Odyssey. The Cultural Region of the Mediterranean
1. Preliminary remarks
2. Festival of Oriental Cultures
3. Place and activities
4. The Historical Background
5. Themes
6. Sponsors
7. Cost
8. A New Event Concept on the Cultural Region of the Mediterranean
9. The MuseumsInselFestival
10. The Festival Target Group
Odyssey 2005:
Damascus – Cordoba
Festival of Oriental Cultures
Preliminary remarks
In 2005, we shall be launching a new project – Odyssey – as a festival
within a festival at the annual Berlin MuseumsInselFestival.
Paying due respect to the archaeological treasures on the Museumsinsel, Odyssey
is devoted to the Mediterranean cultural region. A major highlight of the 175th
anniversary of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, will be the move of the Egyptian
museum, with its world-famous Nofrete as Egypt’s cultural ambassador,
from Charlottenburg to the Museumsinsel.
The Odyssey will have a number of thematic windows.
In 2005, it will take the form of a festival entitled: Damascus – Cordoba.
Festival of Oriental Cultures.
The idea of staging an oriental festival arose in October 2004 when a very successful series of events lasting five days was held to celebrate the centennial of the Museum of Islamic Art at the Pergamon Museum on the Museumsinsel. (See enclosure.)
We are delighted to take this opportunity to present you this year’s programme.
Odyssey 2005:
Damascus – Cordoba
Festival of Oriental Cultures
A 10-day oriental festival is planned that will give visitors an opportunity to experience the extraordinary wealth and diversity of Islamic art and culture. We wish to confront the view of Islam that is coloured by daily reports of violence with an attitude of mutual respect, an attitude that we wish to foster, and which we feel people should encourage and insist upon.
Our oriental Damascus-Cordoba Festival is intended as a bridge. We wish to send a positive signal to the Islamic population and to oppose intolerance based on ignorance. Could there be a better bridge than our coming together to show our appreciation of Islamic art? And what better occasion is there for promoting mutual understanding than a festival focusing on the history of communication between the Orient and the Occident?
Time frame:
Thursday 1 September 2005 to Sunday 11 September 2005 (11 days)
Motto:
We not only want to promote understanding between cultures but also foster mutual
respect, tolerance and acceptance.
Place and activities:
BERLIN MUSEUMSINSEL (World Cultural Heritage Sites)
1) COURT OF HONOUR, PERGAMON MUSEUM
Large Oriental Bazaar with a cultural programme (music, dance, theatre and readings,
as well as displays and presentations by artists and craftsmen) with merchants
and a range of culinary delights.
2) MUSEUM FOR ISLAMIC ART (MSCHATTA HALL)
Vorderasiatisches Museum (in front of the Ischtar Gate)
A cultural programme with concerts, guided tours, readings, lectures and discussions
3) IN FRONT OF THE OLD NATIONAL GALLERY
Films and open-air concerts
The Historical Background:
Damascus and Cordoba, the cornerstones of the first “Islamic Empire”,
are the two most widely separated regions in the Mediterranean area. At no time
from the period of the Umayyads on, were the extreme western and the extreme
eastern parts or the north and the south of the Mediterranean region as close
as they were then.
With the um.dyn. in the 7th century, the legendary age of revelation, with its
four Rashid caliphs, passed into an age of more secular realism. Damascus became
the centre of this open-minded Islam, whose influence extended from Central
Asian to the Atlantic coast of North Africa.
At the height of its power, the Iberian Empire of the West Goths came under
the sphere of influence of the Umayyads. This greatly benefited Andalusia, which
thus experienced its spiritual flowering as a leading civilisation – and
not only in the Islamic world, but also in the European world. The Umayyads
also profited greatly from this development. For although they had to surrender
power in their home country of Syria to the Abbasids, Cordoba – under
the Umayyads – became the seat of the Caliph, and an unprecedented, exemplary,
fertile culture of mutual high regard came into being between the different
religions.
Themes:
The theme complex dealing with the Umayyads is represented by a wealth of exhibits
from the Museum for Islamic Art:
· Early works from every sphere of the Islamic art will
be presented, making a significant contribution towards understanding Islamic
cultures
· Visitors can hear the common musical roots of Judaic-Christian-Islamic
song
· There will be contributions extending the hand of
peace to Syrian culture and thus making a contribution to current political
discourse
· They will allow visitors to trace the role of the
Jews at the islamic Centre of Science in Toledo.
In addition to the countless events held at the exhibition in the Museum for
Islamic Art in front of the original masterpieces and the Altes Nationalgalerie,
we shall be transforming the Pergamon Museum’s Court of Honour into an
oriental bazaar with extraordinary Bedouin tents, as well as oriental culinary
delights and wares. A diversified programme will provide traditional and modern
music (including large-scale open-air concerts) dance, theatre performances,
readings and panel discussions….
The festival aims to illustrate and help people grasp the influences running
through the various cultures and arts on the one hand, and present a broad spectrum
of events embracing all aspects of Islamic culture, traditional and popular
on the other.
