11-12 April, Stages of Performing in Pahlavi Iran 1925-1979

Workshop by Nic Leonhardt (global dis:connect) and Anna Heller (Philipps-Universität Marburg)

With the introduction of European drama in the mid-19th century, a new model of theatre emerged in Iran, which in the 20th century developed from a previously amateur activity into an established cultural institution of modern society. In contrast to the processes of social change in Pahlavi Iran (1925–1979), the cultural-historical relevance of the performing arts has not yet been fully explored.

For a holistic approach, this workshop will look at different forms of stage art, including dance, theatre, musical theatre and festivals. The neglect or separate consideration of the musicological aspects of the performing arts reinforces the importance of these forms.

In the context of global theatre histories, understood as the historiography of connections, interweaving, exchanges and dis:connections, the workshop covers a wide range of subtopics. Contributions range from the development of dramatic art and literature in the early Pahlavi era,  social criticism and state ideology in the dramatic arts, to opera and stage dance in the late Pahlavi era. The aesthetics of unconventional stages, the theatre of the absurd and the Shiraz Arts Festival are addressed along with biographical approaches to the history of women in theatre.

During the two days of the workshop, we will engage in intensive dialogue on these topics. We will also discuss the increasing methodological obstacles to fieldwork and archival work in the region.

exhibition “travelling back: reframing a 19th-century expedition from Munich to Brazil”

Travelling Back presents a critical perspective on the narratives and collections Bavarian scientists Johann Baptist von Spix (1781–1826) and Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius (1794–1868) brought from Brazil to Munich in the 19th century. The exhibition follows their extensive three-year journey across the Brazilian hinterland, including the Amazonian region.

Spanning 14 000 km, this expedition took place from 1817 to 1820 and was later chronicled in the multi-volume publication Reise in Brasilien (Travels in Brazil – 1823), providing a personal account of the scientists' encounters and perceptions of the country's varied landscapes, cultures and wildlife.

During their travels, Spix and Martius interacted with various indigenous groups and gathered numerous ethnographic, botanical and zoological specimens. These materials became foundational for several Bavarian institutions, like the Bavarian State Collections of Zoology and Botany, as well as the Königlich Ethnographische Sammlung, now the Museum Fünf Kontinente, established in 1862. Beyond tangible artifacts, these collections also treat the history of Isabella Miranha and Johann Juri, two indigenous children brought to Munich in 1820, who died tragically soon after their arrival. Unlike the scientists' evident presence in the city's landscape, the history of these children is marked by silences and absences in public memorial spaces.

The exhibition raises crucial questions about the coloniality underpinning the scientific pursuits of the natural-history project between Munich and Brazil in the 19th century. It examines the various displays and interpretations of Spix and Martius's collections from their arrival in Germany to the present, and it sheds light on the dis:connectivities of knowledge production behind these scientific endeavours. The idea is not only to inquire into the public reception of these experiences through a history of the gaze, but also to draw a critical examination through the lenses of present-day dialogues and initiatives. This includes new scientific practices of knowledge restitution, literary interpretations and contemporary perspectives from artists like Micheliny Verunschk (Brazil), Frauke Zabel (Germany), Yolanda Gutiérrez (Germany/ Mexico), Igor Vidor (Brazil), Elaine Pessoa (Brazil) and Gê Viana (Brazil).

18-19 March, climate change, empire and the legacies of environmental determinism

We live in a time when concern about human effects on the environment and climate are greater than ever. For much of human history, however, the opposite was true, and environments’ and climates’ effects on people were often the more pressing concern. Environmental or climatic determinism – the idea that people are shaped physically, culturally and even morally – by their environments has a long and often insidious history.

Determinist thinking had particular utility in the age of European and global empires in the 19th and 20th centuries, taking on new forms amidst attempts to expand and justify imperial dominance. Everything from ‘energy’ to racial characteristics and from ‘civilisational success’ to the limits of habitability were seen as environmentally and climatically determined. Today, these ideas are once again being reconfigured in new and troubling ways, such as in the deterministic language sometimes employed around climate and migration, which risks echoing racist, early 20th-century visions of ‘nomadic hordes’. With the Anthropocene concept placing human and planetary histories and futures on the same scale, tracing the language of environmental determinism has become imperative.

