Category: Europe

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Concorde

„These were the days my friends, we thought they’d never end …“ And yet the Concorde served for decades as a massively polluting aircraft for those paying or had their flights paid be their enterprises to cross the Atlantic ocean. Yes it was the fastest way, but we learned that it didn’t really make sense. After a technical default with an explosion the entire craze got stopped. Now next to Orly airport the remainders of this undoubted design highlight is exposed. It serves more as a warning that not all technical innovations are viable as commercial or ecological innovations. The delta-design as aircraft is still the most common design children play around with as paper models. Wing designs have made progress to adapt the bent end on each wing. So should do our paper models of them. The Concorde is also a perfect example to learn from concerning the link between “Society and Technology”. Similar mistakes seem to occur still today. “When will we ever learn, when will we ever learn…”.

Concorde near Orly airport France 2023
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Civil Protection

A lot of important activities do not receive the attention they deserve. During a humanitarian crisis, Europe frequently acts with varying involvement of Member States. This holds true in droughts, inundations, earth quakes, civil wars or imperialist state conflicts. The extent and time of commitment are an additional and differentiating element. Coordination of such activities is important for those wanting to help and those asking or receiving assistance. Efforts, equipment and political support vary enormously as well. There is a need to approach this topic more strategically. The Union Civil Protection Knowledge Network (UCPKN) goes a long way to attempt to find a common language, data infrastructure and responses in this respect. It surely is important to go beyond the piecemeal approach of the past to be able to address emergencies in multiple kinds more effectively. It is, however, also in some instances a highly controversial issue as well. For each term in this old (Tschernobyl nuclear disaster) and still novel field (Fukushima) for joint activities, we have to come up with compromises of definitions.
For example, what constitutes an emergency? Does the climate crisis and disasters related to it already constitute an emergency now? Some say yes, we have to act now to avoid bigger floods and wild fires as of next year. Others, do not want to tackle the root causes, but rather focus on curing actual devastating effects of disasters.
We are back to a well-known topic of preventive rather than curative approaches. In the meantime, we are convinced that we have to commit more resources to both approaches: immediate relief and structural change to prevent an otherwise never-ending sequence of disasters in varying places.
Most important probably is the keeping of address books and fast digital networking facilities to react and communicate with the competent institutions and civil organisations. Beyond the involvement and linking of experts in the field, the larger public and volunteers make up for additional invaluable resources to act.
It is crucial to make it possible for decentral links between cities like in city partnerships to be involved. Building on existing human to human links motivates and mobilises huge additional resources. Of course, continuous training is a very important element in all those efforts. We should embrace it in the private and public sector, at school and in retirement even. (Image: Extrait de Peter Paul Rubens La chute des géants MRBAB, Brussels)

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Meta-language

Some writers accomplish the formidable task to draft a text that encompasses more than one language. Samuel Beckett surely is one of them. Arnaud Beaujeu (2011) exposes the meta-language that Beckett creates through his reductionism and minimalist style. It is first a deconstruction of language or languages expressed in French and/or English at times. There is an underlying discourse dealing with the link and sometimes opposition, but always a relationship between at least these 2 languages. Beaujeu reveals 2 other languages: « the trivial and the spiritual ». The reductionism of Beckett leads to a conscious expression of the obvious, the trivial in conversations. This, however, he turns in the theatre piece “cette fois” (original “That Time”) into a ritual, spiritual version of 3 persons A, B, C in a prayer like liturgy. In taking out the sentence structure and obligations of grammar more generally the text becomes a rhythmic reading of words. Today we might say a Rap-version of a text.
The meta-language is the spiritual experience and another kind of access and questioning of memory, eventually even reconstructing a collective memory. Maybe the meta-language is the attempt to collectivise and internalize the dialogue that has turned into a trilogue.
It is out of the memory of persons or historical evolutions that Beckett builds his meta-language. Adorno (1974) put this in a relationship to Shakespeare’s dramatic work and the experience of the horrors of Nazi-Germany.  Sarcastically put, the question to Adorno was not ” to be or not to be”, but “to die or to die”. Beckett travelled in Germany extensively in the year 1936 and faught in the 2nd World War with the French resistance.
„Paroles, musique, mémoire“ (Beaujeu, 2011) span a triangle which allows for a profound, albeit mostly empty space. Beckett offers a safety net to bridge the gap by way of reconstructing a language reduced to basics as well as meditative silence. The script lies in the meta-language and poetry is the more common access to this meta or essential level of our existence. Listening to the meta-language is like listening to polyphonic music. Some find it very disruptive, others a spiritual experience. Meta-language is all around us, like it or not. (Image: Französische Friedrichstadtkirche Berlin, Exhibition Princesses, 2023)

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Ukraine Art

The touring exhibition of art works from Ukraine 1900-1930s is on show in Brussels at the Royal Museums of fine art Brussels in November December 2023. Before Ukraine became swallowed up in the Sowjetunion there was a very active independent artist world that had close links to all capitals in Western Europe. All art disciplines were covered. The paintings of Vadym Meller from 1919 (Aquarell on carton) show designs for a dance performance to the music of Chopin. The modern designs and vivid colors reflect the conscious reference to art movements across Europe. The inspiration from dance to painting is a recurrent theme in impressionistic paintings, abstract paintings and into our own time period. Ukrainian art from early on in the 20th century had a broad scope beyond the narrow focus on art controlled by the soviets. Well worth enlarging our vision to take into account these creative masterpieces from Eastern Europe as independent voices.

