Just as Paris' arcades seemed to be marginal to the scholarly attention in Walter Benjamin's times, art biennials only begin to receive a more central place in social scientific research together with a larger cultural-turn in urban and metropolitan studies. Mapping in their intermittent geography configurations of relations that stretch from local to global scale, these events offer a possibility to raise a question on the conditions of their possibility, the beginning of which is coterminous with the rise of modernity itself. Universal expositions, art museums and commercial warehouses all contribute to the special institutional lineage that lets an aesthetic perspective on the conditions of possibility of modernity in its present form arise. One answer to whether it is possible or not to make for other cities, or even for contemporary Paris, counterpart studies to Benjamin's Passagen-Werk may be Harvard Project on the City that advocates for a similar methodology for accumulation of knowledge through fragments and impressions. This approach appears to follow the post-structural call for intensive science that develops novel and complex conceptual instruments for the processes that cause cities to take the form they do. Charged with theoretical nostalgia for many places, art biennials style themselves as intensive events that no aspiring metropolitan city can fail to stage.
As the international stage of art biennials gets ever denser with participants, it is the theoretical research on modernity, aesthetic and experience that their comparative research allows to conduct. However tentative the process of learning from Benjamin's Passagen-Werk can be, its pairing with the contemporary developments in European philosophy and sociology does promise to create a secondary layer of scholarship on the urban importance of art biennials. Jacques Ranciere's discussion of the distribution of the visible, for instance, brings the connections between sociology and philosophy to bear upon the aesthetic practices. Mario Perniola connects contemporary art to contemporary experience and philosophy while drawing attention to their interrelations. Manuel DeLanda continues in the steps of the path-breaking post-structural works of Gille Deleuze and Felix Guattari. Connections between these strands of European contemporary thought can be sought with German sociological theory of the classical period, such as that of Georg Simmel, Siegfried Kracauer and Max Weber. These foundations should allow a specifically urban writing to arise that would provide an account of art biennials adequate to their theoretical bearing on the contemporary understanding of modernity, aesthetics and experience.
My scholarly mission I see as consisting in exploration of how contemporary theoretical developments apply to art biennials as paradigmatic events of the present moment. On the urban level, where art biennials take place, more than just issues of visibility, representation and discourse is at stake. Not all cities are privileged yet to have an art biennial of their own. Not everywhere the importance of cultural sector is equally recognized. Not in every country the basic rights and liberties that make free expression possible are recognized. The process of globalization of art biennials while far from being uncontroversial is an important cultural development that needs a resonance that goes beyond press reviews and video clips. Only thus will art biennials be able to play roles that are instrumental to the discussion of urban rights, collective reconciliation, and global civil society. To pull art biennials out of their ephemeral status of time-limited events, it is necessary to do both their in-depth studies and international comparisons among them. Few frameworks fit this task better than a start of scholarly career as a post-doctoral fellow. Additionally on-line publishing, blog platforms and international organizations make exchange of ideas, up-to-date reporting and global collaboration possible as never before.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
From Ephemeral and Virtual Status of Art Biennials to A Global and Local Institutionalization
It appears that this off-European positioning does help to be more aware of the importance that European culture has for the potential to bring the hidden meanings of urban space to be articulated with a powerful effect. Urban development takes many guises. Some of them are destructuve when examined with standards in mind that are not always made publicly aware of. Many losing battles are fought to prevent that from happening. However, it is a sensitization to the potential collective benefit that respect for historical, social and cultural entitlements that inhere in urban space can bring that highly mediatized events hold a promise for. Distanced and close to manifold discourses, art biennials are an increasingly globalized form in which global culture becomes ephemerally welded with urban space. But to take art biennials to a stage where they would become global institutions as well is an ambitious but hopefully achievable aim that research on them may want to achieve. In bringing artworks, curators and artists for a short-term enagagement with a particular city from the state of the art of contemporary artistic discourse and practice, the support thrown behind art biennial can go a step further in helping the impact of these particular art biennials be endowed with a staying power that possibly only follow-up studies can lend.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Research Report
During the academic year 2008-2009, I have received an individual research grant at the Center for German Studies, applied for an international reintegration grant within the FP7 framework of the Marie Curie International Reintegration Call, and became a member of the Israeli local team of the European Magazine Cafe Babel. Additionally, I took an active part in the academic life of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and the Konrad Adenauer Center at Mishkenot Sha'ananim. Numerous cultural events taking place at the Mount Scopus campus of the Hebrew University, Goethe Institute of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem Cinematheque created a background for my initiative to contribute to a blog of the CafeBabel website that has wide European and international readership. Currently I am working on a working paper for the Center for German Studies series that takes Berlin Biennale as a subject of theoretical and analytical reflection into its focus. As planned, the second year of my post-doctorate at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem will be dedicated to expanding the scope of my research in comparative direction.
