Tag Archives: Arts Week 2015

Arts Week 2015: ‘Invisible’ philosopher Zambrano brought into focus

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The work and legacy of Spanish philosopher and essayist, Maria Zambrano, will be explored in a two-day conference at Birkbeck, University of London, next week.

Maria Zambrano conferenceHer philosophical standpoints and impactful writing will be discussed during Birkbeck Arts Week at a conference – Maria Zambrano amongst the Philosophers: A Reconsideration – held in Birkbeck’s School of Arts, Gordon Square, on Thursday 21 and Friday 22 May. Places at the free-to-attend conference are still available.

Zambrano (1904-1991), who was associated with the Generation of ’36 movement of artists, poets and playwrights who worked at the time of the Spanish Civil War, wrote extensively on the theme of what she called “poetic reasoning”.

Influenced by philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset, Zambrano’s work often reflected on hope and the importance of the divine in human life. She was exiled from her motherland by dictator Francisco Franco during the Civil War, but eventually returned to Madrid in 1984.

While considered by many to constitute one of the most original contributions to 20th Century thought, Zambrano’s work remains largely unknown to Anglo-Saxon academia – a factor which the conference seeks to highlight.

During the conference, five panels of scholars will discuss different aspects of Zambrano’s philosophical connections to 20th Century thought. Keynote speeches opening and closing the event will be delivered by Professors Roberta Johnson (University of Kansas) and Ricardo Tejada (Université du Maine, Le Mans).

Scholars attending the event will hail from France, USA, Belgium, UK, Spain and Sweden. During the conference there will also be a book launch of Zambrano’s Complete Works in Spanish, presented by its editor.

Dr Mari Paz Balibrea Enriquez, senior lecturer in Modern Spanish Literature and Cultural Studies at Birkbeck, who is coordinating the conference, said:

“This conference aims to spark interest in an intellectual who remains largely invisible to the Anglo-Saxon academia. Zambrano has a lot to offer to scholars, not only in philosophy, but in the Humanities as a whole.

 

“Her work speaks to a wide range of intellectual fields. She produced the kind of seminal work that can productively illuminate fields and approaches of enquiry ranging from democracy, totalitarianism, feminism, exile and diaspora or memory. And yet, her voice is oddly absent from most of those discussions as they take place in the English-speaking world.”

Maria Zambrano amongst the Philosophers: A Reconsideration runs at the Keynes Library, 43 Gordon Square on Thursday, May 21, and Room GORB04 on Friday, May 22. Both days run from 8.30am to 5.15pm

The conference is part of Birkbeck Arts Week, which runs in and around Bloomsbury from Monday 18 to Saturday 23 May. To book a free place at the event, and to view the full programme of Arts events, visit www.bbk.ac.uk/artsweek.

 

 

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Arts Week 2015: Precariousness in Latin American Cinema

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Radical approaches to precariousness and violence in Latin American Cinema will be showcased in a stunning quartet of contemporary films from Brazil and Colombia which will be screened at Birkbeck, University of London.

A still from Mambo Cool, directed by Cao GuimarãesRealisms of Precariousness, a three-day series of free-to-attend screenings which push the boundaries between fiction and documentary, will run from Monday 18 to Wednesday 20 May at the School of Arts (43-47 Gordon Square) in the heart of Bloomsbury.

The screenings form part of Birkbeck Arts Week – the College’s annual arts and culture showcase. This year’s programme boasts more than 40 lectures, performances, workshops and discussions.

Realisms of Precariousness will feature the following cinematic works:

  • Exilados do Vulcão by Paula Gaitan (Brazil). A reflection on veiled time and emotions, on memory finding its path. (Monday 18 May, 6pm-9pm, Birkbeck Cinema)
  • Otto by Cao Guimaraes (Brazil). A film about about alterity, the intimate, the portrait, the image as devotion. (Tuesday, 19 May, 2pm-5pm, Keynes Library)
  • Colombian double feature (Wednesday, May 20, 6pm-9pm, Room B04, 43 Gordon Square):
  • Señoritas by Lina Rodriguez (Colombia). The picture goes up in flames when the girl performing at Señoritas walks on the streets. A certain fragility of the everyday is broken.
  • Mambo Cool by Chris Gude (Colombia). We are in a land of images and ‘exile´ where swing and sabor are well known. Something drowns at the same time that flashes like lightning – and emerges as a source of life.

