Culture
Magazine

In May 2021, Germany is celebrating a special art centenary on what would have been legendary artist Joseph Beuys’ 100th birthday. We look at what made the provocative lateral thinker tick.

With a career that spans nearly 60 years, New Zealand-born New York-based artist Annea Lockwood is a hugely influential figure and reference in the field of art and sound internationally.

Theatre and game creator Jan Philip Steimel will work on a new project during his artist residency.

Popular apps often use data in ways their users would not appreciate, but there are alternatives. Digital expert Markus Beckedahl has some tips.

What is the relationship of German pronouns to gender-equal language? Sharon Dodua Otoo looks at the problem from the perspective of several languages – and has a suggestion.

Artificial intelligence making art puts a new spin on age-old questions, such as if AI art can really be called art, and who gets credit as the artist – the machine, the programmer or the person whose data was fed into the algorithm.

The Goethe-Institut New Zealand offers the opportunity to dive into queer German culture at a diverse range of events from an exhibition through film screenings to comics.

The Berlinale's first online competition features powerful contemporary cinema, with the winning film resonating with our current state of mind.

2020. Amidst the deafening turmoil of a world grinding to an undignified halt, I found myself offered an incredible opportunity by the Goethe-Institut. I began my journey in late August, en route to Germany...

(11 February 2021)
In the online exhibition Take Me to the River by the Goethe-Institut and Prince Claus Fund, artists explore the consequences of climate change for indigenous peoples. The curator Maya El Khalil and her assistant Danielle Makhoul spoke about the interface of art and sustainability and the importance of indigenous perspectives in art.

Ecuador, Amazon Rainforest: A small Indigenous community, confronted with the interests of Big Oil, fights to preserve its land using the tools of its ancestors and the internet. This is their story. A visual essay. 

Plastic bans, disposable dinnerware made of bioplastics, and streets made of plastic waste: countries, companies and private citizens are all pursuing initiatives that show what the world would be like without plastic.

A Hollywood star’s run at the top of Tinseltown can be fleeting. But artificial intelligence is powering de-ageing technology and even generating lifelike digital humans that could change movie-making forever.

A city can be easily identified by its skyline or sights. But can it also be identified by its sound? For “Sound of X” by the Goethe-Institut Singapore, artists audio-visually captured the identities of cities in Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.

Languages, and therefore language learning, are closely linked to identity. Even in language classes for beginners, pupils talk about themselves, their experiences and their relationships. How can you help your pupils express non-binary gender identities?

Germany’s most sustainable towns and cities rely on the participation of their residents. Quite a lot can be achieved even with comparatively few financial resources.

The artists Anna Heger and Sam Orchard send their avatars to various places in New Zealand and Germany for the comic series “Queer Comic Conversations”. They talk about their experiences as queer people, encounters with hatred and violence and about support systems.

In addition to roast pork with dumplings, a pork joint with sauerkraut, and potato salad, no list of German national dishes would be complete without the humble currywurst or curried sausage. The spicy snack was invented 70 years ago.

This year’s Whānau Mārama New Zealand International Film Festival takes place from 24 July until 2 August 2020. There are 79 feature films and seven collections of short films. The following seven German language films will be featured this year.

Now as ever, real life remains the most vital source of inspiration for the German comics scene, even in these troubling times of the coronavirus crisis. Many German cartoonists have been artistically processing the pandemic and its effects on everyday life – and publishing their comics online.

But the ingredients have to be carefully selected to ensure that a dish tastes good: Algorithm expert Sebastian Schelter talks about artificial intelligence, how it takes decisions off our hands, and how this impacts our lives.

Professors Aleida and Jan Assmann – one a cultural and literary scholar, the other an Egyptologist – have studied forms of collective memory for more than three decades. In 2018, the husband-and-wife team were awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in recognition of their work.

