Monday 17 July, 2006

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 17.07.2006

Israeli author David Grossman explains why Israelis have lost their faith in the influence of the moderate Arabic world. "This current outbreak of violence demonstrates an extremely problematic similarity to the position of the Lebanese government and the Palestinian authority with respect to Israel. Both have two heads which contradict each other; one acts in a 'stately' way, meaning in a political framework and relatively moderately, the other considers itself free to act as it wishes. It is willing to use terror against civilians, engages a racist rhetoric and openly demands the elimination of Israel. This double game is one of the reasons it's so hard to reach a tenable agreement between Israel and its neighbours." Grossman recalls that Israel was attacked before it bombed Lebanon. "There is no justification for the attack that the Hezbollah launched last week from Lebanese territory on dozens of peaceful Israeli points. No state of the world can silently abandon its citizens when its neighbour stages such an attack without provocation."

The uprising of nationalist forces which led to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War and the dictatorship of Franco began 70 years ago. Even today the Civil War separates the country in two camps, writes Paul Ingendaay, who puts that down to a strangely fictive aura "which has coloured reflection about the Civil War until the present. Seldom have victors written the history of their triumph in such high-handed tones. Seldom have losers lost sight of their joint responsibility for the outcome in such a consolatory Utopian fog. While the victors set up a lacklustre authoritarian state, the losers shifted fronts to the realm of dreams. Photography, cinema and literature all created the image of a heroic leftist struggle, but hardly anyone noticed that the flood of icons – from 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' to Robert Capa's photo of the 'Death of Loyalist militiaman Frederico Barell Garcia' – took on a representative function in supplanting historical analysis."


Die Tageszeitung, 17.07.2006

Birgit Rieger went to the opening party of "Ideal City – Invisible Cities" in Zamosc. The little city near the Ukrainian border was planned in the 16th century as an ideal city in the style of the Italian Renaissance; this summer the international art world will be enticed to visit it. Only one artist, Miroslaw Balka from Poland, had the courage to recall that Zamosc was the starting point for the Nazi's "Generalplan Ost." "He re-discovered the formal principles of the ideal city in the death camp Auschwitz. Balka builds on a piece of lawn at the New Lublin Gate – a former entry point to the city – a wood sculpture covered with mortar, which recalls a barrack wall. Whenever a person gets close to the wall, a German march plays."


Süddeutsche Zeitung, 17.07.2006

Werner Koch talks to Congolese dancer and choreographer Faustin Linyekula (bio in French) about the situation in his country. "Europeans see the Congo as the home of the rumba, of lively, happy rhythms, as though these were at the heart of African dance. In reality, there's nothing happy about Congo and that's why the old African dances are of no use to me. When you see Africans dancing in their village, they form a circle – a large, comprehensive circle that symbolises the community to which they belong: as part of a family and a large cosmology which includes our ancestors, who find their way back to us through dance. The reality is different. If a Congolese calls me 'my brother' today – as is common practice in Africa - I have to say 'I'm not your brother.' Otherwise there would not have been four and a half million dead in five years. That's not how you treat your brothers. The harmonious circle is broken, everyone is trying to devour everyone else. I can't dance as though that circle still exists."


Saturday 15 July, 2006

Berliner Zeitung, 15.07.2006

In a very readable interview, Arno Widmann talks with Turkish author Elif Shafak, who is facing trial on charges of "insulting Turkishness" for her novel "The Bastard of Istanbul." "My book deals with two taboos of our society: the political taboo of the Armenian question and the social taboo of incest and sexual violence. Of course a lot of people find that hard to digest." But Shafak refuses to see her impending trial as an argument against Turkey's joining the EU. "There are many forces in Turkish civil society that support Turkey's entering the European Union. The majority of the population still believes this is the path to take. That's exactly why opponents of this option are resorting to ever more demented measures. They are trying to ban my book not because they really believe it harms Turkey's identity. They want to ban it so people in Europe will put their hands to their heads and exclaim: 'Look what they're doing in Turkey, they punish authors for what people say in their novels! There's no place in the European Union for barbarians like that!' These people are afraid of the EU. They know that when the borders fall they'll have the rug pulled out from under them." See our feature "I like being several people," an interview with Elif Shafak.


Die Welt, 15.07.2006

On the 400th anniversary of Rembrandt's birthday, the paper prints a speech delivered by the Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt in 1877: "What singles out Rembrandt from all the painters who preceded him? His subordination of objects, whatever they be, to two elementary powers: air and light. In his paintings these are the true rulers of the world, they are the ideal. Rembrandt is indifferent to the true shape of things, to him their appearance is all that matters."