As art biennials increasingly become a global phenomenon, the connection that they represent between urban space and aesthetic pleasure warrants attention in comparative light of two among the newer wave of bi-annual art events: Berlin Art Biennale and Jerusalem Art Focus. Both these events start their operation in mid-1990s, run through their fifth edition, and engage urban space across divisions and connections. Both for Germany and Israel, 1989 serves as a cut-off point in their national history as a significant part of their population has memory of living in the Soviet block countries. In the 1990s they have esperienced liberation, mobility and integration in the framework of democratic Germany and Israel respectively. Both Berlin art biennial and Jerusalem art focus represent differently positioned responses to globalization of economy, society, politics and culture. Economic operation across the globe took increasing recourse to networks. Tourist, investor and labor flows became more mobile. Regional and global summits increasingly integrated into political decision-making. Cultural production, media distribution and communication channels received growing global exposure. Both Berlin and Jerusalem have their Western and Eastern parts that have significant histories of autonomy. Different lines of historical connection and rupture that traverse the urban spaces of Berlin and Jerusalem provide rich source of historical comparison of how art events focus these multiple lines of perspective on their locations.
In this paper I argue that contemporary cities find art biennials among their more paradigmatic spaces that define contemporary philosophical understanding of urban modernity. For this reason I attempt to draw the lines of connection between Italian contemporary philosophy, as represented by Mario Perniola, and German classical social and cultural theory, as represented by Georg Simmel, Walter Benjamin, and Siegfried Kracauer. This interdisciplinary paper orients itself to the discussions taking place in theorization of space and sociology of cities. As opposed to Benjamin's seeing in Paris a capital of the nineteenth century, and there are voices that maintain it is a capital of the twentieth century as well, I explore the possibility of thinking paradigmatic cities and sites of modernity in plural. In this case, Berlin and Jerusalem figure in my discussion of alternative modernities in the context of the connections between urban spaces and global culture that these cities establish through art biennials. In their contemporary, globalized form, art biennials are a new phenomenon that breaks with assumptions of aesthetic expertise and restricted access, as the exclusivity of Venice biennale or Kassel documenta implies for each of their participating countries. This opens an opportunity to consider the relations between urban space and aesthetic pleasure in their comparatively particular and theoretically general aspects respectively.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Art Biennials in Berlin and Jerusalem
Art biennials, especially in their internationalization, pit place and flows, global and local, permanent and ephemeral against each other. Apart from belonging to the same category of event, however loosely defined, the differences among art biennials bring both theoretical advantages, as one can learn most from variation within the same category of phenomena, and practical drawbacks, as their research risks to reinforce their incommensurability. However, it is their close relation to the universal expositions that makes art biennials productive cites for the theorization of modernity. This paper reaches back to German classics of social and cultural theory in order to tentatively chart the urban geographies of alternative modernities. It is also an attempt to theorize space as site of social, cultural, political and economic accumulation. However, here accumulation is approached philosophically (Perniola), rather sociologically (Munch) since the question of the end of modern capitalism (Schulze), similar to the theorization of the end of art, society and politics, understood as final arrival points of long histories of development, shifts the theoretical focus from time to space. The previous neglect of space (Foucault) justifies this present attempt at its theorization on the urban level, even though the spatial turn is not free from criticism (), as it itself has come of age as an intellectual fashion.
I borrow Perniola's philosophical categories of transit, ritual without myth and simulacrum to address the intellectual challenge of thinking of the arrival point of the processes of economic, social, cultural and political development. Endless development theoretically allows for growth that only quantitatively differs from its previous stages. In this sense it is linear since both its assumptions and measurements remain unchanged from one point in time to another. The histories of modern capitalism in Dickens' London and in contemporary Dubai expressed in qunatitiative terms plot on an upward line a chart of their accumulated economic capital might show. However, it is the factoring in of their urban space that lets the qualitative differences between these two processes of accumulation to come to light. Perniola theorizes the transitions from the same to the same as a source of radical difference. Linear growth as a transition from one point in time to another differing from each other only quantitatively lets their qualitative uniqueness remain the same. Nevertheless, the radical difference between the nineteenth and the twentienth, and even more so twenty-first, centuries suggests opening the discussion of the philosophical approach to social and cultural theories of modernity.
