26 July, Reading and discussion with philosopher Eva Meyer and artist Eran Schaerf: Migratory mindset and Levantine cosmopolis
Global dis:connect is honoured to host a reading and discussion with philosopher Eva Meyer and artist Eran Schaerf on the social model of Levantinism, its ambivalences and what it can offer in a globalised world.
The Levantines did not make it into postcolonial discourse, perhaps because they lack the ‘definitional security’ (Adorno) that the coloniser and the colonised seem to possess. For the capitalist market of identities, national territorialism and the East-West ideological partition, the Levantines and their definitional insecurity represent a danger. Going in between, the Levantines indicate an escape route, not from one ideology to another, but away from ideological mindsets altogether. They perform a migratory mindset that makes a difference instead of representing one. We opt to engage with the polyphonic web of Levantinisation instead of letting ourselves be torn apart by globalisation.
The reading takes place in parallel with the global dis:connect summer school entitled Sea of absence? Globalisation, the Mediterranean and beyond.
On 4 July, author and journalist Timo Feldhaus presented his book of historical fiction on the eruption of the Mount Tambora volcano (Sumbawa, modern Indonesia) in 1815. The eruption was the most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded history, and it induced climatic, social and artistic repercussions that affected the entire planet for years. Together with Urs Büttner, a scholar of literature, Feldhaus discussed the event as a moment of global rupture that demonstrates the dis:connections between the weather, climate and artistic production. For more information about the book click 