The homeless newspaper “Arts of the Working Class” and the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles present the special edition “Worlds Of Homelessness”. In an interview with “The Latest” at Goethe, editors María Inés Plaza Lazo and Alina Ana Kolar talk about their idea of an art magazine for everyone, how a distribution network of homeless people helps with its realization, and how Covid-19 affects the magazine and its sellers.

Jennifer and Manja, our former interns from the cultural section of Goethe-Institut Wellington, have just returned home from New Zealand to Germany on one of the repatriation flights organised by the German government. We asked them about their experiences at the end of their time in New Zealand, the flight home, and their arrival in Germany.

Christopher Ulutupu is a video and performance artist who will take up a three-month residency at the Art and Culture Centre Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei. The residency is a collaboration project of LIA (Leipzig International Art Programme) and the Goethe-Institut.

Coining new words is a cinch in German. But not every neologism belongs in a dictionary. Kathrin Kunkel-Razum talks about sifting through long word lists for the next edition of the “Rechtschreibduden”, the standard German spelling dictionary.

Amine El Aryf came to Germany in 2011 because of love. A Moroccan national, he has been involved in the organisation of entry qualifications for refugees and young people in Berlin since 2017. The fact that he took up a training role is partly to do with the weather in Germany.

University teaching has become increasingly specialised over the centuries. But the topics addressed in research today increasingly require an interdisciplinary approach.  Leibniz Association president Matthias Kleiner sees a renaissance of universal research. 

It all started with an Apollo 11 moon rock. But the natural scientist Klaus-Dieter Lehmann was instead drawn into the world of culture. It’s still holding on to the president of the Goethe-Institut.

The artist Natascha Sadr Haghighian is known for assuming different identities without revealing her own biography. At the Venice Biennale she worked for the German Pavilion and now presented her work at the festival "Movement (1920-2020)" by Onassis Stegi, in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Athens. The journalist Despina Zefkili met the artist on behalf of „Goethe aktuell“ and spoke with her about the right to freedom of movement and our responsibility to defend it.

Wasteful use of the earth’s resources is a leading cause of environmental disasters, and the wealthy industrialized countries are benefiting from the exploitation of developing countries, says author Petra Schönhöfer.

Director and visual artist Anna Peschke will realise a new project during her residency.

In all German cities, it takes money to live anywhere close to downtown, quite a lot of money in fact. Those who cannot afford the rising rents in cities are pushed out to the periphery. We asked an expert how urban planning could address this widening gap between rich and poor.

As of 31 January 2020, the United Kingdom of Great Britain is no longer part of the European Union. The Goethe-Institut, which has been committed to German-British cultural dialogue for over sixty years, is responding by working even more closely with British and European partners.

Administering medication, measuring blood pressure and continually asking patients how they’re feeling: nurse Samed Qoshja has plenty to keep him busy in his job. Originally from Albania, he has been working at the Berliner Charité since 2017 – and Germany already feels almost like home to him.

The new edition of “das goethe” with the theme “Digital Civil Society” will be issued on 16 January. On The Latest at Goethe, journalist Ina Holev explains how colonisation continues in the digital space.

The Goethe-Institut New Zealand hosted the smartphone film competition "#Nucleus", which stimulated discussion about the environment and sustainability. Now nine filmmakers from seven countries came together to develop a short film.

Where do they belong? Ownership claims to cultural assets from the colonial period are often controversial and negotiating possible restitution is frequently a fraught and drawn-out process. Germany is taking some initial steps towards a resolution.

The darknet is often seen as the Cain to the internet’s Abel, as a hub for weapons and drugs and a paradise for paedophiles and terrorists. But, as it turns out, it’s not really so dark after all.

In all German cities, it takes money to live anywhere close to downtown, quite a lot of money in fact. Those who cannot afford the rising rents in cities are pushed out to the periphery. We asked an expert how urban planning could address this widening gap between rich and poor.