In this respect the German classical social and cultural theory, such as that of Georg Simmel, Walter Benjamin and Siegfried Kracauer, already is cognizant of the philosophical problem of grasping the radical difference that defines modernity. This point would call for a theorization of multiple modernities. However, there are grounds to conceive of moderntiy as a singular phenomenon allowing for local variation. In this regard, Benjamin spoke of Paris as a capital of the nineteenth century, which corresponds to a singular moment of modernity. Since in Benjamin's conception it is also a place, or more precisely a space of Parisian arcades, an alternative path to take appears to lead in the direction of alternative capitals of the nineteenth century. The same would hold for the contemporary period when different cities vie for their status as global or world cities. While their rankings () remain bound to a linear concepton of being sites of global modernity, a city can be more or less modern on any quantitatively organzied measurement or ranking scale, a different qualitative approach may be in order to the processes of economic, social, political and cultural accumulation that in their sum compose the project of modernity that defines each particular city. In this respect, art biennials in Berlin and Jerusalem provide theoretically privileged vantage points on what respective relation their respective urban spaces maintain with global culture. This approach limits the scope of this paper to the relations between urban modernity and modern culture since art biennials are expressions of both.
I borrow Perniola's philosophical categories of transit, ritual without myth and simulacrum to address the intellectual challenge of thinking of the arrival point of the processes of economic, social, cultural and political development. Endless development theoretically allows for growth that only quantitatively differs from its previous stages. In this sense it is linear since both its assumptions and measurements remain unchanged from one point in time to another. The histories of modern capitalism in Dickens' London and in contemporary Dubai expressed in qunatitiative terms plot on an upward line a chart of their accumulated economic capital might show. However, it is the factoring in of their urban space that lets the qualitative differences between these two processes of accumulation to come to light. Perniola theorizes the transitions from the same to the same as a source of radical difference. Linear growth as a transition from one point in time to another differing from each other only quantitatively lets their qualitative uniqueness remain the same. Nevertheless, the radical difference between the nineteenth and the twentienth, and even more so twenty-first, centuries suggests opening the discussion of the philosophical approach to social and cultural theories of modernity.
In this respect the German classical social and cultural theory, such as that of Georg Simmel, Walter Benjamin and Siegfried Kracauer, already is cognizant of the philosophical problem of grasping the radical difference that defines modernity. This point would call for a theorization of multiple modernities. However, there are grounds to conceive of moderntiy as a singular phenomenon allowing for local variation. In this regard, Benjamin spoke of Paris as a capital of the nineteenth century, which corresponds to a singular moment of modernity. Since in Benjamin's conception it is also a place, or more precisely a space of Parisian arcades, an alternative path to take appears to lead in the direction of alternative capitals of the nineteenth century. The same would hold for the contemporary period when different cities vie for their status as global or world cities. While their rankings () remain bound to a linear concepton of being sites of global modernity, a city can be more or less modern on any quantitatively organzied measurement or ranking scale, a different qualitative approach may be in order to the processes of economic, social, political and cultural accumulation that in their sum compose the project of modernity that defines each particular city. In this respect, art biennials in Berlin and Jerusalem provide theoretically privileged vantage points on what respective relation their respective urban spaces maintain with global culture. This approach limits the scope of this paper to the relations between urban modernity and modern culture since art biennials are expressions of both.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Potential and Quality of Lasting Professional Integration
Given the outstanding qualifications and high potential of Dr. Markin, his professional integration at the Center for German Studies of the European Forum of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is expected to take place successfully. Over the course of four years of his planned work contract at the Center for German Studies, the career development of Dr. Markin will be promoted with regard to his chances of finding a tenure track position in Israel, his participation in the Europe-wide network of academic cooperation, and his experience as a researcher in the emerging fields of metropolitan studies and sociology of space. The Center for German Studies opens opportunities to accumulate valuable post-doctoral and research experience in the context of numerous frameworks that bring together graduate students, guest lecturers and intensive curricula into an environment that allows building an interdisciplinary profile in existing and new areas of research and instruction. Many experiemental courses, instruction frameworks and educational media are put into practice at the center. Moreover, international seminars that bring scholars from Europe to Jerusalem will constitute another layer of academic exchange and multidisciplinary dialogue that will speak especially directly to the scholarly objectives of the research project of Dr. Markin.