Place & date: Munich, 18-19 March2024

Organiser: Lachlan Fleetwood (LMU Munich)

Venue: Käte Hamburger Research Centre global dis:connect, Maria-Theresia-Straße 21, 81675 Munich

CANCELLED! 22-23 February, archival f(r)ictions

On 22 and 23 Feb. 2024, the Center will hold an international workshop focusing on the topic of "archival f(r)ictions" in curatorial and artistic film practice.

The workshop invites in a transdisciplinary dialogue on the colonial legacies of film archives. By making use of invention, imagination and speculation, artists and curators have explored the possibilities of engaging critically with the historical narratives contained in the archive, appropriating and transforming them. In this context, fiction has frequently served as a means to interrogate official histories and the legacies of the colonial past. In works by John Akomfrah, Filipa César, Tamika Galanis, Payal Kapadia, Zineb Sedira, Fiona Tan, Ala Younis, Akram Zaatari – to name just a few – the archive has become a site of subversive fiction and artistic resistance. In the framework of “global dis:connect”, the workshop addresses the potential of dis:connections, of the counterhegemonic f(r)ictions produced by imagining other (hi)stories from which alternative memories and futures may emerge. The focus lies on artistic and curatorial practices that produce dissonances and allochronisms through fictional narratives that investigate and rework the histories contained and preserved in archives.

Place & date: Munich, 22-23 February 2024

Organisers: Fabienne Liptay (University of Zurich), Laura McMahon (University of Cambridge), Sujit Sivasundaram (University of Cambridge)

Venue: Käte Hamburger Research Centre global dis:connect, Maria-Theresia-Straße 21, 81675 Munich

9 February, opening conference of the exhibition “travelling back: reframing a 19th-century expedition from Munich to Brazil”

Travelling Back presents a critical perspective on the narratives and collections Bavarian scientists Johann Baptist von Spix (1781–1826) and Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius (1794–1868) brought from Brazil to Munich in the 19th century. The exhibition follows their extensive three-year journey across the Brazilian hinterland, including the Amazonian region.

Spanning 14 000 km, this expedition took place from 1817 to 1820 and was later chronicled in the multi-volume publication Reise in Brasilien (Travels in Brazil – 1823), providing a personal account of the scientists' encounters and perceptions of the country's varied landscapes, cultures and wildlife.

During their travels, Spix and Martius interacted with various indigenous groups and gathered numerous ethnographic, botanical and zoological specimens. These materials became foundational for several Bavarian institutions, like the Bavarian State Collections of Zoology and Botany, as well as the Königlich Ethnographische Sammlung, now the Museum Fünf Kontinente, established in 1862. Beyond tangible artifacts, these collections also treat the history of Isabella Miranha and Johann Juri, two indigenous children brought to Munich in 1820, who died tragically soon after their arrival. Unlike the scientists' evident presence in the city's landscape, the history of these children is marked by silences and absences in public memorial spaces.

The exhibition raises crucial questions about the coloniality underpinning the scientific pursuits of the natural-history project between Munich and Brazil in the 19th century. It examines the various displays and interpretations of Spix and Martius's collections from their arrival in Germany to the present, and it sheds light on the dis:connectivities of knowledge production behind these scientific endeavours. The idea is not only to inquire into the public reception of these experiences through a history of the gaze, but also to draw a critical examination through the lenses of present-day dialogues and initiatives. This includes new scientific practices of knowledge restitution, literary interpretations and contemporary perspectives from artists like Micheliny Verunschk (Brazil), Frauke Zabel (Germany), Yolanda Gutiérrez (Germany/ Mexico), Igor Vidor (Brazil), Elaine Pessoa (Brazil) and Gê Viana (Brazil).