institutions and is expanding. The team is working on more companion material for the ready-made experiments (e.g. with CORE Econ in the UK and at https://econclassexperiments.com/) and they have expanded  the use to high school teaching in Germany under the name classEx@school. Instructors can make use of the experiments and surveys that are already available but they can also adapt the tool and develop their own games with a simple click-together environment. The tool is free of charge and can be used by signing up at classEx.de.

Prof. Giamattei will offer introductory workshops on classEx for interested faculty from all disciplines at on January 14 and January 20.

More information about the January 14 and the January 20 events>>
 

Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Event,Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Bard College Berlin Professor of Politics Boris Vormann has commented on the storm of the US Capitol in German news outlets.

In a roundtable on SWR2 with Dr. Josef Braml (German Council on Foreign Relations) and Prof. Dr. Christiane Lemke (Universität Hannover) he discussed the current situation, its causes, and its consequences.

Listen to the full discussion on SWR2 Forum>>


In a conversation with the WDR aktuell, Vormann assesses the role of the capitol police during the attack.

Watch the conversation at WDR Aktuell>>


Vormann talked to RBB and discussed the possibility of removing President Trump from office.

Listen at the RBB Radio Eins>>

Meta: Type(s): Berlin,Faculty | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Bard College Berlin is honored to announce that Michael Adam Hardacker is the recipient of this year’s DAAD award. Adam is a third year BA student in the Economics, Politics, and Social Thought Program at Bard College Berlin.

The award goes to an international student who has demonstrated academic excellence and has shown initiative for civic and cultural engagement beyond their studies. Students were first nominated by faculty and then a selection committee that involved the college’s leadership as well as the Civic Engagement Office had the difficult task of choosing one winner.

In selecting Adam, the committee was especially impressed with his impeccable academic record and the testimonies of his professors that reveal Adam to be not only a hard working but als a very interested and attentive learner, who goes to great lengths to help others in the BCB community strive. Besides having been involved in several community outreach activities in the Pankow neighborhood to teach English, Adam volunteers several hours each month at BCB to review essays and schoolwork from other students, providing constructive feedback, improving their language skills, and helping them with math and programming.

Managing Director Florian Becker awarded the DAAD certificate during a private and pandemic friendly award ceremony.

The award comes with a  monetary prize of 1000 EURO that is part of DAAD funding in the STIBET program. 

Congratulations, Adam!  

Meta: Type(s): Student,Event,Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

BCB Student Ameenah Sawwan and BCB Alumni Wafa Mustafa (’20) spoke to the Neue Züricher Zeitung about their experiences in Syria, their activism in Berlin and their determination to change Syrian from exile.

Wafa Mustafa’s father disappeared in 2013, when he was arrested and detained. She has been actively campaigning ever since and joined the Families for Freedom group in Berlin that advocates for the release of detainees held by the Syrian government.
Driving political change from exile, Ameenah works with the international organization The Syria Campaign that raises awareness about the crimes of the Assad regime and supports the Civil Society in Syria by collecting donations.

Ameenah and Wafa have both studied at Bard College Berlin through the Program for International Education and Social Change (PIESC). The program provides full four year scholarships to outstanding students from regions of crises or conflict to complete a BA degree at BCB.  

Read more about both women’s experience in the full article>>

Meta: Type(s): Alumni,Berlin,PIESC,Student | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

BCB Professor of Theater Studies Nina Tecklenburg and her company Interrobang will be showing FAMILIODROM - an interactive livestream performance inspired by Jean-Jaques Rousseau's Emile, or On Education.

The show will be performed at Sophiensaele and transmitted via interactive livestream:

"In Familiodrom, Interrobang gives birth to a child together with the online audience. Immediately the freshly baked parents' collective is stuck in the ideological swamp of cloth diapers, ready-to-eat porridge, sleep training, shame and guilt. Does our child go to the multicultural day care center, or to the white Waldorf kindergarten with individual talent development? Is our child allowed to decide for itself when it wants to brush its teeth? In the moral war about the pacifier, it's all about the whole: What is the human image behind our idea of education? Inspired by Rousseau's classic Emil or About Education, Interrobang advocates a performative empowerment in which basic social questions are negotiated. At crucial points in the narrative, the online audience can intervene, vote and influence the child's development. The outcome of this educational experiment is different every evening. Does it lead to a new family hell or to a better society? And how does the child feel about it?"