As a primary supervisor of my post-doctoral research, Dr, Jeanette Malkin of the Theatre Department of the Hebrew University held regular meetings with me and was in contact over e-mail during the past academic year. As a secondary co-supervisor, Prof. Christian Kohlross of the Department of the German Language and Literature of the Hebrew University has been available for my inquiries over e-mail and in person at numerous occasions. Abroad, I have re-established contact with Prof. Wolfgang Kaschuba from the Georg Simmel Center for Metropolitan Studies of the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany, where he is a director of an Ethnology Institute. He extended me an invitation for a research stay. As well, Prof. Richard Münch from the Sociology Department of the Otto-Friendrich University of bamberg, Germany, has confirmed his willingness to support my future application for joint research. In addition, I have come into contact with Prof. Mario Perniola from the Department of Philosophical Research of the Tor Vergata University of Rome, Itality, given his centrality for my current research. I plan future research collaboration with all of the above scholars.
For example, for my application for the Marie Curie International Reintegration Grant I had received preliminary agreements for future research projects on art biennials in Germany, Italy and Israel from Prof. Wolfgang Kaschuba, Prof. Mario Perniola and Dr. Jeanette Malkin. Even though the results of the application process for this grant will become known only during July, 2009, it has helped me to apply for Polonsky Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which has not been successful, and for a reseach grant at the same institute. My resume also reflects the publication as e-books of my doctoral dissertation and examination papers at GRIN Publishers in Munich, Germany. Their innovative approach to publication distribution over the internet and across bookstores suited my needs, especially since I made a shift in my research approach from a stress on sociological theory towards cultural studies, as my work on independent research project reflects.
Not least because it does not contradict the framework of my current post-doctoral position, I have successfully applied for a month-long summer school of German language at Bauhaus Academy of the Weimar University in Weimar, Germany. My application has won support from the German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akedemischer Austausch Dienst (DAAF)) that provided scholarship for expenses attendant to my attendance of the summer school in August, 2009. My stay within the framework of Bauhaus Academy in Weimar will allow me to access its universitity and city library with their extensive holdings of classical and contemporary literature on sociology, cultural and metropolitan studies. As well, during my research and study stay in Weimar I will have an occasion to visit Prof. Wolfgang Kaschuba from Berlin and Prof, Richard Münch from Bamberg, Germany, for coordination of research plans. Not least, I will also have an opportunity to forge contacts with scholars from the Weimar University that has a prominent position in cultural and media studies in Germany.
In the context of my research efforts, I became a member of the Israeli local team of the European Magazine Cafe Babel on whose website I began contributing on the topics of European culture and urban space beyond the EU. Currently, my contributions take form of blog posts on cultural events and art exhibitions in Jerusalem. After its reorganization, the Cafe Babel magazine will be accepting articles for regular publication from our local team in Israel. As an award-winning network and internet project, the European Magazine Cafe Babel connects cities, organizations and indivividuals into a border-crossing conversation, which is not insignificantly connected to my academic research. In my research on art biennials, internet initiatives and new media play a significant role not only as means to archive these event but also as a larger approach to the changing relations between metropolitan centers and global culture. Both theoretical developments and institutional innovation play equal role in shedding light on art biennials as a phenomenon that continues to spread and grow in its geographical scope and media resonance.