Sponsors:
Besucher-Dienste der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, Stiftung
Preußischer Kulturbesitz and
Museum & Location Veranstaltungsgesellschaft der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin
mbH
Programme:
Besucher-Dienste der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin in co-operation with Piranha
Events (music), Berliner Inselfilm GmbH (readings, films) and other partners
Production:
German Arts
Advertising and public relations work:
Jung von Matt, Dussmann, Wombat Media
Media partners:
rbb-Fernsehen, Radio EINS, Der Tagesspiegel, Zitty
Cost:
We currently estimate the cost at approx. 200,000 euro
(programme, organisation, technical equipment, general equipment, advertising)
Financing:
The festival is to be partly financed from the receipts (admission fees, stand
rents). In addition, we shall have to look for promotion funds and also win
over sponsors.
We are looking for:
Sponsors and partners:
Companies that are interested in this subject (positive image)
Embassies and foundations
FOR: Donations of money, contributions in kind, communication
We can offer:
A top location: Berlin Museumsinsel (World Heritage Site)
Promotion and press, logos and ads on advertising material (posters and flyers),
on-the-spot presence, special offers to business partners by arrangement (special
events, VIP receptions…)
Advertising measures:
Posters, flyers, postcards, advertising through media partnerships, advertising
via the Internet (own feature on the website MuseumsInselFestival, links to
partner websites)
Odyssey. A New Event Concept on the Cultural Region of the Mediterranean
From our standpoint in Berlin, we wish to establish points of reference between ancient traditions and the very latest political disarray: the Mediterranean region, which is the most popular destination for the majority of native Berliners, not only draws on rich cultural traditions that go way back in time, its political tensions, religious conflicts, provocative nationalistic gestures and devastating wars have – in tragic fashion – made it the focus of public attention across the globe.
Like no other region on earth, the vast Mediterranean region is marked by a
very turbulent and colourful history. The present national borders, which we
Central Europeans take for granted, are barely more than a century old in the
southern and eastern Mediterranean and Southeast Europe. Since Antiquity, and
right up to the present, this huge, complex region has been subject to constantly
changing dynasties and systems of rule: the ancient Greeks, Romans, Persians,
Byzantines, Arabs, Osmans, Islamisation, European colonialism and the EU. From
time immemorial, the region has seen clashes between the most diverse political,
social, religious and cultural systems and traditions. These cultures reflect
the varied and often competing influences which formed them.
These complex historical developments have not only triggered conflicts but
also produced an incredible diversity of regional cultures and musical traditions.
Shared experiences of political and social realities have always been reflected
at an individual level in a wide variety of schools and styles. Even today,
when old traditions and the experience of modern urban life are inspiring musicians
of all generations – as well as those who have emigrated and those who
have stayed at home – to create new forms of a culture conscious of its
traditions, the musical kaleidoscope of the Mediterranean region leaves little
to be desired in terms of sheer diversity.
Odyssey – myth or reality? where is the journey taking us?
With reference to the scanty evidence of Homer’s famous epic, there are
countless theories about what actually happened. In the socially inflamed atmosphere
that has evolved in the wake of September 11, there might be even more to come.
People seem to be fond of creating divisions where it might be more important
to create islands of tolerance. Political conflicts and cultural exchanges must
not be allowed to exclude one another. The Odyssey’s music programme will
bring together the worlds of oriental Mediterranean sounds on the stage at the
MuseumsInselFestival and continue the discourse that ran lie a thread through
the Heimatklängefestival in 1994 and the House of World Cultures’
Mediterranean Festival in 1995/96. This discourse is more relevant and pressing
than ever before.
The MuseumsInselFestival
May to September: cinema, concerts, theatre performances, readings and museums
www.museumsinselfestival.info
In 2005, the encounters between world culture and contemporary live culture
will begin on 6 May. Running for a total of five months (from May to September),
the festival is not only the ‘longest open air festival in the world’
but also one of the outstanding trademarks of Berlin’s summer season:
with a wealth of first-rate attractions.
Launched in 2002 with the aim of communicating the progress made with the Museumsinsel
master plan, the Festival now builds cultural bridges from historical Berlin
to the new city centre, and even as far as Dahlem. Like the Museumsinsel, the
Cultural Forum, Potsdamer Platz and the museums in Dahlem (the art and cultures
of the world) also serve as locations for open-air events. The three museums
provide some of the finest open-air venues in Berlin.
In 2005, the Festival – held under the Motto “all the arts –
and endlessly” – once again aims to present to a broad public the
very finest culture at venues steeped in culture. Timelines will accompany both
the exhibition and the historical events presented and lend shape to our varied
programme. During the day, internationally famous art treasures will lure visitors
into the museums, whilst in the evening the genius loci will inspire world-class
artistic performances, creating bonds between times, cultures and artistic interpretations.
The MuseumsInselFestival in Berlin has set itself the goal of conveying a modern
museum image so that museums can be experienced both as places where we preserve
our cultural heritage and as openings for new forms of art and culture that
are still evolving.
Every year, as many as 140,000 visitors attend film screenings, concerts, theatre performances, readings and radio plays at the sites of world culture. With every Festival ticket our visitors buy, they contribute one euro to a restoration project on the Museumsinsel. In return, they can visit the permanent exhibitions at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin at a reduced rate when they show the Festival ticket.
The Festival Target Group
The audience of the MuseumsInselFestival is mainly made up of highly educated
young people between the ages of twenty and forty-five. With its very differentiated
and first-class programme, the Festival attracts both students and well-paid
working people who are interested in art and culture. Some events, e.g. the
cinema programme and certain concerts, are attended by young people aged between
sixteen and twenty-five.
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