Vadym Meller 1919 (Aquarell on carton), Brussels MRBAB 2023-11
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Georgia

The Republic of Georgia is honored with a wide ranging program in Brussels in the series of countries presented as part of the”Europalia” events and exhibitions. The exhibition at Bozar in the center of Brussels has a focus on the years between 1900-1936. It is astonishing to look at the creative examples of adaptations from western modern art with cubism and expressionist resemblance. Many artists had travelled to western parts of Europe or trained at well-known art schools there. Own adaptations to paintings, theatre and cinema yielded a unique style of Georgian modernism before Stalinism put an end to independent artists and their creative work.

During the short spells of political independence Georgia managed to re-establish each time a remarkable will to its own culture. Unity with artistic pluralism is a core value of the European unity and union as well. We are many and happy to have a chance with Georgian people to celebrate their artistic past and future.

catalog of exhibition Brussels 2023
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Beckett by Beckett

There is an interesting discourse in literature about how to define irony. This really begins with Plato commenting on Sokrates who makes use of the term “eirôneia”. In the history of the idea of irony comes next the philosopher Kierkegaard with his not-ironic treatise “The Concept of Irony. With Constant Reference to Socrates”. Reading philosophy can be really entertaining. It is, therefore, no surprise to find a publication entitled “Ironic Samuel Beckett” (Pol Popovic Karic, 2009). Following Karic there are 3 defining elements of irony: (1) “The message should be intentionally created, …(2) The meaning of an ironic message needs to be “covert”,… (3) During the analysis of a stable irony, the reader can assume that the first interpretation of the ironic message is correct.” (Pol Popovic Karic, 2009 p.49).
Additionally, to understand irony it might be necessary to know more about the context of the statement. Sometimes the ironic statement can only be interpreted as such if you have additional knowledge about the biography of the author (p.47). To understand Beckett better it is advisable to read about his life course in the many biographies available nowadays.
Beckett by Beckett, meaning the translation of Beckett by Beckett himself yields many fruitful insights into his kind of irony and constant reflection and laughing about himself as his very own form of irony. This becomes most evident in the many helpful tables Linda Collinge (2000) presents in her book on “Beckett traduit Beckett”. Translating irony is a tricky endeavour. Many of the translations do not seem to be straightforward at all and can only be understood from the perspective of the whole translation of a piece and the underlying “Haltung”, ironic attitude of the author to his own work. Beckett by Beckett remains a master piece for translaters beyond those from French to English. (Images: Linda Collinge, 2000, p.61-2).

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Beckett and philosophy

Beckett and philosophy is the title of challenging read of usually unconnected literatures. Richard Lane embarks on the challenge “theorising Beckett and Philosophy” in Part 1 of the book. This is followed by 2 other parts on “Beckett and French thought” and “Beckett and German thought”. The whole book constitutes an attempt to identify the links between seemingly unrelated work. Sometimes spurred by tiny citations, the importance of influences becomes apparent.
Beckett like Rousseau favours speech over writing. Speech giving access to nature. This, Beckett has taken from French thought traditions. Redefining philosophy after the 2nd world war links Beckett to the thoughts of Adorno and Habermas (early writings). Posing Nietzsche’s thoughts as a post-modern project of endless questioning, Beckett himself enters into a kind of Socratic dialogue with Nietzsche. Spoken words become writing, the written word resembles an unspeakable void. The borders between void and silence, between spoken and written, become blurred. The essence is the world in-between.
It appears like irony and yet it is our very existence. We probably need somebody to translate Beckett for us in order to better understand his philosophical stance. “Beckett translates Beckett” is such a book title. It invites us to study Beckett’s own efforts to translate himself, at least from one language to the other.

