Quo vadis ars?

The situation in the cultural sector has been described and discussed in numerous interviews, corona diaries, comments and reports in the past few weeks. Our annotated collection of currently 193 sources gathers voices from different sectors and media. This creates a picture of the cultural landscape in crisis, whose temporal transformation can be explored interactively via a dedicated tag cloud.


 

How we can save our theatres . Britain’s powerhouse cultural sector needs investment, not charity

by Sam Mendes (05 Jun 2020)
Original source: Financial Times

With regards to the grave situation for theatres in the UK Sir Sam Mendes believes to have a plan how to help this rich culture to survive. The British film and stage director underlines the economic factor of the UK as cultural »soft super power«: Here live theatre not only generates ticket revenues, but is breeding new talents for film industry. To save the »multi-faceted organism« of live theatre he provides a mixture of recipes. First off all he pleas to sustain the workforce. Above all he proposes a tax relief increased from 20 per cent to 50 per cent for the next three years. Finally, he introduces a new model for governmental support:  He proposes the state to function as an »Angel« similar to a private investor co-producing new programs. So the government does not provide subsidies, but functions as public investor getting also share of the revenue in case of a successful production.

Read More Read Less

tag Theater Sam Mendes Steuererleichterung Kulturförderung
Performing Arts/ Cinema Statement

War’s das mit dem Wumms? . Aktionsplan und Stellungnahme des Netzwerk Autorenrechte (NAR) zum Konjunkturpaket „NEUSTART KULTUR“
That's it with the oomph? . Action plan and statement of the Network of Authors' Rights (NAR) on the economic stimulus package "NEW START CULTURE"

by Netzwerk Autorenrechte (05 Jun 2020)
Original source: Netzwerk Autorenrechte

The economic stimulus package passed by the federal government provides hardly any subsidies for the book sector. The Network of Authors' Rights (NAR) is calling for improvements in this respect so that authors and translators are not pushed into social welfare (Hartz IV). Various funding possibilities are outlined and the importance of literature not only as a source of knowledge and education, but also as an economic factor is pointed out.

tag Buchbranche Konjunkturpaket Hartz IV
Literature/ Text Statement

Das Eine-Milliarde-Euro-Baby
The One-Billion-Euro-Baby

by Dirk Peitz (05 Jun 2020)
Original source: Zeit

Dirk Peitz explores the question of how the crisis of culture in Germany can be described exactly and who is currently bearing the costs that arise in the cultural sector. The »latent lack of systemic relevance« could become a problem for the industry if the economic crisis becomes more severe or lasts longer than currently expected. While the approximately 1.7 million employees are currently an argument in favour of artists, cultural funding could be discontinued very quickly in times of tight budgets.

tag Monika Grütters Konjunkturpaket Kulturförderung Systemrelevanz
All sections Analyse

Warum wir das Kino brauchen
Why we need the cinema

by Edgar Reitz (04 Jun 2020)
Original source: Die Zeit

In the digital age there are hardly any rooms of privacy left.  Like few other places, the cinemas of today offer an offline space in which we are completely with ourselves. Despite the film experience in the community we feel here as individuals. The medium of cinema must seize this opportunity, design the spaces accordingly and network them with the other cultural offerings in a city. In this way, new event concepts can be created that make the cinema attractive again as a space for experience. 

tag Kino Offline-Raum Lebendigsein
Performing Arts/ Cinema Gastbeitrag

Elend und Energie . Musik in Corona-Zeiten
Misery and Energy . Music in Times of Corona

by Eva Blaskewitz (02 Jun 2020)
Original source: Deutschlandfunk

Eva Blaskewitz takes the listeners of the  radio broadcast Music Scene at Deutschlandfunk on a journey through the music landscape during the corona crisis. Both individual musicians and orchestras are currently developing diverse new formats in order to keep in touch with their audience. But the costs for events that have not taken place are high, the self-employed musicians fear for their existence.

tag klassische Musik Absagen Honorare Konzerthäuser Konzertagenturen Onlineangebote Balkonkonzerte Idagio
Music Bericht

Was wir im Lockdown über das Digitale gelernt haben

by Anika Meier (02 Jun 2020)
Original source: Monopol

The corona crisis has accelerated the shift to the digital world. Art exhibitions were also presented online in times of lockdown. If there is no other choice, even these institutions who have tended to avoid online media are now turning to social media to communicate and exchange ideas. In her column, Anika Meier examines what we have learned with regard to the digital world during the crisis, presenting various activities of the recent months, from livestreams via Instagram to online viewing rooms and augmented reality. In doing so, she urges art critics to think about new standards for evaluating art on the Net. Naive euphoria or unreflected criticism of the fact that virtual exhibitions cannot replace real museum visits do not do justice to either the artistic-curatorial claim or the medium.