Performances will take place on:
Dec 8 + 9, 7:30pm
Dec 12 + 13, 4pm
Tickets can be bought here>>

INTERROBANG include Till Müller-Klug, Nina Tecklenburg, Lajos Talamonti and Guests. The group develops new theatre formats in order to discuss current social phenomena and questions. In installative theatre spaces and participative game settings, the audience can experience, test and reflect on new scenic communication models. Playing with theatrical community thus becomes playing with present and possible future social forms and value systems.
 

Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Event,Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

BCB Professor of Political Thought, Ewa Atanassow, interviewed Geoffrey Galt Harpham on his new book on the concept of freedom and the practice of scholarship [Harvard UP]. Both scholars have served and met as Fellows at the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen, the Institute for Human Sciences, (IWM) in Vienna. In the interview they dissect the relationship between scholarship and truth, and its complicity in producing a post-truth discourse. Discussing the tensions between truth and interpretation Atanassow asks what research institutes can do to sustain both scholarship and freedom.

Read the full article here>>

Meta: Type(s): Berlin,Faculty | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Fourth year HAST student Hesham Moadamani was recognized as the “Best Community Storyteller in Travel 2021” by The Lonely Planet this week. We congratulate Hesham and the Refugee Voices Tours organization for the international recognition of their incredible work!⠀ ⠀

Hesham uses his own personal experience of displacement to show landmarks in Berlin and parallel the historical displacement of 15 million people during WWII with the current, ongoing conflict in Syria. ⠀
⠀
“When I arrived, the discourse changed from a sympathy-based discourse of ‘People are fleeing war, they are as human as we are, they are in need of our help,’ into the securitization narrative of ‘Our security is the priority, they are all Muslims, extremists with terrorist backgrounds,” says Hesham. But “[c]onflict is not exclusive to Syrians from Muslim backgrounds … Germany witnessed such migration with people fleeing from it – and moving to it – in different historical periods of time.”⠀ ⠀

Read the full article on Lonely Planet>>
Article on the Deutsche Welle >>
Coverage on I am Expat>>
 

Meta: Type(s): Student,PIESC,Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On November 15, 2020, Bard College Berlin’s Migration Studies Professor Agata Lisiak participated in a round table discussion at TOP: Transdisciplinary Project Space in Neukölln. The event accompanied Korhan Erel's solo exhibition “Scarecrow” and offered a platform for sharing experiences, observations, and theorizations on the sonic politics of border.

Read more about the even here >> 

Meta: Type(s): Berlin,Faculty | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

BCB faculty member Marion Detjen has published an article on the diaspora’s condition of being separated of one’s family in Zeit Online.

In the article she reflects on the causes and consequences of forced migrants having to witness the suffering and sometimes dying of their loved ones at home without being able to help them. She searches for the traces of that experience in German memory culture, literature and politics, including her own family history. 

Read the article on Zeit Online>>

Meta: Type(s): Faculty,PIESC | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Bard College Berlin Global Teaching Fellow Dr. Simona Toroţcoi, presented a paper on Roma representation in Moldavian textbooks at the “Kontroverse Themen unterrichten - Teaching Controversial Issues” seminar organized by the Moldova Institut Leipzig between October 28- November 1 in Chişinău, Moldova.

Toroţcoi’s paper analyses curriculum and educational environments that alienate minority students by reinforcing false narratives and stereotypes, and standardizing social interest and values of the dominant society. Textbooks represent a fundamental element in the educational process - they have the ability to instill attitudes, values, and models of behavior. Toroţcoi argues that experiences in the educational system that create a separation of Roma students’ values and backgrounds from that of the dominant society, will limit Roma students’ ability to develop higher educational aspirations, and their overall academic and social integration both in the school environment and in the society.