The Realisms of Precariousness series – which comes as a result of collaboration between Hambre and Colombian Film Panorama with the support of the Centre for Iberian and Latin American Visual Studies (CILAVS) at Birkbeck – will also feature Q&A opportunities via Skype with the film makers, and an opportunity for attendees to discuss the status of current Latin American filmmaking.

Sebastian Wiedemann, Florencia Incarbone and Geraldine S. Kobilanski from Hambre, who have curated the screening series said Realisms of Precariousness aims to show a hidden reality, without excluding the absurd seriousness of violence or the essential poetics of precariousness.

Paula Bohórquez from Colombian Film Panorama said: “The series deals with the question of identity and gathers alternative views of some Latin American realities. Each work, in its own way, breaks the canon expected from films of certain geographies, by separating its stories from stereotypes and socio-political contexts.”

Realisms of Precariousness is part of Birkbeck Arts Week, which runs in and around Bloomsbury from Monday 18 to Saturday 23 May. To book a free place at the screenings, and to view the full programme of Arts events, visit www.bbk.ac.uk/artsweek.

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Notes

Hambre is an observatory and laboratory dedicated to research, discussions and the production of critical and sensitive thought by contagion and through connections with experimental cinema(s).

Colombian Film Panorama showcases Colombian documentaries and fictional films and creates relevant film programmes for London audiences

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Arts Week 2015: Coffee and Commonwealth

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What do coffee, tea and rancid meat have in common? All are intimately tied to the politics, gender dynamics and social unrest of the 18th century.

A fascinating free public event will delve into the Enlightenment’s beverages of choice and disgusting diets as part of Birkbeck Arts Week (18 to 23 May).

An English 17th Century coffeehouseCoffee and Commonwealth, which will feature a panel of Birkbeck academics, will be held at the Upper Fleet Café (7-11 Upper Woburn Place) on Monday, May 18 at 6pm.

From the bawdy houses and pre-modern pubs of Derbyshire to the coffee houses of London, the Birkbeck, University of London’s panel of historians and literary experts will explain how a food and drink can lead to full-scale mutiny.

One main strand of the panel event will focus on the often revolting – and frequently contentious – diet of sailors on long-haul sea voyages in the late 17th century.

PhD student Sue Jones’s presentation will draw on real-life case studies of some poor souls who had to endure the cramped conditions and putrid meals on board trading and pirate ships.

Weavil-ridden ship biscuits, rancid meat swimming in pickled brine and woefully little grog to numb the pain – this was the diet which awaited many a seafarer on long odysseys which could last anywhere up to two years.

By delving into diary entries of an ordinary sailor for the East India Company, and the British ambassador to Tunisia, Sue will reveal just how limited the diet on the open sea was, and the effects it had on the seafarers – from widespread scurvy, to full-blown mutiny

Sue said: “Being self-contained spaces and communities, these ships were often a powder-keg of social ructions. A limited and pretty rotten diet might not seem a huge deal in the grander scheme of things, but on the open sea you don’t have much else to think about. And so food and drink were often the catalyst for unruliness.”

Other speakers at the Coffee and Commonwealth event include:

  • Professor Sue Wiseman, who will present on the milieux of alehouses versus coffee house, exploring the role of coffee and beer in sustenance, sociability, sex and politics
  • Mr Robert Stearn who will explore the way food and drink interacted with ‘sexual immorality’ in the secret subcultures of London’s alehouses, coffeehouses, brothels, homes, and lodgings
  • Dr Elizabeth Eger (King’s College) will discuss tea and sociability in the age of Enlightenment, and why tea became the thinking woman’s drug of choice.

The event runs as part of Birkbeck Arts Week’s packed programme of more than 40 lectures, discussions, workshops and performances exploring the worlds of arts and culture.

Attendance at all Arts Week events is free, though booking is essential. To book a place, and to see the full programme of events, visit www.bbk.ac.uk/artsweek.

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