That Israel has joined the European Framework for Research and Development of the European Union opens plural opportunities for Israeli researchers to further their career on the international, rather than on national only, scale with much greater ease. A recognized leader in the sphere of exact sciences and applied research, Israel is yet to develop a critical mass of research initiatives in the social sciences and humanities. In contrast, Germany stands out in the number of research projects in sociology, anthropology and regional studies that from now on Israeli researchers too have an access to within the European researcher mobility framework. For many of these opportunities, a prior experience of holding Marie Curie Grants is a prerequisite. Thus, the reintegration of Dr. Markin at the Center for German Studies will represent his acquisition of experiences within a Europe-wide network of research centers and centers of excellence that will stand him in good stead in the future. His accumulation of research experience over the course of his work contract will open the doors for Dr. Markin to apply for many other research foundations both in Israel and in Europe that allow pursuing independent or university-affiliated research before a long term contract is obtained, such as that of German Research Society (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)) that conceives of its mission in increasingly international terms.
This will open to Dr. Markin avenues of participation in programs for post-doctoral students, such as DFG Emmy Noether Program, that support independent research programs that have a dimension of collaboration with German universities and research centers. From this perspective, Dr. Markin has high chances of realizing his potential for a research career in the areas of urban, cultural and policy studies, given that in Israel they only begin to develop as subjects of individual and collaborative research with the participation of the European Union and its member states. Dr. Markin's focus on German social theory and meteropolitan studies gives his career a head-start from the Center for German Studies.
That Israel has joined the European Framework for Research and Development of the European Union opens plural opportunities for Israeli researchers to further their career on the international, rather than on national only, scale with much greater ease. A recognized leader in the sphere of exact sciences and applied research, Israel is yet to develop a critical mass of research initiatives in the social sciences and humanities. In contrast, Germany stands out in the number of research projects in sociology, anthropology and regional studies that from now on Israeli researchers too have an access to within the European researcher mobility framework. For many of these opportunities, a prior experience of holding Marie Curie Grants is a prerequisite. Thus, the reintegration of Dr. Markin at the Center for German Studies will represent his acquisition of experiences within a Europe-wide network of research centers and centers of excellence that will stand him in good stead in the future. His accumulation of research experience over the course of his work contract will open the doors for Dr. Markin to apply for many other research foundations both in Israel and in Europe that allow pursuing independent or university-affiliated research before a long term contract is obtained, such as that of German Research Society (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)) that conceives of its mission in increasingly international terms.
This will open to Dr. Markin avenues of participation in programs for post-doctoral students, such as DFG Emmy Noether Program, that support independent research programs that have a dimension of collaboration with German universities and research centers. From this perspective, Dr. Markin has high chances of realizing his potential for a research career in the areas of urban, cultural and policy studies, given that in Israel they only begin to develop as subjects of individual and collaborative research with the participation of the European Union and its member states. Dr. Markin's focus on German social theory and meteropolitan studies gives his career a head-start from the Center for German Studies.
Contribution to European Excellence and European Competitiveness
This research project contributes to European excellence and European competitiveness by recruiting Dr. Markin into European research network. Formal participation of Israel in the Framework Program for Research of the European Union will fall short of realizing its potential without researchers that are willing to trail-blaze unexpected directions of scholarly inquiry and are able to productively work with their Israeli, European and international colleagues. Dr. Markin's research project proposes to explore culture-driven strategies of urban development. As the imperative to diversify the sources of economic growth becomes prevalent internationally, the cities that are capable to successfully divert their resources away from industrial production and towards creative economy are going to be the next leading global cities. European excellence relies on combination of heterogeneous expertises across the European region. The addition of Israel into the European institutional framework only starts the process of cultural, social and economic collaboration across the respective centers of excellence. The Center for German Studies at the Euopean Forum of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem promises to be one such leading center for Israeli-German and Israeli-European cooperation in the emerging area of metropolitan studies.