In my research, I match the theoretical clues I derive from Mario Perniola theorization of aesthetics, modernity and experience with the documentation that pertains to art curators' statements, publicity materials and scholarly commentary, with the aim of reducing the factual compexity of even one art biennial, such as Berlin biennale. Standing on the intersection of cultural, urban and metropolitan studies, research on art biennials follows in the wake of their international adoption by cities around the world in the process of their increasing culturalization in the 1990s. At the Center for German Studies of the Hebrew University I have an opportunity to facilitary a direct access to European research on this topic by improving my command of German langauge. My informal attendance of advanced courses of German under the instruction of Ms. Anette Dressel, DAAD guest lecturer, at the Hebrew University has greatly helped me to receive official certification of my advanced level of knowledge of German language, as is evidenced by OnDaF.de test ceritificate.
During my post-doctorate, I take full advantage of opportunities to attend numerous academic conferences, guest lectures, workshops and research seminars taking place in Jerusalem. Among the latter is the research seminar on "Collective Identities" that Prof. Shmuel N. Eisenstadt directs at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute in which I have been participating this academic year. At the Center for German Studies I have attended a workshop "Artists at Work - The New Berlin: Redefining Memorials in Contemporary Germany" given by visiting Prof. Renata Stih and Dr. Frieder Schnock. Additionally I attended a series of lectures by visiting Prof. Heidemarie Uhl from the University of Vienna, Austria, on "Memorie in Europe since 1945: Transformations of Memory, Representations of Rememberance". During the visit of DAAD delegation to the Hebrew University, I attended the lecture by Dr. Christian Bode on "New Developments in Higher Education in Europe and Germany".
Among the more interesting conferences I have attended is "1989-2009: Taking Stock of East-West EUnification" Conference taking place in June 14-15, 2009, at Mishkenot Sha'ananim that was organized by the Centers for German and Austrian Studies of the Hebrew University. As intellectually invigorating was the Conference on "Paul, the Apostle of Exception: His 2000th Annivessary and Renaissance Today" taking place at the Hebrew University and Van Leer Institute in June 5-6, 2009. Attendance of the "Ottoman Roots of Contemporary Realities: the Middle East and the Balkans Compared" Conference has made me alert to possibilities and pitfalls of comparative approach as it took place in January 18-20 at the Hebrew University and Konrad Adenauer Center. As enriching were the series of lectures organized by the Research Seminars on Cultural Studies and the Jerusalem Seminar in the History of Political Thought taking place at the Hebrew University.
As a primary supervisor of my post-doctoral research, Dr, Jeanette Malkin of the Theatre Department of the Hebrew University held regular meetings with me and was in contact over e-mail during the past academic year. As a secondary co-supervisor, Prof. Christian Kohlross of the Department of the German Language and Literature of the Hebrew University has been available for my inquiries over e-mail and in person at numerous occasions. Abroad, I have re-established contact with Prof. Wolfgang Kaschuba from the Georg Simmel Center for Metropolitan Studies of the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany, where he is a director of an Ethnology Institute. He extended me an invitation for a research stay. As well, Prof. Richard Münch from the Sociology Department of the Otto-Friendrich University of bamberg, Germany, has confirmed his willingness to support my future application for joint research. In addition, I have come into contact with Prof. Mario Perniola from the Department of Philosophical Research of the Tor Vergata University of Rome, Itality, given his centrality for my current research. I plan future research collaboration with all of the above scholars.
For example, for my application for the Marie Curie International Reintegration Grant I had received preliminary agreements for future research projects on art biennials in Germany, Italy and Israel from Prof. Wolfgang Kaschuba, Prof. Mario Perniola and Dr. Jeanette Malkin. Even though the results of the application process for this grant will become known only during July, 2009, it has helped me to apply for Polonsky Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which has not been successful, and for a reseach grant at the same institute. My resume also reflects the publication as e-books of my doctoral dissertation and examination papers at GRIN Publishers in Munich, Germany. Their innovative approach to publication distribution over the internet and across bookstores suited my needs, especially since I made a shift in my research approach from a stress on sociological theory towards cultural studies, as my work on independent research project reflects.
