CulturE-ASEF / From Bilateral to Multilateral and Bi-regional Exchange
http://culture-asef.org/english/txt/2004/culture_europe_international/peter_bumke
(Published: October 2004, print version)
From Bilateral to Multilateral and Bi-regional Exchange
By Peter Bumke
The Goethe Instituts in South-East Asia engage in a new Paradigm of Cultural Exchange.
For several decades now, the German cultural institutes, the Goethe Instituts, in South-East Asia, Australia and New Zealand have undertaken and initiated a wide range of cultural activities and events under the umbrella of what was basically conceived as forms of bilateral cultural exchange with the cultural scene and institutions of their host countries. They have done this against the background and within the framework of German foreign cultural policy which at the outset, of course, seemed to suggest and encourage this basic bilateral format.
In no way has this precluded in the past a regional coordination of concert tours, travelling exhibitions or film packages. But only rarely has this led to a real regional co-operation in the strict sense of the term, where through an event in one locality would accrue a tangible added value in its being staged in another locality in the region. Regional coordination then, in this scheme of things, consisted of a merely serial pattern or string of bilaterally conceived events. By the same token, collaboration with other European cultural institutes, (British Council, Centre Culturel Francais, Alliance Française, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Pro Helvetia, Erasmus Huis, Institute Cervantes), while at times quite intensive and congenial, has been largely a result of auspicious local circumstances and of perceived affinities in the programme's philosophy. Hardly ever did it venture beyond the local context or adopt a more systematic approach.
New challenges
While a whole range of phenomena related to cultural globalisation have obviously become more pronounced and prominent in recent times, the reactions of artists, film-makers, musicians, dancers and theatre people both in Europe and in Asia have shown an increasing need to transcend the borders and limitations of their national art scenes and to engage creatively with fellow artists from other countries. Theoretical debates on "divergent modernity" have gained more relevance and follow critically on the heels of an increasing intemationalisation of art and media markets. South-East Asia, in particular, and the whole of Asia Maritima have historically been at the crossroads of complex patterns ofacculturation, adaptation and a syncretistic cross-fertilization and have always functioned as an ideal arena for a cultural exchange avant la lettre and for the creative development of "hybrid" cultural forms and cultural mixtures, long before a post-modern cultural theory would refer to them in these terms.
At the same time, with processes of political and economic integration gaining momentum in both Europe and the ASEAN context, a new institutional framework comes into being which might be well suited to accommodate and shape these newly emerging aspirations within national art scenes. Moreover a certain structural weakness of government support for cultural institutions in South-East Asia would seem to encourage a more multilateral approach of European cultural institutions towards segments of civil society in our host countries, sharing significant similarities with regard to art forms that are expressive of aesthetic, cultural and social tensions.
Art Connexions
Our reading of this state of affairs has prompted a re-evaluation of the role of regional and multilateral forms of cultural co-operation. Moreover, in recent years, the Goethe Institut has internally adopted a more strategic institutional approach to its activities. It has perhaps become more focused on the selection of programme formats and on target groups and has upgraded its regional centres.
Against this double background of cultural processes in the region and the momentum of political and economic integration in South-East Asia and in Europe the Goethe Instituts in South-East Asia/Australia/New Zealand have embarked, as a first step, on the creation of a fairly ambitious regional art platform "Art Connexions". They propose to mobilize and use their network of cultural centres in the region for the creation of a network of curators, artists, galleries and art museums. The vibrancy of South-East Asia's modem art scene, to be gauged from an increasing presence at European art fairs, biennales and galleries, seemed to make the fine arts a particularly promising starting point.
In a first phase an arts project with a combined residency phase, art production and exhibition phase will bring together nine artists from the region with nine German artists, largely using photography as the main artistic medium and using the context of nine major cities in the region. A later and further phase would involve the construction, under the same platform of "Art Connexions", of a wider network linking curators from South-East Asia with their peers from Europe. The enlargement of the EU provides us with the added advantage of including curators from Middle-East Europe, who might have less historically developed ties with South-East Asia compared to those from United Kingdom, France, The Netherlands etc. We will seek to mobilize and involve the network of Goethe Instituts in the new member states, established over the last decade, to this end. Yet further down the road, this multilateral format might gain further strength when applied to cultural exchange in the field of films and new media. It might also be put to use in the field of intellectual exchange, e.g. in timely debates on the role of religion in the public sphere. While bilateral cultural exchange will no doubt remain alive and kicking for a long time to come, exciting and challenging prospects lie ahead for a multilateral and bi-regional cultural exchange between Europe and South-East Asia.
Peter Bumke
Dr. Bumke is Regional Director of the Goethe Instituts in South-East Asia/Australia/New Zealand, based in Jakarta.
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