Read More Read Less

tag Online Viewing Room Streaming Augmented Reality Hans Ulrich Obrist Iwan Wirth Koo Jeong A Krise als Chance
Visual Arts/Design Kolumne

Schauspielerin Stephanie Lexer über Art ist relevant . Wie wichtig ist Kunst?
Actress Stephanie Lexer on the initiative Art is relevant . How essential is art?

by Stephanie Lexer (31 May 2020)
Original source: Nachrichten München

Art and culture are constantly present in our everyday life. Whether it is the music we listen to on the radio, the series we watch in the evening or the book we read. During the Corona crisis many of the actors felt to exist under the radar. Not only were art and culture not considered to be systemically relevant, individuals also felt that their work was not appreciated. The initiative "Art is relevant" sees this as a symptom of our time, which is reinforced by the Corona crisis. The appreciation for art and culture is declining more and more in the present. This must change! At the same time, however, the industry must also become aware that it has a decisive influence on the way society thinks and acts and thus also has the responsibility to think about what our world should look like.
The actress Stephanie Lexer is co-initiator of the initiative "Art is relevant", which, however, does not want to see itself as a pure Corona initiative, but will also be committed to the interests of art and culture beyond that. One example is the critical questioning of online offerings. Often the impression arises that the work of artists of all disciplines can be regarded as a hobby that can easily be made available online. However, this is also a profession with which one has to earn a living.

Read More Read Less

tag Systemrelevanz Wertschätzung Onlineangebote Filmproduktion Stephanie Lexer Kulturförderung
All sections Video-Interview

Kein »Zurück auf Los« für die Kultur
No »Go back to square one« for culture

by Gero Schließ (30 May 2020)
Original source: Deutsche Welle

Beside aviation, tourism and gastronomy, the pandemic has hit culture hardest. The cultural and creative industries are still waiting for the saving stimulus package that will compensate for the consequences and maintain the infrastructure. What is already foreseeable: the damage in the cultural sector is gigantic and it will have long-term effects. Part of the problem is the large number of employees who live on the edge of the subsistence level and have no reserves. This raises the fundamental cultural-political question of how to improve the situation after the crisis .

Read More Read Less

tag Konjunkturpaket Mini-Jobs prekäre Lebenslage kulturelle Infrastruktur
All sections Kommentar

Kritische Verteidigerin der hiesigen Demokratie . Neues Buch von Juli Zeh
Critical advocate of democracy . New book by Juli Zeh

by Andrea Gerk, Arno Orzessek (25 May 2020)
Original source: Deutschlandfunk Kultur

Juli Zeh's novel "Corpus Delicti" has already been published in 2009. So it is not a Corona novel, even though it fits perfectly into our time. In her dystopia, Zeh deals with the topic of health dictatorship by describing the seductive power of a health policy that promises everyone a long and healthy life. The bible of the system is entitled "Health as a principle of state legitimation" and establishes the METHOD, which in the novel legitimizes the primacy of the health of the individual and society in a purely logical way. In order to keep the promise of health, all possible data is collected from citizens. Zeh's criticism of people's self-subjugation in terms of health, fitness and performance optimization is unmistakable.
Since the novel is school reading, the author has now published a volume of interviews in which she answers the questions that students were asking her. The book is a self-portrait of the citizen Juli Zeh and allows for critical reflection on the Corona crisis. Zeh's statement - »It is really not easy to recognize the unreasonable in reason.« - can certainly be transferred to the present.
The critic Arno Orzessek appears to be very taken with Zeh's book, as he shares her »criticism of comprehensive preventive thinking, of reward systems for correct, i.e. conformist, systems of living«, as they can currently be observed in China. »Once you believe that life and politics are primarily about defending against any form of threat, then all other values fade away and I fear she is right about that.«
With regard to the Corona pandemic, Orzessek considers the book to be quite remarkable. He himself is very irritated by the at times »extreme authority of the virologists« in recent weeks and months. To reduce reality merely to the current case and death figures reported by the Robert Koch Institute neglects many important aspects of our everyday lives. The author and constitutional judge Juli Zeh, together with other philosophers and politicians, also pleaded in late April in »Der Spiegel« for the preservation of proportionality and made constructive suggestions as to how the rights of the individual could be preserved in the present.

