Frames of Viewing
Conference, 17 – 19 May
In co-operation with the Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities, the House of World Cultures is planning a conference to examine the culturally specific conditions of perception, experience and judgement. How are patterns of perception and aesthetic experience constructed by the interplay of body awareness, the formation of consciousness and cultural contexts? How is the perception of art as art pre-structured by culturally specific patterns of perception, experience and judgements? How can art from other cultures and other contexts of experience be adequately presented in the context of the Western art ‘industry’?

Transgressing a frontier
Violence and the alien - a challenge to the concept of man
Conference, 27 – 30 June

In co-operation with the Graduate College ‘The coding of violence in medial transformations’ at the Humboldt University in Berlin, the House of World Cultures is planning an interdisciplinary conference focusing on the latest developments within the information sciences and bioresearch, and pertinent, current political developments. The question of ‘the human being’ has acquired a new urgency: on the one hand, it would appear that the ‘human being’ is disintegrating, at least if genetic and biotechnological developments fundamentally change the conditions of natality and mortality and suspend genuine aspects of human nature. On the other hand, there seems to be a return to ethnic politics that apparently still proceed from anthropological assumptions. The fact that changing images and models of man play a central role in these tendencies suggests a link between the development of the media and anthropological thought. The planned conference examines anthropological approaches upon which media presentations and cultural practice are based.

The Construction of the Self
Conference, 29th and 30th of November

The theme of this conference are the culturally specific differences in the relationship between the ego and the image of the body. Can the European model of the split between the mind and the body claim universal validity as an explanatory model and contribute towards understanding the concepts of identity of other cultures? The real body is increasingly being transformed through its representation in advertising and media imagery, progressively giving way to an abstraction. At the same time, the active and acting body is becoming an instance of identity construction in presentations of the body within the arts, theatre, dance and performance. Performance artists are concerned in a very special way with the construction of the self in their presentations and representations of the body. This project traces the principles underlying the construction of identity.
The conference brings representatives from anthropology, psychoanalysis, sociology and neuro-science together with artists and art theorists.

Peace Structures
International workshop with open discussion, 4.12.

A cooperation of: Einstein Forum, Potsdam and Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin

Worldwide appeals, diplomatic efforts and the peace movement in Israel and other parts of the world cannot prevent the continued escalation of tensions between Palestine and Israel. What is called for – especially in Germany with its historical responsibility – is additional activities which are not confined to the quiet work of diplomatic probing. For this reason the panel will examine concrete options for a peace settlement which does justice to both sides. Prominent representatives of both sides will be heard, people who have proven themselves to be advocates of peace. Two documentary films by Israeli and Palestinian directors underscore the urgency of the issue.