Part 3: From Orient and Occident to a Mutual Understanding of Images

The three part exhibition project „Breaking the Stereotype“ is a project of the cultural studies focus „Cultures in Contact“ at Leopold-Franzens-University of Innsbruck/ Austria in cooperation with Kadir Has University, Istanbul (Department of Social Sciences), colleagues at Dokuz Eylül University and Ege University, Izmir, and at Notre Dame University, Beirut/ Lebanon. The project also cooperates with GenderLink, Salzburg/ Austria and Integrationszentrum Wörgl/ Austria. It deals with the ways Orient and Occident have been mutually stereotyped and aims at documenting the products of stereotyping as well as the mechanisms active in the stereotyping processes and at opening them to de-construction.

Exhibition parts 1 and 2 have been shown in Innsbruck and Kufstein in 2007, in Bonn and Istanbul in 2008, and in Rome and Wörgl in 2009.

Exhibition part 3 will be shown in Wörgl from 08 - 22 October, 2009, and in Antwerp in December 2009.

The 2010 project activities include the exhibition “Breaking the Stereotype 2010. From Orient and Occident to a Mutual Understanding of Images”, the creative writing workshop “Breaking the Stereotype 2010” by Oskar Terš, the international and interdisciplinary conference “Breaking the Stereotype 2010. From Orient and Occident to a Mutual Understanding of Images”, and 3 film nights “Istanbul Crossroads Specials”.

Breaking the Stereotype 2010.

From Orient and Occident to a Mutual Understanding of Images

The Exhibition

 Free Entry

 Location: DEPO, Kadir Has University Cibali Campus

Dates: 14 May – 27 June, 2010 (DEPO), 01 October – 05 November, 2010

Opening Hours: 10:00/ 11:00 - 17:00/ 18:00 (week days)

Exhibition Opening: 14 May, 2010, 18:00 (DEPO)

The exhibition contrasts the representations of cultural perception concerning the Orient and the Occident against the representations of Oriental and Occidental self-perception as they appear in literature, the media and every day life in order to break the stereotypes. In order to differentiate the problem even further the representations of cultural perception are contrasted against the perception-in return of this perception and by migrant perspectives.

This is done by selecting a limited number of topical fields which are subject to Orientalist and Occidentalist stereotyping: women, men, Europeans/ Occidentals, Orientals, the veil, the headscarf, freedom, nudity, Istanbul, Paris, Nathan the Wise.

Part of the visual material shown in the exhibition is taken from the “Breaking the Stereotype” photocontest, which Kadir Has University and the University of Innsbruck launched in cooperation with fotoalem.com, other exhibits have been designed by students of Innsbruck University and Notre Dame University of Beirut, and by young Austrian and German artists.

Breaking the Stereotype 2010 – The Creative Writing Workshop by Oskar Terš

Participation free of charge

Special guest: Gani Oktay Arbak

Number of participants per workshop: max. 25 (Please, register for the workshop of your choice on oskar.ters@gmx.net by 17 April 2010 latest and cc your mail to breaking-the-stereotype2009-2010@gmx.at)

Locations/ dates:

Workshop 1 (date: 17 - 21 May, 2010); location:
Austrian Library at the Austrian St. George’s High School (Österreichbibliothek am Österreichischen St. Georgskolleg)

Workshop 2 (date: 24 - 28 May, 2010);
location: Austrian Library at the Austrian St. George’s High School (Österreichbibliothek am Österreichischen St. Georgskolleg)

Workshop 3 (date: 31 May– 04 June, 2010);
location: Austrian Library at the Austrian St. George’s High School (Österreichbibliothek am Österreichischen St. Georgskolleg) 

The 3 creative writing workshops “Breaking the Stereotype 2010” will last for five days each and will invite non-professional writers to reflect on specific topics linked to stereotypes including those existing between the Orient and the Occident creatively in German and also translate their texts into Turkish.

The workshops will make use of a variety of techniques and games. Using easily accessible language these courses will focus on characteristics of a wide range of similarities and/or differences in terms of history, culture and society. The course will also highlight different writing techniques and how to profit from them.

All workshop participants will be free concerning what and how to write. There will be no boundaries in conception and implementation of the texts. The products may be poems and novels as well as short stories, essays or even diary entries or E-Mail conversations. It is most important, that the participants feel free to articulate their feelings and ideas without being anxious of their ability to write or their command of language.