The study is part of a larger research project coordinated by the Council of Europe, the Roma Education Fund and Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research that investigates Roma representation in European lower und upper secondary education systems.
 

Meta: Type(s): Faculty | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Erick Moreno Superlano was a finalist in the Pupiales International Short Story Contest run by the Gabriel García Márquez Foundation for his story "The Laughter of the Medusa”. In its fifteenth year, the competition had no less than 3022 entries from 41 countries on five continents that the jury - made up of the writers Claudia Piñeiro from Argentina, Luis Carlos Mussó from Ecuador, and Fernando Ayala Poveda from Colombia - reviewed.

Erick based his story on the essay "The Laugh of the Medusa" by Hélène Cixous that he used in Clio Nicastro’s Critical Theory seminar last semester. The story takes the form of a fictional film review in which a woman’s silent public protest draws a violent attack by the men in her town.

Read more about the contest and its winners in the Colombian publication Las2Orillas >> [in Spanish]

Meta: Type(s): Student,Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

BCB Professor of Art History, Aya Soika, comments on the rbb kultur on sculptors Arno Breker and Bernhard Heiliger’s works at the Kunsthaus Dahlem. The Kunsthaus was planned as part of the remodelling of Berlin as the Reichshauptstadt Germania under Albert Speer and served as a studio for Arno Breker. Breker was one of the most privileged artist in Nazi Germany, who built monumental sculptures that elevated Nazi ideals in many public spaces.

After the war, Breker’s student, Bernhard Heiliger, took over the space for his abstract sculptures. Soika comments that like unlike any other space, the Kunsthaus Dahlem embodies the "continuities and ruptures of Germany's history of sculpture, the history of Berlin and the artistic production. It is now run by Dorothea Schöne, who has taught classes at BCB in the past.

Watch the full video on rbb kultur >>

Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

It’s not a typical Election Night, but in the United States it is traditional to host an Election Night Party at home or at a bar. American director and BCB Theater Studies faculty Julia Hart and a cast of US citizens have produced a performance to spend Election Night with them.  “Election Night” is a performance, Election Night party, and a trip through time. With a mix of personal stories, scenes, and songs Julia Hart and her ensemble of Americans abroad reflect the most significant moments, impressions, and feelings from the last four years while the latest election results and forecasts come together.

Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Event,Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Third Year student Sohaib Alzoubi, who studies in the Economics, Politics, and Social Thought (EPST) track at BCB and majors in Politics and Economics, has just published an article with the London School of Economics Research Online. The research is part of LSE’s Conflict Research Program that is funded by the UK Department for International Development to provide research and policy advice on how the risk and impact of violent conflict might be more effectively reduced through development and governance interventions.

Sohaib’s paper, entitled "Deraa Province: Conflict Dynamics and the Role of Civil Society," analyzes the war dynamics in Syria, and focuses on Syrian civil society organizations. Using primary and secondary data, the report explains the organizations' roles and how they developed within the dynamics of the conflict in order to provide the necessary conditions to ensure their sustainability in the future.

The paper then presents a set of suggestions for developing local governance mechanisms in Syria. After analyzing the main weaknesses in the existing governance systems, the providence Daraa Governorate is used as a case study for government recommendation.

Sohaib studies at Bard College Berlin through the Program for International Education and Social Change (PIESC) and has been working with Syrian civil society organizations like Citizens for Syria and Olive Branch since 2011.

The full paper can be downloaded at LSE Research Online >>

Meta: Type(s): Student,PIESC,Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

BCB Faculty Aaron Tugendhaft discusses his new book The Idols of Isis that was just published by the University of Chicago Press.

On October 30, 2020 at 12:00am CET/October 29, 6:00 pm CT Tugendhaft is in conversation with Bruce Lincoln, Professor Emeritus of the History of Religions at the Divinity School at the University of Chicago at the Seminary Co-op Bookstore. 

More information and registration for the virtual event>> 




On November 1, 2020 at 6pm CET Tugendhaft will be joined by artist Michael Rakowitz, writer Rijin Sahakian, and art historian Wendy Shaw to discuss the book in an event organized by Cabinet Magazine and co-sponsored by the Vera List Center. 

