Book Launch "Di/Visions: Culture and Politics of the Middle East"
in the framework of "Poetry and Politics: Reading M. Darwish in Berlin"
In winter of 2007-08, French curator Cathérine David's DI/VISIONS project transformed the Haus der Kulturen der Welt into a resonating space for intellectual life in the Middle East. At the time, artnet described the project as a 'counter-image to contemporary political art, designed to correct all the media's clichés about the Lebanon, Syria and Egypt'. In short, it was a 'mirage of unheard experience'. The talks that Cathérine David held with artists and intellectuals from the Middle East are now available in DVD and book form. The book presentation will be given within the framework of Poetry and Politics.
Di/Visions: Culture and Politics of the Middle East
Editors: Catherine David, Georges Khalil, Bernd M. Scherer
Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen
Release Date: 5.5.2009
Paperback, with accompanying DVD, 272 pages, numerous illustrations
ISBN: 978-3-8353-0445-1
Background information from the dust jacket:
Simplistic contrasts between West vs. East, Arabs vs. Jews, secular vs. religious, tradition vs. modernity, Islam vs. democracy and a history of violence have become the dominant perception of culture and politics of the Middle East, at latest since September 11, 2001.Yet how can modern forms of ethnicizing and confessionalism emerge when countries like Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine are fragmented into rival groups, and how are these boundaries reproduced through technologies of colonial and military administration, urban planning, and global markets? How can we imagine a coexistence between Jews and Arabs, in which both the rights of Jews and Palestinians are taken into account, in light of Oslo’s failure? What sustains authoritarian regimes in the region and what forms of civilian resistance have emerged in society, culture, media and the university?Di/Visions challenges the ideology of division: Intellectuals and artists working in Cairo, Beirut, Jerusalem and Baghdad and also in Berlin, Paris, and New York take a stand on the current situation in the Middle East and give alternative interpretations of its history and future.