The crypto currency Bitcoin turned many into millionaires overnight and was on the tip of everyone’s tongue, especially once it reached an all-time high in 2017.  Public interest in Bitcoin and the technology behind it, the blockchain, dropped in keeping with currency’s abrupt fall. So what is going on with the technology today?

Cologne-based visual and performance artist Vanja Smiljanić will be in Wellington for an artist residency.

The border that once divided the two Germanys - the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic – has been transformed into the German Green Belt. The biotope provides a new home for flora and fauna while testifying to its conflict-laden history.

Carbon offset schemes promise to compensate for the emissions caused by private individuals – as air travellers, for instance – with donations to climate projects. But are they not just a way of salving guilty consciences?  

German television shows tend to have a bad reputation for poor writing and cheap productions not suited for an international market and audience. Now series like “Deutschland ‘83” and “Babylon Berlin” are putting a new shine on that tarnished image. 

Virtual reality, 3D animation and robotics have long been used by theatre directors in other countries but they have yet to be embraced as tools of stagecraft in Germany. That is about to change. The new Akademie für Digitalität und Theater (Academy for Digitality and Theatre) in Dortmund is set to revolutionise the German theatrical landscape. 

Artur Brauner was a legendary German producer. Nobody else shaped German post-war cinema quite like he did, and he did it above all with light entertainment. However, since 1947 Brauner also delved into the Nazi era. Now he has died.

Hate speech and fake news can massively influence public opinion. These apps and initiatives set out to counter that by strengthening political awareness and encouraging positive online discourse. 

In 2018, the regional project Wanderlustküche – A Culinary Dialogue was one of the absolute highlights! Nine Goethe-Institutes in South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand participated in the project, which brought together chefs from Germany and the respective partner country under the motto “Tables without borders”. 

Supported by the Franco-German Cultural Fund, the Goethe-Institut and the French Embassy this year’s Doc Edge festival brings German and French productions and film industry professionals to New Zealand.
 

The Berlin-based illustrator, filmmaker and street artist Milan Gessner is the Goethe-Institut Artist in Residence in Wellington this year.

Karl Marx would have celebrated his 200th birthday in 2018. His criticism of capitalism appears even more pertinent today amidst climate crisis, chronical unemployment and global inequality. A reason for Mathias Greffrath to look back and re-read.

In dance migration is not a phenomenon confined to modern times. Artists were and still are “travelling people”. And in many cases this professional mobility is neither voluntarily nor casually chosen as a working basis.

New Zealand jewelery artist Mia Straka reports on her residence experience in Berlin.
 

Who are they and how do they live? The advertising and media world has discovered a new target group: Generation Z, fully digitalized since birth, is coming of age. But on screen they are (still) representing the lives of Millennials.

In their documentary “Lösch Dich. So organisiert ist der Hate im Netz” (Delete yourself. Organised hate on the Internet), YouTuber Rayk Anders and his team investigate how Internet trolls use hate to promote their political aims.

Ten German virtual reality and 360-degree video projects you should know about.

European and Southeast Asian curators and museum directors met in Berlin on the invitation of the Goethe-Institut Jakarta. In a panel discussion, they exchanged views on the changes in exhibition practices.

Music producer and sound artist Hanno Leichtmann is the Goethe-Institut Artist in Residence in Wellington this year.

Riad Djemili left one of Germany’s top studios to co-develop a digital board game together with a friend. "The Curious Expedition" was a surprise hit. Now there is a sequel.

Poetry-Slammer Volker Strübing is the Goethe-Institut Artist in Residence in Christchurch this year.

In October 2017 the region Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand will hold its first conference for PASCH alumni in Jakarta. Two alumnae from New Zealand will be there.

Getting to know and learn from one another in German, 8,000 kilometres from Germany. Seventy-seven pupils from ten countries met in Thailand for the first Asia-Pacific German Olympics.

 Ten countries, one language. International encounters in German. Read about Chris Durrant's experience here.