More information and registration for the virtual event>>


 

Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

With the conclusion of US President Donald Trump's four years in office, the Handbuch Politik USA (Handbook on US Politics), co-edited by Boris Vormann (BCB Professor of Politics), Christian Lammert (FU Berlin) and Markus B. Siewert (TU München), Springer is issuing a new and completely overhauled and extended edition of the compendium. In 44 contributions, Social Scientists and experts on US politics provide insight into the fundamental structures, agents, and mechanisms of US politics and locate them within their context. The compendium serves as a resource for students and teachers of Political and Social Sciences, representatives of politics and the media, as well as the interested public.

Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

The podcast Through the Gates at the University of Indiana invited BCB Professor of Philosophy Michael Weinman to talk about his new co-edited book The Emergence of Illiberalism. Understanding a Global Phenomenon. The volume has recently been published by Routledge and was co-edited together with BCB Professor of Politics Boris Vormann. In conversation with James Shanahan, Dean of the Media School at Indiana University, and Professor of Practice Elaine Monaghan, Weinman talked about similarities in different forms of illiberal politics in the US and in Europe, and discussed how we can understand trends away from liberal politics and policies and what we might expect to replace them.

Listen to the podcast here>>

The Emergence of Illiberalism>>

Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

After BCB’s latest campus addition, the Henry Koerner Hall was nominated for the Architekturpreis Berlin, media outlets have spoken to the Rotterdam based architects at the Atelier Kempe Till about the project. The online magazine German Architects discusses with André Kempe the challenges of designing multipurpose student housing that is sustainable, architecturally interesting, and functional.

The dutch architecture magazine Architectenweb especially stresses the flexibility of the apartments - both in terms of design and layout as well as its functionality.

"The design of the façade follows a very marked rhythm, added to the large windows placed in most of the front, seeking to generate an interior-exterior connection that is clear throughout the project," marvels Metalocus, and architecture magazine based in Madrid.

Read the full interview with André Kempe on german-architects.com >> (in German)
Read the full article on architectenweb.nl >> (in Dutch)
Read the full article on metalocus >> (in English)

Meta: Type(s): Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

BCB student Sam Zamrik was featured on arte in last week’s episode of the culture magazine Twist. Sam, who studies as part of BCB’s Program for International Education and Social Change (PIESC), is a poet and musician from Syria. On Twist, Sam discusses how he started writing, what life in Syriah as a metal artist was like and how he continues his writing and studies in Berlin despite many obstacles.
Sam was recently signed by WEITER SCHREIBEN, where he published his poem "Patchwork" as part of a collection of poetry called Sophistry of Survival.

Watch Sam's feature on arte (start at 22.20) >>

Meta: Type(s): Student,PIESC,Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

BCB faculty Marion Detjen was a panelist on "Thinking through Repair” at the Rhinoceros Salon. The program that is curated by the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (“House of the World’s Cultures) offers a platform for conversations on open society and asks "How can we shape living together in a divided world without first questioning the damaged?"
Together with writer and filmmaker Emily Dische-Becker and human rights attorney Wolfgang Kaleck, Detjen discussed the legal and historical conditions of reparations.

Meta: Type(s): Berlin,Faculty,PIESC | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On Friday, October 16, Aya Soika will be presenting her paper on "Dealing with Art Forgery - an account from the art historian's perspective" at Albertinum Dresden - a two-day event organized by the members of the catalogue raisonné association (Arbeitskreis Werkverzeichnis) of which she is a founding member. Her paper reviews a prominent art forgery case ten years ago - which she helped to uncover together with experts from different fields (then taken over by the police) - and reflects on issues related to art authentication and art historical practices today. 
https://www.skd.museum/forschung/veranstaltungen/

Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Event | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

BCB faculty member Aaron Tugendhaft's article "Ignorant Antiquities," first published last year in Critical Muslim, has just appeared in Arabic translation in the online Egyptian newspaper Mada Masr. The article explores the politics of iconoclasm, the fascinating history of Baron Max von Oppenheim's excavations at Tell Halaf, and the subtle intelligence of Rayyane Tabet's contemporary artistic practice. The essay treats themes further explored in Tugendhaft's forthcoming book, The Idols of ISIS: From Assyria to the Internet (Chicago, 2020).

