Culture
Magazine

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.

He excelled as an angel and Hitler, as Faust and Hamlet, he pursued a career in film and made theater history: on the death of the great actor and artist Bruno Ganz.
 

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.