The areas of overlap and synergy between regional, urban and cultural studies have their counterpart in the mutualy reinforcing effect that the strengthening of cooperation between Israel and EU can have. While the emphasis on linear economic growth has historically involved the logic of zero-sum game of international competition, when one country's gain is another's loss, as the rationale behind protectionist policies maintains, the stress on non-linear cultural development allows for the logic of positive sum relations to structure the economic and social development as is happening with open-source software, creative commons licensing, and open-access encyclopedias. This culture-driven economic development has a signficant urban component since Europe of centers of excellence is, in no small measure, Europe of creative cities where intensive interchange of textual, visual and audio information makes possible qualitative changes in product design, urban branding and inter-urban relations. As cultural advantage becomes decisive in determining competitive advantage not only of products, but also of cities, the importance for European economic competitiveness of diverse cultural competences cannot be overestimated.
As art biennials become multidisciplinary events that theorize, mediatize, and professionalize their existence, as art curators, contemporary artists and interdisciplinary scholars densely populate the international geography of numerous biennial exhibitions, the indirect effect of the interplay between these localized events and globalized networks translates into the competitive advantage of the cities that excel at hosting successful cultural meeting points. The success of Documenta exhibition, Kassel, Germany, and Berlin biennale not only has its counterpart in the growing international profile of German contemporary art but also positions Berlin and Germany as a center of cultural excellence and competitiveness. Likewise, the recent increase in visibility of Israeli contemporary art and cinema may not only be owed to the role that global cities, such as New York, have as launching pads for aspiring artists or filmmakers, but can be taken as a point of interdisciplinary reflection on the culture-oriented strategies of development that European cities can adopt from that best practices that more successful multicultural cities, such as Berlin and Tel-Aviv, apply.
An explicit focus on the relations between urban spaces and global culture that this research project proposes puts an analytically realist foundation for a productive discussion of various factors that determine excellence and competitiveness in the sphere of culture. The project will draw lessons from the best practices of organizing art biennials - those in Italy and Germany - while adding diversity to this theoretical sample by including Israel, and potentially other countries, such as Canada and Brazil, into the multidisciplinary discussion of the role that culture can play in urban development in Europe and elsewhere.
The areas of overlap and synergy between regional, urban and cultural studies have their counterpart in the mutualy reinforcing effect that the strengthening of cooperation between Israel and EU can have. While the emphasis on linear economic growth has historically involved the logic of zero-sum game of international competition, when one country's gain is another's loss, as the rationale behind protectionist policies maintains, the stress on non-linear cultural development allows for the logic of positive sum relations to structure the economic and social development as is happening with open-source software, creative commons licensing, and open-access encyclopedias. This culture-driven economic development has a signficant urban component since Europe of centers of excellence is, in no small measure, Europe of creative cities where intensive interchange of textual, visual and audio information makes possible qualitative changes in product design, urban branding and inter-urban relations. As cultural advantage becomes decisive in determining competitive advantage not only of products, but also of cities, the importance for European economic competitiveness of diverse cultural competences cannot be overestimated.
As art biennials become multidisciplinary events that theorize, mediatize, and professionalize their existence, as art curators, contemporary artists and interdisciplinary scholars densely populate the international geography of numerous biennial exhibitions, the indirect effect of the interplay between these localized events and globalized networks translates into the competitive advantage of the cities that excel at hosting successful cultural meeting points. The success of Documenta exhibition, Kassel, Germany, and Berlin biennale not only has its counterpart in the growing international profile of German contemporary art but also positions Berlin and Germany as a center of cultural excellence and competitiveness. Likewise, the recent increase in visibility of Israeli contemporary art and cinema may not only be owed to the role that global cities, such as New York, have as launching pads for aspiring artists or filmmakers, but can be taken as a point of interdisciplinary reflection on the culture-oriented strategies of development that European cities can adopt from that best practices that more successful multicultural cities, such as Berlin and Tel-Aviv, apply.
An explicit focus on the relations between urban spaces and global culture that this research project proposes puts an analytically realist foundation for a productive discussion of various factors that determine excellence and competitiveness in the sphere of culture. The project will draw lessons from the best practices of organizing art biennials - those in Italy and Germany - while adding diversity to this theoretical sample by including Israel, and potentially other countries, such as Canada and Brazil, into the multidisciplinary discussion of the role that culture can play in urban development in Europe and elsewhere.