You can read the original version of the essay on the Critical Muslim website and its Arabic translation at Mada Masr. 

Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

BCB Professor of Economics Martin Binder and Dr. Ann-Kathrin Blankenberg (Universität Göttingen) have published a study on workers' satisfaction in the trade and crafts sector in Germany.

The study that interviewed 2000 craftsmen and -women in Germany found that unlike other employment sectors, manual workers feel a strong sense of satisfaction for their work, which positively influences their wellbeing and happiness. 79 % of participants indicate that their job is an important part of their identity; 84 % are proud of their work; 66 % are passionate about their job; 65 % affirmed that their job is a vocation.

Workers in trade and crafts professions can see the finished product of their work as a whole - and not just in parts -, which is why they perceive their work as useful and valuable. Since in a lot of employment sectors, work is increasingly perceived as meaningless, it is significant to understand, which facets of work allow to identify with an occupation so that work is perceived as meaningful and satisfying.

A summary of the study (in German) can be found at the University of Göttingen >>
The full study (in German) can be downloaded here >>

 

Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

BCB faculty member Marion Detjen has published a new article on "Intersectionality" in the Zeit Online.

In the article she outlines the historical background for the concept of intersectionality and portrays how it has been used and adopted in German and in international discourse. Asking how an intersectional analysis would have to look like, Detjen negotiates the interaction of privilege and discrimination and discusses issues of justice, inequality and identity.

Read the article on Zeit Online>>

Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

BCB’s Director of Studio Arts John von Bergen is participating in the group exhibition WÄNDE | WALLS curated by Dr. Anne Vieth at the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart. The installation “Anti-Precious Moment” presented for this exhibition has also recently been acquired for the museum's permanent collection, which will be on display at the museum after the "WALLS" exhibit. From the curator’s text:

“The exhibition WÄNDE | WALLS, brings together works from 1966 to today, in which the special boundary of the wall is thematized on various levels of meaning. In their works, artists such as Monica Bonvicini and Yoko Ono highlight the most fundamental functions of walls - that of inclusion and exclusion. On the one hand, walls stand for the protection of the individual, while on the other hand they can confine and deny access. As a space-creating architectural element, they help to determine our living spaces and are involved in identity-forming processes. Artists such as Ernst Caramelle and Bruce Naumann visualize this by giving it human characteristics. In turn, works by Jeewi Lee and Sol LeWitt, among others, address the so-called white cube as a common form of presentation of modern and contemporary art. They demonstrate how the white walls of the exhibition space influence the effect and perception of art.”

WÄNDE | WALLS
September 26, 2020 - January 31, 2021
Participating artists:
William Anastasi, Mel Bochner, Monica Bonvicini, Daniel Buren, Ernst Caramelle, Maurizio Cattelan, Elmgreen & Dragset, Parastou Forouhar, Robert Gober, Douglas Huebler, Sophie Innmann, Anne Marie Jehle, Emily Katrencik, Joseph Kosuth, Jeewi Lee, Sol LeWitt, Bruce Nauman, Brian OʼDoherty, Yoko Ono, Charlotte Posenenske, Klaus Rinke, Gerwald Rockenschaub, Michael Sailstorfer, Martin Bruno Schmid, Felix Schramm, Thomas Schütte, Ulay / Marina Abramović, John von Bergen, Lawrence Weiner

In addition to this exhibition, John von Bergen has also recently been awarded the Rechecherstipendien Bildende Kunst 2020 (Fine Arts Research Grant 2020) from Berlin's Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa, which involves project research in collaboration with scientists from the Museum für Naturkunde.