2017 is Europe’s super election year. We have asked people in and outside of Europe: what do you wish for Europe in 2017? We sent their wishes out into the world under #mywishforeurope – on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and goethe.de.

Performance artist Janine Eisenächer is the Goethe-Institut Artist in Residence this year.

The third annual co-production summit takes place in Auckland. This year the three day summit focuses on German/New Zealand co-productions. For this reason several German film-makers have been invited to speak.

Major cities are cultural contact zones and transit spaces, places of uncertainty and the foreign. The dynamism of change arising from this constitutes the essence of urbanity and is what lends metropolises their stability and attractiveness in the first place.

The New Zealand International Film Festival and the Goethe-Institut have commissioned Johannes Contag to compose an accompanying film score for the screening of the 1920s film classic "Variety".

To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the DEFA Studio in East Germany, the Goethe-Institut New Zealand presents in its Winter Film Series at the Auckland Art Gallery a film programme highlighting different themes and genres that were important to the DEFA.

Each year, from over 1,500 entries from around the world, the 40 best short films and six best music videos are selected. The resulting programme of short films will be shown in more than 25 cinemas nationwide.

‚If you love your books – let them go’. This is how the New York Times described the project ‘BookCrossing’, which dates from April 2001. The Goethe-Institut New Zealand is now part of this exciting project.
 
 

Dramaturgy in contemporary dance is a hot topic, in a positive sense. Ideally, when preparing a piece, dramaturges are the choreographers’ best friends.

Cronyism with elites, one-sided reporting, abuse of power – many Germans are dissatisfied with the media. How warranted are their charges?

Revitalising West Berlin’s name in the field of architecture.

For just under two years, Berlin was for David Bowie a retreat and an inspiration. This was enough to give a formative impulse to German Pop music.

Today, joint residential models are experiencing a renaissance, whether as building groups, owners’ associations or joint building ventures.

We will be presenting one building in each of our 30 film portraits and hearing from its architects. The first five films in the series can be seen here.

Interesting participatory projects are emerging far away from metropolitan areas. Two cases.

Due to the picture overkill on the internet young generation photography is finding it hard to stand out and impress. A look at young talent promotion activities gives an insight on development trends.

On the 50th anniversary of the death of the photographer August Sander (1876-1964) in 2014, three exhibitions, in Cologne, Bonn and Munich, commemorated his portrait cycle “People of the Twentieth Century”.

Some considered him to be a “problem child”, others recognized that he was a genius. Regardless of what one might think about him, he will forever have a place in German cinema.

From The Murderers Are Among Us to Phoenix – the period immediately after the war has been dealt with time and again in cinema, such films always reflecting the way in which Germans view themselves.

The Goethe-Institut artist in residence this year is internationally renowned theatre practitioner Uta Plate. She will be based in Wellington from February until April 2015.

German Mumblecore focuses the spotlight on a variety of German cinema which relies on a great deal of improvisation. But what are the inherent characteristics of German a mumblecore film?

More and more people want to use urban space for their own projects. At the same time, many buildings stand vacant. Interim use agencies seek to broker between owners and interested parties. It is not always easy.

What doesn’t work is quickly replaced instead of repaired. But resistance is stirring.

More and more refugees from all over the world are seeking refuge in Germany. Numerous private initiatives are actively supporting asylum seekers and providing them with a new home.

Universities, businesses and local governments want to step up their efforts to make immigrants feel at home in Germany.

2014 marks the one hundredth anniversary of the First World War. Among the many new books in this anniversary year, newly re-issued standard works consort with publications of the last two years.

The example of the German-Turkish children’s choir of the Berlin Comic Opera shows how cultural education can work. An interview with Mustafa Akça, the project manager of “Selam Opera!”.

That a pop band should turn 40 is an event. All the more so when this band is called Kraftwerk and is the most influential German musical group.

Cinema does not necessarily need a movie theatre. In cities like Hamburg films are projected onto the facades of buildings. These mobile film performances have opened up new perspectives in the way public space can be used.