Contribution to Scientific Excellence by Attracting a First Class Reasearcher
This application for the Marie Curie International Reintegration Grant for Dr. Markin's research project at the Center for German Studies of the European Forum of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem will contribute to its scholarly excellence by attracting a researcher with a truly global educational record, a long list of academic awards, and Europe-oriented career prospects. This four-year reintegration grant will significantly raise the chances that Dr. Markin will find a long term employment position in the Israeli academic sector as a result. The phenomenon of brain drain from Israeli universities of young scholars is one of the more important factors that can lead to the future distress of academic field not only in Israel but also in Europe, since the receiving countries for the leaving lecturers, professors and researchers lie in North America and, increasingly, Asia. As Israel and the European Union join their forces in their efforts to maintain their high scientific and research excellence internationally, scholars that can operate not only in English language, but also other European languages, such as German, as does Dr. Markin, become a valuable factor in contributing to scientific excellence since increasing number of research and development initiative take place both bi-laterally and multi-laterally.
As the declared mission of the Center for German Studies is to variously promote the relations between Israel and Germany, with an orientation towards post-WWII period of European, German, and Israeli history, it is especially important to attract internationally experienced researchers who are placing an emphasis on comparative, contemporary and cultural issues that form common denominator for interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research. This is the profile that Dr. Pablo Markin clearly demonstrates. As the periods of search for long-term employment positions both in Israel and Europe become relatively prolonged, it is important to give new graduates from overseas doctoral programs an opportunity to appreciate the European and Israeli resources, institutions, and opportunities that would be difficult to take into account in a global job market, such as that for tenure-track university positions. As regions, countries and cities compete for highly qualified and creative labor fource, it is important to offer employment conditions for researchers with international experience that create environments where they would be able to explore employment and career opportunities.
Given the already upper intermediate knowledge level of German language of Dr. Markin, there is a high degree of fit that exists between the activity of the Center for German Studies and his qualifications, interests and record. The successful hosting of the Marie Curie International Reintegration Grant will raise the profile of the Center for German Studies as a center of scholarly excellence that intends to take increasingly active part in the Framework Programs for Science and Research of the European Union. It is the contacts between young scholars and experienced researchers that open doors for employment positions both Israel-wide and in European as a whole. As a newly founded research unit, the Center for German Studies is in the early stages of gauging the full extent to which the scholarly and research collaboration between Israel and Germany, within the framework of the European Union, can be widened. A new generation of scholars combining international education and linguistic capabilities, that in the case of Dr. Markin include English, Hebrew, Russian, German, French and Spanish, and to some extend Portuguese, languages, can make an invaluable contribution to emergent areas of research such as metropolitan studies.
As the declared mission of the Center for German Studies is to variously promote the relations between Israel and Germany, with an orientation towards post-WWII period of European, German, and Israeli history, it is especially important to attract internationally experienced researchers who are placing an emphasis on comparative, contemporary and cultural issues that form common denominator for interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research. This is the profile that Dr. Pablo Markin clearly demonstrates. As the periods of search for long-term employment positions both in Israel and Europe become relatively prolonged, it is important to give new graduates from overseas doctoral programs an opportunity to appreciate the European and Israeli resources, institutions, and opportunities that would be difficult to take into account in a global job market, such as that for tenure-track university positions. As regions, countries and cities compete for highly qualified and creative labor fource, it is important to offer employment conditions for researchers with international experience that create environments where they would be able to explore employment and career opportunities.
Given the already upper intermediate knowledge level of German language of Dr. Markin, there is a high degree of fit that exists between the activity of the Center for German Studies and his qualifications, interests and record. The successful hosting of the Marie Curie International Reintegration Grant will raise the profile of the Center for German Studies as a center of scholarly excellence that intends to take increasingly active part in the Framework Programs for Science and Research of the European Union. It is the contacts between young scholars and experienced researchers that open doors for employment positions both Israel-wide and in European as a whole. As a newly founded research unit, the Center for German Studies is in the early stages of gauging the full extent to which the scholarly and research collaboration between Israel and Germany, within the framework of the European Union, can be widened. A new generation of scholars combining international education and linguistic capabilities, that in the case of Dr. Markin include English, Hebrew, Russian, German, French and Spanish, and to some extend Portuguese, languages, can make an invaluable contribution to emergent areas of research such as metropolitan studies.
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