 

Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Sam Zamrik, poet, musician, and fourth year PIESC student in the Humanities track at BCB, has been signed by WEITER SCHREIBEN. WEITER SCHREIBEN, a project by the non-profit WIR MACHEN DAS, is a portal for literature from areas of war and crisis where international writers collaborate with German authors and texts are published in the original as well as in a translated version. Sam, who identifies as a neo-Decadent writer, composes limerick-like, lyric poetry about identity, mental health, immigration, and spirituality.

His recently published poem “Patchwork" (edited by Patty Nash and translated into German by poet Monika Rinck)  provides a first glimpse into his longer collection of poetry Sophistry of Survival. He is represented by the Elisabeth Ruge Agentur.

Sam will also be featured in an upcoming episode of Twist, a new arte production on culture, urbanism and current events, where he will discuss his poetry, his music, and how his work in Berlin differs from his work in Damascus.
 

Meta: Type(s): Student,PIESC,Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

BCB Professor of Theater Studies, Nina Tecklenburg and Interrobang (of which she is a founding member) are presenting two performances on tour this month.

SOULMACHINE at autofreier StadtTraum 2020, Bremen, Sep 19 - 22, 2020:

“Soulmachine is a mobile interactive game with a group of passengers and artificial intelligence. Six passengers take a seat in a specially adapted people carrier, controlling the automobile together with an artificial intelligence program on a tablet computer with voice recognition. … SOULMACHINE probes the micro-political situation between passengers and machine, asking questions about which direction this (auto)mobile society will take in the future. The passengers are confronted with the moral consequences of delegating and giving up their moral responsibilities as active and liable subjects. What ethical standards do we adopt as a society in the face of transferring more and more agency to artificial intelligence?"

Event information>>
Project information>>



EMOCRACY - A NEW SOCIAL CONTRACT at Meyerhold Center Moscow, Sept 29 - 30, 2020:

"In these times of populist challenges, fundamental social questions are revised. How do we want to live together in the future? … In Emocracy, the audience can feed its feelings, desires and convictions directly into the gameplay. Two performers develop a panorama of lifestyle possibilities and scenes of everyday precariousness. The audience can react in real time, directing and assessing the narratives through voting and direct action. What resonates with me? What aggravates me? What repels me? What am I swept along with? By interacting with everyone present, a different emotional/political micro society is created every night.
 
Event information>>
Project information>>



Nina Tecklenburg will also be speaking at Contagion, an online series of curated conversations and presentations that is hosted by the Pickle Factory. Together with Firenza Guidi (Wales) and Samik Bandopadhaya (India) she will discuss: How does performance connect the social, the political, and the human? And why do we need it?

Sept 26, 2020, 7pm IST, Kolkata time / 3.30pm CET, Berlin time
Please register in advance to participate online.



 

Meta: Type(s): Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Martin Andreas Widmann, faculty and coordinator of the German Studies Program at BCB, will participate at the internationales literaturfestival berlin.

On Thursday, September 17, BCB Widmann will speak at the panel »VISIONS OF BIOECONOMY: The Economization of Nature«, where he will present a literary essay commissioned by the Wissenschaftsjahr. Widmann will be joined by Barbara Unmüßig (Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung) and Steffen Richter (FU Berlin) to discuss how more and more institutions are using the conservation of species and their habitats as financial offsets.
More information >>
 
 
On Friday, September 18, Widmann will read from his novel “Messias” (Rowohlt, 2018) as part of the “Literatures of the World” series at the internationales literaturfestival berlin.  For the event hosted by the Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek Widmann will be joined by the editor and translator Milena Adam to talk about the writing process as well as the novel’s depiction of the global advertising industry and the protagonists’ search for redemption.
More information>>

 

Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin |

On Wednesday, 9 September 2020, Professor Agata Lisiak will be speaking at Humanifesta in Hamburg — an event organized by the research project “The Value of Humanities” (HafenCity University, University of Lichtenstein, and University of Graz) and PARKS, an experimental space bringing together civil society actors, local residents, and city officials. Lisiak will be speaking about the practice of unlearning in pedagogical and urban contexts.
 

Meta: Type(s): Berlin,Faculty | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Professor of Politics Boris Vormann gave an interview on the Deutsche Welle analyzing the campaigns for the upcoming US presidential election. He compares the different approaches on race relations in the Trump and Biden campaigns and discusses Trump's Law and Order message, while stressing that voter suppression remains a pressing issue in the November election.