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Laughing Matters

It is time to dig out our copies of Samuel Beckett. Jon Fosse refers his work back to a tradition of Samuel Beckett. It is interesting to re-read some of the plays of Beckett. The famous “Waiting for Godot” or “Endgame” figure prominently on the reading list and theatres even today. Laura Salisbury (2012) honours Beckett in devoting a book on Beckett with the subtitle: Laughing matters, comic timing. She refers to a tradition founded by Aristotle: “man is the only animal that laughs”. Even in the most horrible scenarios of war and suffering, the human brain brings up thoughts containing jokes. Laughing makes us a part of the human species. Humour then becomes the “locus and limit of the human” (Salisbury, p. 4).
It is obvious that the basic problem of jokes like most of our communication has a “sender” versus “receiver” problem. People just do not have the same sense of humor in many instances. We might even go as far as stating that a person feels at home, if cracking a joke is readily understood by surrounding people. Test your cross-cultural competence by trying and sharing laughter. It is hard to do.
Beckett succeeds in a formidable way on a philosophical level even to bridge cultures and spread his way to look at the world from a meta-perspective.
Waiting … for what? Endgame … what is the game? Is it a game? These are laughing matters. Not for all, but for many on the way, trying to learn about existential matters that define humanity.
Through choices Samuel Beckett made in his lifetime, it becomes clear that he did not shun away from the most existential choices. In World War II he joined the French resistance movement and risked his life to save our laughter. Jon Fosse appears in the footsteps of Beckett, who decided to seek the silence and remoteness to develop his work for years also in the tiny village of “Ussy sur Marne” near Meaux and a bit further away, from Paris.
In Beckett’s own words he defines what a comic spirit is;
“comic spirit: oscillation between equilibrium and lack of it” (Salisbury, p.20), referring back to Racine and Molière. It is a social skill and it is not always easy to master, like for example to suppress laughter. Aging might play additional tricks on us (reduced strength of affect inhibition). There is a cognitive element in laughter, but also an affective and a spontaneous mix of reactions.
Affect inhibition is linked to the ability to resist spontaneous impulses like laughter.
Resisting impusles, but also resistance on a philisophical kind is in Beckett’s work “a resistance to the given world, while nevertheless displaying all its violent administrations;”. (Salisbury, p.172-3). In asking what remains after we abandon belief makes it necessary to foster a resistance to brutal deviance from humanity. Laughing may matter here more than we might want to acknowledge.
Source: Salisbury, Laura (2015). Samuel Beckett: laughing matters, comic timing. Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press.
Image: extrait Eric Desmasière, 2000 Sous le signe de la balance.

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Book traders

Some book traders have a mission. They assemble little corners on their book shelves or in tiny cupboards reserved for their passion or mission. In some book shops you’ll find a corner devoted to a specific language or translations, in some a world region is represented as a specific predilection. The choises are as numerous as there are books. Of course, from an economic point of view national and international bestsellers will be shown in the most prominent places. Second come books for children, cooking, life and travel guides. All those are the cash cows for book shops and traders.
But beyond those, it is always worth the effort to search for those little carefully curated corners in a good bookstore that derive from the vision or mission of the book trader, employed or owning the shop. In some areas this contributes even to a small community building. Readings of authors add to the function of book sellers to build a relationship to their non-random book buyers. I keep going back to my favourite book stores and libraries with those curated corners for decades and across countries to find inspiration and updating of special topics.
There is a danger that we are going to lose all this professional work of thousands of well-trained book traders that guide readers in addition to publishing houses, literary critics, numerous awards and huge marketing campaigns of derived products (as with Harry Potter). Living up to your mission while running a book store must be a great experience. If is really increases the buyers and readership for the topic, would be a great result. However, I suppose many bookshops manage to keep their little curated areas despite economic pressure to go with the mainstream marketing campaigns and top selling books and gadgets.
With the decline in the number of smaller book shops (in Germany from ca 5000 to 3000 in about 20 years) we see a parallel increase in number of franchises of the big book sellers (Thalia.de 500 stores in D). Big chain increase seems to cause fewer professionally trained book traders (-10% in D) within a country. For younger generations TikTok (BookTok) has taken over large parts of the “book counselling” of book traders previously. This was a big event at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2023 as well.
Time to rush to your local bookstore and book trader before it is taken over by a big chain or simply disappearing silently. We are likely to lose many of those book traders with a mission to make this world a better, more beautiful, more tasty, enjoyable or inclusive place.

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Art to People

It is a timely move to not only rely on people to come to exhibitions or a museum, but for art and artists to go towards people. Advertising exhibitions is a first step in this direction. As photography and selfies are all around us, it is a small step to get more people interested in art through photography. The treasures of archives and libraries complement the markets for art and photography. Susan Sontag has taught us the social sciences related to photography. Learning by looking is just like the well-known learning by-doing.

The BnF in Paris is advertising at the Gare de l’Est in Paris. Passing by the board might inspire thousands of travelers and commuters to stop for an instant. Eventually being bothered and to take notice of the intriguing image or images in this reproduction of a photograph or maybe 2 blended ones. A few might note down the address or take a screenshot with their mobile camera to remember. All these instances enlarge the audience for the exhibition or motivate people to go beyond the quick shot with their smartphone camera. The artwork related to photography mostly starts after the first shot. It is in fact sometimes quite a long journey to come up with the final image. Just go for it.

Gare de l’Est Paris 2023-11 BnF exhibition