Culture Monthly News

The Climate & Peace Forum in Sydney is a new series in the developing discussion around climate, security and trade. The first event will explore the immediate and long term impact of the European Green Deal and how trade policy influences climate action. Initiated by the Rotary Club Sydney Cove, the series will kick off with a free online event in August – and will hopefully move to the Goethe-Institut in Woollahra at one point. The speakers for the first event are EU Ambassador Dr Michael Pulch and Australian climate experts Prof Lesley Hughes and Richie Merzian.

The Biennale of Sydney will open part of its NIRIN edition on Gadigal land at Carriageworks, thanks to the generous support of The Neilson Foundation and collaborative efforts with Carriageworks. As a long-standing partner of both the Biennale and Carriageworks, we are excited about the exhibition which includes the mixed-media installation Mineral Garden (pictured) by Andrew Rewald and Randy Lee Cutler. Andrew Rewald stayed at the Goethe-Institut and participated at a Berlin-themed panel discussion we hosted in March 2020.

Are you an Indigenous female graphic artist, writer, or storyteller – or do you know one? Please get in touch! We invite graphic artists and teams to submit proposals for new comics on Indigenous feminist movements and activists. Up to ten selected stories from the Global South will be published in a Comic Anthology in 2021. Details such as payment and other benefits are listed on the website. Please spread the news – we're looking forward to hearing from you!

Are you involved in an independent art space or collaborative project that explores decolonial, queer, feminist, migrant and diasporic perspectives? We’d like to invite you to apply for an extraordinary opportunity: a series of digital networking interactions followed by a seven-day visit to Berlin in 2021, to exchange ideas and strengthen international connections.

In our ongoing Kino in Oz blog, film critic Sarah Wards looks at productions that will be screened at this year's digital edition of Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) from 6th of August. One of the festival's highlights is Exile starring Sandra Hüller (Toni Erdmann, Requiem, In the Aisles) and Mišel Matičević (Babylon Berlin, Dogs of Berlin).

You may know what certain cities look like... but what do they sound like? For Sound of X artists used sounds and everyday noises to portrait their urban environments, and filmed how they did it. The resulting video clips offer a unique, sonic experience of eight cities: Sydney, Singapore, Medan, Yangon, Ho Chi Minh City, Kuala Lumpur, Wellington and Manila. 

As Germany has the European Council Presidency until the end of 2020, the Goethe-Institut presents several Europe-wide projects: Europe’s Kitchen, Tell Me about Europe, The Disappearing Wall, #oekoropa, Generation A=Algorithm and Olafur Eliasson’s participatory artwork Earth Speakr.

The German word Fehler could simply be translated as mistake, but in this case it is the response to one of life’s big questions: how do we innovate and make progress? Often, it happens by mistake: misunderstandings, digital glitches and faulty processors can unexpectedly lead to something new. Jump online and immerse yourself in a collection of big and little mistakes alike.

The topic of Reconciliation is as important for Canada as it is for Australia. With Canada being the Guest of Honour for the upcoming Frankfurt Book Fair, the Goethe-Institut invited 20 authors to create comics responding to this theme. The initiative shows works in German, English, French and indigenous languages.

Graphic Travelogues collects existing travel stories, creates new ones and presents them in a new setting. As you track the participating artists' travel routes and destinations on the interactive map, you'll come across Jan Bauer who we invited to visit Australia for his graphic novel The Salty River.

Kulturama brings international culture into your living room. Find dates, support artists, venues, promoters, organisations and institutions, and enter your own events to be listed as well. Let's go together and in solidarity through this time.

As Europe is thrown into turmoil by a devastating pandemic, Griffith Review 69: The European Exchange explores the deep and complex relationships between Europe and Australia. Edited by Ashley Hay and Natasha Cica, it features contributions from Christos Tsiolkas, Robyn Archer, George Megalogenis, Julienne van Loon, Christian Thompson, Arnold Zable, Gabriella Coslovich, Anthony Macris, and many more.