You can watch the full video on Deutsche Welle >>
 

Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Henry Koerner Hall, the latest addition to the BCB campus that was designed by the Rotterdam-based Atelier Kempe Thill, has been nominated for the Architekturpreis Berlin 2020. The architectural prize is awarded every three years for ambitious and exceptional architectural buildings and spaces honoring creative architecture, technical innovation, and sustainable design in the urban landscape of Berlin.

Assimilating to and expanding the style of the former embassy buildings that mark the majority of the BCB Campus, Henry Koerner Hall is a highly streamlined and standardized building with a generous structure that features two story tall ceilings. The adaptable and open floor plan offers grand views over Waldstraße for students and serves as a space to connect and to think, to cook and to discuss.
 
You can vote here for public choice award that is issued in addition to the jury prize.

Meta: Type(s): Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

BCB faculty member Aaron Tugendhaft’s book The Idols of ISIS: From Assyria to the Internet will be published by the University of Chicago Press in October 2020. The book unpacks the aftermath of a video that was released by the Islamic State in 2015, showing ISIS members smashing ancient sculptures in Iraq’s Mosul Museum in an effort to cleanse the world of Idolatry.
Tugendhaft discusses in his book the role of images in our life, the political importance of museums, and the efficacy of videos in furthering an ideological agenda through the internet, asking whether there can be any political life without idolatry at all.

In her review in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Erin L. Thompson, praises the breadth of Tugendhaft’s analysis that draws on theorists from Max Weber to Plato to the 10^th-century Baghdadi philosopher Abu Nasr al-Farabi, and points out how timely the topic is: The book “comes at a time when the media is once again flooded with images of destruction of art — this time, of the statues being toppled by protestors around the world.”

Aaron Tugendhaft, The Idols of ISIS: From Assyria to the Internet, University of Chicago Press, 2020 >>

Read Erin L. Thompson's review "Smashing Statues, Building Community" in the Los Angeles Review of Books >>
 

Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

BCB Professor of Politics Boris Vormann and Professor of Philosophy Michael Weinman published an edited volume on The Emergence of Illiberalism that examines illiberal and authoritarian trends as a global phenomenon.

Analyzing liberal democracies from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, the first part of the book provides a historical perspective on the roots of illiberal tendencies. In the second part, the contributions discuss in several case studies whether populist movements have a common core or whether they differ from one another in kind.

BCB Professor Ewa Atanassow, Dr. Aysuda Kölemen, and Roger Berkowitz, Professor of Political Studies and Human Rights at Bard College, contributed with articles on Tocqueville, on Electoral Autocracy in Turkey, and on Technocratic Prejudice, respectively.


The Emergence of Illiberalism. Understanding a Global Phenomenon, edited by Boris Vormann and Michael Weinmal, Routledge, London 2020 >>
 

Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

"A fairytale from Southern France that is not kitchy, but light, cheerful, and yet very smart”, says Julia Schröder in the "Lesenswert Quartett" about Helen Wolffs recently published autobiographical novel Hintergrund für Liebe, that was edited by BCB Prof. Marion Detjen.

Talking to Gesa Ufer at the Deutschlandfunk Kultur about the novel, the author, and her life, Detjen explains that Wolff was an excellent linguist, who – together with her husband Kurt Wolff – brought authors like Max Frisch, Günter Grass, Uwe Johnson and Jurek Beker to American audiences. Wolff took on a nurturing role for the authors that she published and admired. At the same time, Wolff worked in four languages and was responsible not only for a textual but also a cultural translation of the texts and their authors.
Her autobiographic novel takes place in the early 1930’s and tells the story of a young woman and her lover, who is twenty years her senior. According to Detjen, the charmingly written text provides intricate insights into the time, but also presents contradictions of Wolff’s earlier self-representations. It paints the picture of a “woman who works and wears the pants, but who ultimately subordinates herself to a man in her conception of a love-relationship… which ultimately allows her to exercise influence."
 