Not least because it does not contradict the framework of my current post-doctoral position, I have successfully applied for a month-long summer school of German language at Bauhaus Academy of the Weimar University in Weimar, Germany. My application has won support from the German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akedemischer Austausch Dienst (DAAF)) that provided scholarship for expenses attendant to my attendance of the summer school in August, 2009. My stay within the framework of Bauhaus Academy in Weimar will allow me to access its universitity and city library with their extensive holdings of classical and contemporary literature on sociology, cultural and metropolitan studies. As well, during my research and study stay in Weimar I will have an occasion to visit Prof. Wolfgang Kaschuba from Berlin and Prof, Richard Münch from Bamberg, Germany, for coordination of research plans. Not least, I will also have an opportunity to forge contacts with scholars from the Weimar University that has a prominent position in cultural and media studies in Germany.
In the context of my research efforts, I became a member of the Israeli local team of the European Magazine Cafe Babel on whose website I began contributing on the topics of European culture and urban space beyond the EU. Currently, my contributions take form of blog posts on cultural events and art exhibitions in Jerusalem. After its reorganization, the Cafe Babel magazine will be accepting articles for regular publication from our local team in Israel. As an award-winning network and internet project, the European Magazine Cafe Babel connects cities, organizations and indivividuals into a border-crossing conversation, which is not insignificantly connected to my academic research. In my research on art biennials, internet initiatives and new media play a significant role not only as means to archive these event but also as a larger approach to the changing relations between metropolitan centers and global culture. Both theoretical developments and institutional innovation play equal role in shedding light on art biennials as a phenomenon that continues to spread and grow in its geographical scope and media resonance.
In my research, I match the theoretical clues I derive from Mario Perniola theorization of aesthetics, modernity and experience with the documentation that pertains to art curators' statements, publicity materials and scholarly commentary, with the aim of reducing the factual compexity of even one art biennial, such as Berlin biennale. Standing on the intersection of cultural, urban and metropolitan studies, research on art biennials follows in the wake of their international adoption by cities around the world in the process of their increasing culturalization in the 1990s. At the Center for German Studies of the Hebrew University I have an opportunity to facilitary a direct access to European research on this topic by improving my command of German langauge. My informal attendance of advanced courses of German under the instruction of Ms. Anette Dressel, DAAD guest lecturer, at the Hebrew University has greatly helped me to receive official certification of my advanced level of knowledge of German language, as is evidenced by OnDaF.de test ceritificate.
During my post-doctorate, I take full advantage of opportunities to attend numerous academic conferences, guest lectures, workshops and research seminars taking place in Jerusalem. Among the latter is the research seminar on "Collective Identities" that Prof. Shmuel N. Eisenstadt directs at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute in which I have been participating this academic year. At the Center for German Studies I have attended a workshop "Artists at Work - The New Berlin: Redefining Memorials in Contemporary Germany" given by visiting Prof. Renata Stih and Dr. Frieder Schnock. Additionally I attended a series of lectures by visiting Prof. Heidemarie Uhl from the University of Vienna, Austria, on "Memorie in Europe since 1945: Transformations of Memory, Representations of Rememberance". During the visit of DAAD delegation to the Hebrew University, I attended the lecture by Dr. Christian Bode on "New Developments in Higher Education in Europe and Germany".
Among the more interesting conferences I have attended is "1989-2009: Taking Stock of East-West EUnification" Conference taking place in June 14-15, 2009, at Mishkenot Sha'ananim that was organized by the Centers for German and Austrian Studies of the Hebrew University. As intellectually invigorating was the Conference on "Paul, the Apostle of Exception: His 2000th Annivessary and Renaissance Today" taking place at the Hebrew University and Van Leer Institute in June 5-6, 2009. Attendance of the "Ottoman Roots of Contemporary Realities: the Middle East and the Balkans Compared" Conference has made me alert to possibilities and pitfalls of comparative approach as it took place in January 18-20 at the Hebrew University and Konrad Adenauer Center. As enriching were the series of lectures organized by the Research Seminars on Cultural Studies and the Jerusalem Seminar in the History of Political Thought taking place at the Hebrew University.
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