Fri 23 - Sun 25 April 2004

ZKM_Media Theatre and Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe
Admission to the entire symposium € 10
Friday evening € 3
Saturday and Sunday € 5 per day
The concert Where, by the prophet's beard, is Europe? by Manfred Reichert is not included in the admission price (tickets sold by the city of Karlsruhe)

[ -> Program]

According to the news magazine Der Spiegel Istanbul is »Turkey's New York - the Orient's outpost in the Occident«. The city on the Bosporus has always been a outlet between East and West and thus in historical, political and cultural terms a place of contrasts, in which exemplary modes of coexistence have recently been torpedoed by fundamentalist terrorist groups.

During the European Cultural Festival 2004 on the theme of Istanbul the ZAK | Center for Cultural and General Studies are being joined by the ZKM and the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe in staging a symposium from 23 to 25 April under the heading »Ex Oriente Lux? - Insights into the German-Turkish Cultural Mosaic« chaired by Dr. Caroline Robertson-von Trotha [ZAK], Prof. Peter Weibel [ZKM] and Achim Thorwald [Badisches Staatstheater].

This German-Turkish symposium will address three key topics: Istanbul - City of Contrasts and Simultaneities; The Policy of Recognition; and Art, Consumption, Popular Culture - A Modern Bridge? The lectures will be accompanied by two panel discussions, a film and a cabaret show.

Everyday discrimination, the formation of possible parallel societies and the approaches adopted by radicalisation movements and those that oppose them provide points of departure for questions about alternative courses of action and scenarios for the future. In what ways can the precept of religious freedom and the possible abuse of the traditional European concept of tolerance be interpreted and discussed?

In taking up these issues the German-Turkish symposium will focus on and call into question the special symbolic significance of the metropolitan city of Istanbul as a bridge between Orient and Occident.

-> European Cultural Festival 2004
-> ZAK | Center for Cultural and General Studies, Karlsruhe