At the end of the workshop the authors will present their compositions publicly, and the texts will be included interactively in the exhibition “Breaking the Stereotype 2010. From Orient and Occident to a Mutual Understanding of Images”.

The Austrian St. George’s High School and the Austrian Culture Forum Istanbul are active partners in the workshop.

Oskar Terš works for the Vienna based “Literatur- und Theaterwerkstätte”. He organizes and teaches workshops in the fields of theatre and literature worldwide. He has studied German and History at the Universities of Vienna, Berlin and Colmar. He has worked as an Austrian exchange lecturer at the University of Tuzla, Bosnia/Herzegovina where he has also organized reading tours of writers from Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Italy (Juli Zeh, Daniel Kehlmann, Norbert Gstrein or Thomas Hettche) through former Yugoslavia. He founded the Theatre company “Ars Vivendi”, which performed the premiere of the play “Freitag in Sarajevo” (written by the Austrian writer Richard Schuberth). “Ars Vivendi” also went on tour to Latvia, Hungary, Croatia and Austria to perform modern plays of German speaking writers.

3 Short Film Nights “Istanbul Crossroads Specials”

Free Entry

Location: DEPO

Dates: 14 May 2010, 27 May 2010, 22 June 2010

Hours: 19.00-20.00

On the film nights migration centred films from the NNYCR Istanbul Crossroads Film Festival and Contest are shown (in cooperation with Kadir Has University and JCI).

Breaking the Stereotype 2010.

From Orient and Occident to a Mutual Understanding of Images – The International and Interdisciplinary Conference

A 3-day Public Event

Free Entry

Location: Kadir Has University Cibali Campus

Date: 23 - 27 October 2010

The conference “Breaking the Stereotype 2010. From Orient and Occident to a Mutual Understanding of Images” will be organized as an international and interdisciplinary conference. It will bring together senior scholars with PhD students, and postdoctoral academics, without following the classical keynote speaker pattern but rather inviting all speakers either to present their research findings in 20-30 minute (paper) presentations plus 10 minutes for discussion or in 120-150 minute panels (4-5 panellists). Paper and panel proposals may include all topics focussing on deconstructing historical and current images of Europe and of the Orient in everyday life, the media, politics, the job market, migrant contexts, education, fiction, music, cinema and the arts.

The conference will include the interactive workshop “The Power of Identity” which will be organized in cooperation with the two Dutch diversity trainers Nicolien Zuijdgeest and Herbert Minderhoud. The number of participants with the workshop is limited to 60 (pre-registration on nicolien.zuijdgeest@planet.nland h.minderhoud@xs4all.nl is required by 30 September 2010 latest) and a cultural sights programme (limited to conference speakers).

Conference co-ordinators are Sedat Aybar (Kadir Has University, Istanbul/ Turkey)) and Veronika Bernard (University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck/ Austria).

If you are interested in participating in the conference as a speaker and you live in Turkey, please, send your paper proposal to saybar@khas.edu.tr and cc it tovakman@khas.edu.tr and to breaking-the-stereotype2009-2010@gmx.at.

If you live in the MENA region or in the US, please send it to sensenig@cyberia.net.lb and cc it to breaking-the-stereotype2009-2010@gmx.at.

If you live in Germany, France, the Netherlands, the UK, Austria, Italy, Belgium or any place not listed, please send your paper proposal to breaking-the-stereotype2009-2010@gmx.at.

Among the speakers who already have confirmed participation in the conference are (in alphabetical order):

Vedat Akman (Kadir Has University, Istanbul); Vahide Ersü (Psychological Counseling Centre, Istanbul); Atalay Gunduz (Ege University Izmir); Orkun Kocabiyik (Ege University Izmir); Dirk Rochtus (Lessius University College, Antwerp); Alberto Saviello (Max Planck Institute, Florence); Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous (Notre Dame University of Beirut); Sophie Servais (Anthropologist and Social worker, Brussels); Tina Sleiman (Zayed University, Dubai), Markus Stegmayr (University of Innsbruck); Rogier Visser (University of Amsterdam); Robbert Woltering (University of Amsterdam), Kutlay Yagmur (University of Tilburg).

To learn more about the project please also visit:
http://www.breaking-the-stereotype2009-2010.over-blog.org

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