Talking Culture

As German writer Mithu Sanyal confirms, it's a preconceived idea that love and politics don't go together. They are in fact polar opposites. Moreover, love has become a dirty word in politics. We can talk on social media about sex till the cows come home, but love, it's too cute, too lovey-dovey, and too unpolitical. But this has not always been the case. Most movements for social justice. Had a love of ethics. Gandhi placed love at the centre of his campaign to free India. Martin Luther King preached and practiced love. And James Baldwin called for a Love of Politics. What has happened to marginalise love in the political discourse and what can politics informed by love look like? For this episode, you will be listening to Mithu Sanyal's Goethe Annual Lecture 2022, “Politics: What's Love Got To Do With It.” In light of recent events - from the Colorado Springs queer shootings to the women's rights protests in Iran - a discussion about the role of love in our world seems more relevant than ever before. But this isn't the romantic notion of love we are more commonly familiar with, it's the love that cultural scientist and journalist Mithu Sanyal claims is sorely lacking in our world. A political love. It's the absence of this love that she believes is responsible for so much social injustice and inequality.

What exactly is a quantum computer? Have you ever wondered what all the media hype is about or how quantum computing may impact our everyday lives? In this episode, we talk to quantum expert Emily Haworth, curator Lucy Rose Sollitt and Professor Eduardo Miranda to learn about quantum technologies and the arts. Over the coming weeks, the Goethe-Institut will explore these questions and more under the umbrella of a new project and international events series called ‘Living in a Quantum State'. Events in London, Dublin, Beijing and San Francisco will explore the role of civil society in regulating emerging technologies and examine how the arts may help us to communicate and understand these major scientific advances. In this podcast, we are diving right into the core of this complex theme to explore the possibilities and challenges that quantum computing will bring. For more information and all event listings, see Goethe.de/quantum or follow @livinginaquantumstate on Instagram.

Imagine life beyond crises. A world beyond catastrophe, wars and climate crisis. How would you like to live? And now think ahead to 2050. Looking back on your present self, how would you have wanted to have lived? In this episode we talk to curator and project developer Isabel Raabe of Talking Objects Lab and curator and dance dramaturg Thomas Schaupp, one half of the curatorial team behind Goethe Morph* Iceland: How we always wanted to have lived. Leading up to and during September 2022, the project invites the public to envision alternative ways of living together through exhibitions, workshops, performances and conversations. And with Isabel and Thomas' involvement at the heart of the programme, we thought it would be a good idea to talk to them about things like food, decolonisation and creating a common positive future. If you're interested to find out more about the project, visit www.goethe.de/morphiceland.

Author and curator Dan Hicks, best known for his book The Brutish Museums (2020), takes stock of the debate around the enduring legacies of empire in our museums, universities and society at large. In this episode, he talks about recent events in Europe and North America, from removing statues and un-naming buildings to returning artefacts from colonial museums. As a society how can we make amends for the past? And what are the next steps for upholding antiracism in the future? In 2013, the German Museums Association (Deutscher Museumsbund) issued guidance on the treatment of human remains in museum collections, in which they introduced a novel concept. The idea of 'Unrechtskontext' (context of injustice) should, they suggested, guide curatorial ethics when assessing the circumstances in which museum collections were acquired. Among considerations here was not just the contexts of the past, but also whether any particular injustice 'continued to have an effect in the present'. For the Goethe Annual Lecture 2021, Dan Hicks posed the following questions: How should we understand the 'Unrechtskontexte' of colonial legacies today? By the standards of the time - or by the values that we hold today? And how can these legacies be meaningfully dismantled?

The Goethe-Institut London and the Somerset House Studios are collaborating to establish a new international artist residency programme to support a Germany-based artist working at the intersection of music, art and technology. For the inaugural edition from October 2021 we invited Berlin-based and Texas-born DJane, writer and performer Juliana Huxtable for the residency. Time to discuss her influences, visions, opinions, but also the current situation of clubbing in a global pandemic for a brief moment on a cloudy Thursday afternoon in South Kensington, London.

“Going Green and the SouthKenGreenTrail - a greener infrastructure for a sustainable metropolis”. A podcast with artist Natalie Taylor, the architecture and design collective Urban Radicals and landscape architect Adam Harris.

In the summer of 2020, British author and broadcaster John Kampfner released a new book with a provocative title... Why the Germans Do it Better: Notes from a Grown-Up Country. In this episode, we share his 2019 Brady Lecture with the same title: Why the Germans Do it Better. And yes, the title made us a bit uncomfortable too. But don't worry; this isn't an episode about one nation being superior to any others; it's about what democratic countries in the West can learn from a unified Germany that they helped to create.

With Brexit in the rear view, the decades-long discussion and debate about the role and purpose of the European Union has taken on a new urgency. In this episode, we ask two young intellectuals–one from the UK and one from Germany–to reflect on what Europe means to them. Alice Boyd is a composer, theater maker and environmental campaigner from the UK. Simon Strauß is a German historian, writer and journalist. Both were born into the European Union and have used their work to think critically about what it means now and what it can mean.

Art has the power to change the world by highlighting critical issues, but what responsibility does the art world have to make their own changes and take inventory of internal practices that are unsustainable or inequitable, to address the environmental cost of putting on exhibitions? In this episode, Iwona Blazwick, Director of the renowned Whitechapel Gallery in East London, grapples with these questions on the future of museums and galleries. Transcript available at goethe.de/uk/podcast

The creative writing of Black feminist authors has revolutionary potential. It challenges dominant assumptions and expands the horizons of the current literary audience. In this episode, activist and author Sharon Dodua Otoo honours her literary ancestors and mentors, condemns the racist structures that deprived them of deserved praise during their lifetimes, and explores how Black feminist creative writing can move our society forward. Transcript available at goethe.de/uk/podcast

Now, as the world is facing a new economic crisis, how could the arts and civil society benefit from blockchain technologies? Hear from artists, curators, technologists and researchers who are using blockchain to revolutionise their way of working. This episode features Ruth Catlow, artistic director of Furtherfield, Ben Vickers, CTO at the Serpentine Galleries, and artist collectives from Berlin to Moscow who are part of the DAOWO Global Initiative. Transcript available at goethe.de/uk/podcast

One month into the first lockdown of 2020, we called Kris Nelson, Artistic Director and CEO at LIFT:the London International Festival of Theatre, to find out how theatres and their people were surviving. In this episode, we’re returning to that conversation because it captures a unique moment in the pandemic upheaval, and we’re calling Kris once again–a year later–to find out what has changed and how his predictions for theatre have shifted. Transcript available at goethe.de/uk/podcast

A special preview of the new and improved Talking Culture. Episode 1 will be available on 28 April. Talking Culture is a platform for thought-provoking discussions about the future of Europe, the UK, and the world. Through fascinating interviews with thinkers and doers in the arts and culture sector, this show investigates how creative fields are emerging from the tumultuous present into the future. What role will culture play in a post-Brexit, post-COVID-19, post-colonial world? And how can it contribute to a future that prioritises sustainability, collaboration, diversity, and inclusion? From the Goethe-Institut London, this is a podcast about the critical role and value that arts and culture have in our societies.

Even though it’s still a nascent technology, the blockchain is slowly changing the arts. It’s not only inspired artworks – it could also change the way artists work and has the potential to decentralise the money and power in the art world. In 2008, when the Global Financial Crisis was plunging the world into economic disaster, Bitcoin was invented – a decentralised, digital currency that bypassed traditional central banks. Bitcoin ran on the Blockchain – a permanent, private and open way of administering financial transactions. In the years since, a growing number of people began thinking about how blockchain technology might transform arts and culture. Now, as the world is facing a new economic crisis, how could arts, culture and civil society benefit from the blockchain? Hear from artists, curators, technologists and researchers who are using blockchain to revolutionise their way of working. This episode features Ruth Catlow, artistic director of Furtherfield, Ben Vickers, CTO at the Serpentine Galleries, and collectives from Berlin to Moscow, who form the DAOWO Global Initiative, part of the DAOWO blockchain laboratory and debate series: www.goethe.de/daowo

In this episode, we are speaking to British composer & theatre maker Alice Boyd and German historian & journalist Simon Strauß and ask them: What role does Europe play in your lives? Is your generation sceptical of Europe? And how does Brexit affect you? Europe consists of many different stories – personal stories of people from different generations. In this talk, we are discussing Europe from the perspective of young European intellectuals and creatives. Alice Boyd and Simon Strauß are involved in the project “European Archive of Voices” which collects interviews of well-known Europeans born before 1945. Their work is integral to the Goethe-Institut’s project “Tell Me About Europe” taking place during the German EU Council Presidency 2020: www.goethe.de/tellmeabouteurope

Shipping works of art, frequent international travel or single-use exhibition materials makes sustainability a pressing issue in the art world. Another dimension of sustainability in the arts and cultural sector is the role of women. How are female leaders using their voice to drive a sustainable future both within and outside the sector? In the third episode of Talking Culture, Iwona Blazwick talks about sustainability in the art and cultural world and discusses why women's histories and awareness might make them “more alive to the climate crisis and how to battle it.” The director of the Whitechapel Gallery has also been participating in the Goethe-Institut’s “Women in Culture Network,” where an international group of female leaders shares aspects of female leadership and empowerment.

Covid-19 is only one of the most recent challenges for theatres and festivals worldwide. The rise of right-wing parties have created mistrust and misunderstanding towards the performative arts sector in many countries. Why does theatre matter right now? The second episode of “Talking Culture” welcomes Kris Nelson for an exclusive interview. The Artistic Director and CEO at LIFT, London International Festival of Theatre, and the Goethe-Institut London invited a number of theatre and festival directors to the first workshop of “Dramatic Episodes” at the end of 2019. The series “Dramatic Episodes” looks at the future role of theatre in civil society: goethe.de/uk/podcast

A lecture by author and broadcaster John Kampfner who focused on his forthcoming book provocatively titled “Why the Germans Do It Better. Lessons from a Grown Up Country.” The event took place on 4 December 2019 as part of the annual Brady Lecture series at the Goethe-Institut London.