Read More Read Less

tag Corona-Roman Dystopie Gesundheitsdiktatur Grundrechte Corpus Delicti Juli Zeh Konformismus
Literature/ Text Rezension

Zurück aus dem Netz: Theater unter Corona-Auflagen
Back from the Web: Theatre under Corona Constraints

by Susanne Burkhardt, Elena Philipp (22 May 2020)
Original source: Deutschlandfunk Kultur

In the »Theatre podcast« by Deutschlandfunk, Susanne Burkhardt and Elena Philipp, theater critic Cornelia Fiedler and actor Matthias Wuttke investigate the limitations of the crisis and the opportunities that the reopening of houses can bring. Few houses have found ways to show current productions under the conditions of the lockdown. It turns out that theaters in Germany have developed many formats in recent decades that now enable corona-compatible forms of theater.

tag Theater Theaterformen Onlineangebote Hygieneregeln Cornelia Fiedler Matthias Wuttke
Performing Arts/ Cinema Podcast

News

Twitter


The signet of facing arts joining the faces of STORM.

Facing arts is a non-profi project. Feel free to support it and get in touch with us!

The Team

Facing arts is a projet by STORM.

STORM is an acronym playing with the initials by Miriam Seidler & Tim Otto Roth, who are hit both by the Corona crisis. Dr. Miriam Seidler is a scholar in German literature and currently works as specialist in public relations. Dr. Tim Otto Roth is a scholar in art and science history and works as a conceptual artist and composer. He is known for his huge projects in public space, cooperations with leading scientific institutions and his immersive sound and light installations. Miriam and Tim collaborate regularly for years. With facing arts they reaslize their first common art project.
You find more informatin on both initiators on www.miriamseidler.de and www.imachination.net.

Special thanks to Paco Croket for the tag cloud programming!

Getting in touch

Get in touch

Write an email to
or use the following form to contact us:

Impressum


Adresse

Privacy Notice

Content
The content of this website has been carefully prepared and reviewed. However, it does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness or quality of the information provided, or that it is up-to-date. Liability claims against the publisher in respect of material or immaterial damage caused by the use or non-use of the information offered or by inaccurate or incomplete information are in principle ruled out provided that there is no provable culpable intent or gross negligence on the institute's part.
The publisher reserves the right to alter, amend or delete parts of the site or the entire offering, or to cease publication, without prior notice.

Links
Where the publisher provides direct or indirect references (i.e. links) to external websites, it is liable only if the publisher has precise knowledge of the content and if it is technically possible and reasonable for it to prevent use in the event that they contain unlawful content.
The publisher expressly states that the linked websites had no illegal content when the links were set up. It has no influence whatsoever on the current and future design of the linked sites and hereby distances itself expressly from any alterations to the content that were made after the links to those sites were set up.
The Publisher is not responsible for the content, availability, correctness or accuracy of the linked sites or of the offerings, links or advertisements therein. It is not liable for illegal, incorrect or incomplete content or in particular for damages arising from the use or non-use of the information provided on linked sites.

Copyright
In all publications, the publisher endeavours to comply with applicable copyrights. If, in spite of this, an infringement of copyright should occur, the publisher will after notification remove the relevant object from its publication or indicate the appropriate copyright. All brand names and trademarks mentioned within the Internet offering that are possibly protected by third parties are without limitation subject to the provisions of the law on trademarks and related signs and the property rights of the registered owners. The mere fact that they have been mentioned should not be taken to mean that trademarks are not protected by third-party rights.

Privacy Policy
The use of the internet pages of www.facingscience.net is possible without any indication of personal data; however, if a data subject wants to use the contact form or image upload form of our website, processing of personal data could become necessary. If the processing of personal data is necessary and there is no statutory basis for such processing, we generally obtain consent from the data subject.