Listen to the interview with Marion Detjen on the Deutschlandfunk Kultur >>

Helen Wolff, Hintergrund für Liebe, edited and with an essay by Marion Detjen, Weidle, Bonn 2020. >>


For a review of the book please see:

"Julia Schröder empfiehlt Helen Wolff: Hintergrund für Liebe" - Clip and article on the "Lesenswert Quartett" on SWR2 >>
"Die Priesterin" - Article in Süddeutsche Zeitung >>
"Nach Saint Tropez, der Liebe wegen" - Article on Deutschlandfunk >>
"Ein Sommer in Saint Tropes. Helen Wolffs Hintergrund für Liebe" - Article on Der Spiegel >>
"Ein Sommerhaus für sich allein" - Article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung >>

Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On July 23, 2020, Wafa Mustafa, 2020 graduate of Bard College Berlin, delivered a testimony to the UN Security Council on the situation of detained people in Syria. Wafa is not only a civil activist with Families for Freedom, she is also still searching for her father who disappeared in Syria in 2013 without a trace.

Watch the full recording of the briefing here - Wafa's statement starts at 0:16:14.
http://webtv.un.org/watch/the-situation-in-the-middle-east-syria-security-council-open-vtc/6174480033001/

The link below summarizes Wafa's testimony:
https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/07/1068931

 

Meta: Type(s): Alumni,Berlin,PIESC | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

What remains of the Welcome! banners and signs that greeted asylum seekers at German train stations in the summer of 2015? BCB Professor of History Marion Detjen discusses the universal claim for human rights in the German constitution in her new article that was published by the Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung, the Federal Agency for Civic Education, in: "Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte”.

In "'Wir schaffen das' oder 'revolutionäres Bewusstsein'? Überlegungen zur Willkommenskultur 2015” (“'We can do it’ or ‘revolutionary consciousness’? Thoughts on the Welcome-Culture in 2015”), Detjen reports on volunteer and welcoming structures for asylum seekers in the 1990’s and compares the political and cultural landscapes that enabled such structures to institutionalize during the so called "refugee crisis" in 2015. Discussing the relationship between state authorities and civil society, reaching back to the 1990s, and also drawing on experiences at Bard College Berlin, Detjen asks under what conditions such a culture of inclusion is „mainstream“ or „revolutionary“ and how migration pushed Germany to reexamine the scope of its constitution.

You can read the article online at the Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung >>
(Text in German)

Meta: Type(s): Faculty,Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

BCB student Ehab Badwi was featured with an interview in IIE PEER on his activism for Syrian youth participation in politics and peace-building.

Ehab, who studies at BCB with the Program for International Education and Social Change (PIESC) thanks to a scholarship from the Institute of International Education (IIE), founded the Syrian Youth Assembly - SYA to connect Syrian youth around the world and amplify their voices.

Reed the full interview at IIE PEER >>

Meta: Type(s): Berlin,PIESC,Student | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Erick Moreno Superlano has been honored with second place in the prestigious Venezuelan short story contest, the “Concurso de Cuento Policlínica Metropolitana para Jóvenes Autores 2020” for his short story “There Will Be Blood”. Erick, who has been writing fiction for more than ten years and studies at BCB with a South American Scholarship in Literary Arts, first drafted the short story in Clare Wigfall’s Fiction Writing Workshop in Spring 2019 and then later reworked it into his native Spanish. He has chronicled his experience of writing and especially of writing in a foreign language in a blog post for Die Bärliner.

"There Will Be Blood" is the story of a middle-class Venezuelan's attempt to write a film script about the crisis in his homeland and alleviate his difficult economic situation in his adopted home of Argentina. He has met a European producer who seeks to capitalize on Venezuela's grim situation. In the process of scriptwriting, however, an ethical question gives the young writer pause: is it ok to commercialize the suffering of the people?

The jury especially praised the “inventive use of meta narrative and cinematographic discourse as a distancing mechanism to narrate the painful reality of the mass exodus of Venezuelans.”
 

Meta: Type(s): Student,Berlin | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |