BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN IN ITALY

Roma, Stadio Olimpico il 19 luglio
Torino, Olimpico il 21 luglio
Udine,Stadio Friuli il 23 luglio

Australia Day Yesterday, Holocaust Day today.

Australia Day yesterday, which for me was always a mournful time thinking of the impact European arrival had on Australian land and people, seemed a fit preambule to today Holocaust day. Words are few at the end of these hours of thinking. Noonuccal'poem will clear the skies.

Noonuccal, ‘Then and Now’, in My People, (Milton, 1981), p. 91

No more woomera, no more boomerang,
No more playabout, no more the old ways.
Children of nature we were then,
No clocks hurrying crowds to toil.
Now I am civilized and work in the white way,
Now I have dress, now I have shoes:
‘Isn’t she lucky to have a good job!’
Better when I had only a dillybag.
Better when I had nothing but happiness

SHOA AND GAZA

Shoa and Gaza.

Last night here in Italy David Grossman was interviewed in one of the rare enlightened television programs we have, 'Che tempo fa'. Grossman discussed amongst other things the fear that Holocaust survivors had to actually describe what had happened to them in detail as they feared that the extreme evil of it would spread ( lit.)so they avoided talking too much about it. I have read today what Israel deputy Defence minister said sometime ago and sociolinguistic background does not help to digest it. I think it is important although painful to read on.It was a year ago: the seeds of Gaza'shoa ? I hope not. I believe in peace.

Israel threatens holocaust against Gaza?!
29 Feb 2008 11:04:00 GMT
Written by: Andrew Stroehlein
Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.

I am a journalist who’s just marked his 40th birthday, so I am officially a cynical old grump who thinks he’s seen and heard everything as far as human stupidity is concerned, particularly regarding public statements made by officials and politicians in conflict zones. But even I was shocked and surprised by this story.

In a radio interview today, Israel’s deputy defence minister threatened a “holocaust” (using the Hebrew word "shoah") against Gaza if Palestinian militants stepped-up their rocket fire against Israel. According to Reuters, Deputy Minister Matan Vilnai said:

“The more Qassam (rocket) fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they (the Palestinians) will bring upon themselves a bigger holocaust because we will use all our might to defend ourselves.”

For those few readers who might not understand how mind-blowingly shocking this is, the article helpfully adds:

“’Holocaust' is a term rarely used in Israel outside discussions of the Nazi genocide during World War Two. Many Israelis are loathe to countenance using the word to describe other contemporary events.”

If, as a spokesperson for the Israeli government, you had to make a list of words you should never use to define your country’s policy toward the Palestinians, certainly “holocaust” would be at the top. The ministry has since tried to defend Vilnai, saying he meant "shoah" in the sense of "disaster" rather than referring to genocide, but that doesn't explain why someone would use such a hugely loaded and incomparably symbolic word for the current situation.

A case of professional suicide by sound bite, surely.

Reuters AlertNet is not responsible for the content of external websites.

GUESTBOOK: Click on it and write!

The Banality of Evil

[Arendt] insisted that only good had any depth. Good can be radical; evil can never be radical, it can only be extreme, for it possesses neither depth nor any demonic dimension yet — and this is its horror! — it can spread like a fungus over the surface of the earth and lay waste the entire world. Evil comes from a failure to think. It defies thought for as soon as thought tries to engage itself with evil and examine the premises and principles from which it originates, it is frustrated because it finds nothing there. That is the banality of evil.
From Amos Elon, The Excommunication of Hannah Arendt, the introduction to Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil

And the distinction between violent and non-violent action is that the former is exclusively bent upon the destruction of the old and the latter chiefly concerned with the establishment of something new.

From: Volume 12, Number 4 · February 27, 1969
A Special Supplement: Reflections on Violence
By Hannah Arendt-Copyright applied for by the "Journal of International Affairs," School of International Affairs, Columbia University.

SHOAH- Il Giorno della Memoria

L'angelo della storia

“Un ritratto di Paul Klee si intitola Angelus Novus: raffigura un angelo con gli occhi spalancati, la bocca aperta, le ali distese. E' l'angelo della storia: nelle sue ali è impigliata una tempesta che lo spinge inesorabilmente verso il futuro, cui volge le spalle, mentre il cumulo delle rovine del passato sale dinnanzi a lui verso il cielo. Ciò che chiamiamo progresso è questa tempesta”

Walter Benjamin
A Klee drawing named “Angelus Novus” shows an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe that keeps piling ruin upon ruin and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. The storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress.

— Walter Benjamin,

Ninth Thesis on the Philosophy of History

ALICE & CO. Purveyors of language Arts and Other Wonders 159 Brunswick St. Fitzroy, Vic., 3065

ALICE & CO.
Purveyors of language Arts and Other Wonders
159 Brunswick St. Fitzroy, Vic., 3065 Australia

visit Alice & Co Saturdays: 11:00 am - 6:00 pm 159 Brunswick st. Fitzroy
Tram 112 Preston line Stop 14 Or call (03) 54234271 / 0439990271

IT WOULD BE MY FAVOURITE HAUNT IN MELBOURNE!

You can find there from ACADEMIC TUITION to seminars, Language Studies, ARTISTS in the Gallery, le petit theatre and the contact for the fantastic Littlefox press!

Australian Women Artists

Australian women artists:
If amongst initiates, in the sense of savants, of connoisseurs, then some may know as Australian women artists people like fantacinematic ( if you allow me the term!) Tracey Moffat ( picture)- also because she is so active in Europe-, perhaps Margaret Olley, maybe Caroline Williams, if really lucky you may know of the giant Margaret Cilento has been.

Margaret Cilento has painted for over 50 years and has painted like I have seen paint very few painters. Her life, her art have been so convincing that it is almost incredible that no exhibitions have taken place since her recent death. In the last three years I have had so many opportunitites to think about her work but thinking an artists is not enough.
Her work has evolved over half a century from London to New York, from Marseille to Spain to Australia with an authencity and a tenacity that deserves study and close appreciation ( for her life see what her great writer and designer daughter says of her here:

http://www.ailae.org/pdf/MargaretCilento.pdf )

This short appeal here is to celebrate a gigantic artist and a woman that has left a profound sign in my thinking about art and in my life. Please get to know Margaret Cilento if you can ( self portrait a cote'). Also look at this if you can :

http://www.artmuseum.qut.edu.au/downloads/BNG-Education-kit.pdf

and discover these 1920's or so women. I don't give damn about modernism and the like at this point but I wish that such convincing art could be more known.

Long live:
Margaret Cilento, Pamela Macfarlane, Margaret Olley,Betty Quelhurst,Joy Loggenkamp, Kathleen Shillam

Welcome to Outside Barriers

This is yet an other open space perhaps necessary, beyond all other arenas , to discuss and exchange thoughts, events, images, poetry, writing, information about all that overcomes barriers in general. Borders, barriers, confinements, detention camps, walls: this is a space outside them all.
(Guestbook bottom page)

Appel à contribution :
Images et pouvoirs dans le Pacifique, Rochefort, 27-28 mai 2009
Dans le cadre de la 3e édition du Festival du cinéma des Pays du Pacifique Sud, (Rochefort, 29 mai-1er juin), le Réseau Imasie (CNRS-FMSH) organise les 27 et 28 mai deux journées d’étude consacrées au rôle des images dans les représentations du pouvoir, à leurs sens et leur signification sociale et culturelle dans le Pacifique, espace où peu d'études ont été conduites sur ce sujet.
L’image permet de comprendre une société, d’en offrir de nouvelles lectures en révélant des non-dits et elle permet de saisir ses tensions et les enjeux de domination.
Comment les images appréhendent-elles le pouvoir ?
Sont-elles éphémères ou créent-elles des conceptions durables, prolongeant le passé (héritage océanien) ou introduisant en profondeur des nouveautés (plus ou moins véhiculées par les métropoles) ? On s'intéressera donc à la circulation et à l'acclimatation des modèles occidentaux réappropriés et remaniés.
Comment les images font-elles croire ?
Quelles sont les représentations concrètes, imaginaires ou symboliques qui ont marqué les sociétés du Pacifique et quelles sont celles qui prévalent aujourd’hui ? Que représente le pouvoir pour les Océaniens ? À quels signes, quelles couleurs et quelles images, à quelle musique aussi est-il associé dans le monde contemporain ? Quel est le rôle de l'image dans la perception, la construction, et la représentation du pouvoir ? Comment les images contribuent-t-elles à nourrir les imaginaires collectifs dans le Pacifique ?
Quel rôle particulier jouent les grands médias d'images dans la construction des représentations ?
Il faut souligner que les termes « image » et « représentation » sont ici pris dans toutes leurs acceptions, et que les études esthétiques se limiteront aux effets qu’écrivains, publicistes ou artistes font subir aux images afin de mettre en valeur la notion de pouvoir (gouvernement, administration, ascendant, autorité, gouvernement, hégémonie, puissance, prestige, etc.). On souhaiterait aussi accorder de l'importance aux perceptions étrangères (voyageurs, administrateurs, scientifiques, etc.) qui sélectionnent, créent et diffusent un point de vue autre.
Les interventions seront de 20 minutes. Elles pourront bénéficier d'une publication ultérieure. Les propositions communications de 500 mots devraient être envoyées avec des mots-clés, une courte biographie, les coordonnées et fonctions précises de l'auteur. On pourra mentionner les sources et les champs chronologiques de l'étude.
Merci d’envoyer les propositions avant le 15 avril 2009 par e-mail : vfayaud@msh-paris.fr

International Conference -University Paris XIII, France -26 and 27 March 2009

Does discrimination shape identity? Politics and minorities in the English speaking area and in France: Rhetoric and reality -
Several discourses on colonial heritage and immigration have recently emerged in the West. The current context is marked by a discourse emphasizing the positive impact of a past many people consider to be traumatic, triumphant, or both at once, and laws have been passed, in France and elsewhere, to create an official version of history. These laws echo political discourses which are meant to reflect the nation’s ideals and the claims of public opinion. For other groups, these laws are oppressive and discriminatory, and they have a negative effect on minority identities. These two approaches may suggest that there is an official national identity on the one hand, while on the other, peripheral identities are in the process of being constructed, and therefore cannot officially and overtly take part in the elaboration of national ideals.The conference will inquire into the nature of identity itself. Is it innate, the result of a social construction, or both? Analyzing these notions may also imply a historical reflection on the role, place, and history of minority groups in France and in the English-speaking world. This analysis has to be addressed in a context marked by discrimination in order to understand if the latter can shape identities, and if so, how. This conference is about the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Australia and Canada. It welcomes multidisciplinary contributions from the fields of civilization, history, historiography, sociology, and anthropology.
Vanessa CASTEJON castejon.vanessa@wanadoo.Fr or
Rim LATRACHE rim.latrache@univ-paris13.fr or
Olivette OTELE olivette.otele@googlemail.com
Members of the scientific committee:
Dr Vanessa Castejon (University Paris 13)
Pr. Didier Fassin (University Paris 13)
Dr Rim Latrache (University Paris 13)
Pr. Françoise Lejeune (University Nantes, France)
Pr. Fethi Mansouri (Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia)
Dr Olivette Otele (University Paris 13)
Pr. Claire Parfait (University Paris 13)
Pr. François Poirier (University Paris 13)

NEW: Book

Lorenzo Modia, María Jesús & Roy C. Boland Osegueda, eds. Australia and Galicia: Defeating the Tyranny of Distance / Australia e Galicia: vencendo a tiranía do afastamento. Sydney: Antípodas Monographs, Xunta de Galicia, 2008.
University of Coruna, >http://www.aedean.org/Publications--Lit/lorenzo-australia-Publ.htm

INVITO SIMPOSIO E CINEFORUM

La "Riconciliazione" australiana
Le voci indigene della docu-fiction di David Vadiveloo

venerdì 30 gennaio 2009
Sala Gagliardi, via Cavour, Noto (SR)
ore 9,30-12,30 e 15-17

L'Associazione Lacunae e il Consorzio Universitario del Mediterraneo Orientale CUMO, con il patrocinio del Dipartimento di Studi Storici dell'Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, organizzano una giornata di studio e cineforum dedicati al "discorso culturale" della mediazione, così come si presenta nello specifico della società australiana con-temporanea.

La Reconciliation è il progetto politico di mediazione fra la minoranza indigena e lo Stato australiano "bianco", messo in atto – fra consensi e critiche – dai governi australiani dal 1991 in avanti. La Reconciliation ha portato al riconoscimento di una storia comune fatta di convivenza e di vita civile, ma anche di ingiustizie patite, adattamento e resistenza.

I film del regista australiano David Vadiveloo, insignito nel 2005 dell’Australian Human Rights Award per il suo impegno a favore dei diritti umani, nascono e illustrano in modo originale, fra fiction e documentarismo, questa importante svolta nella politica e nella cultura australiana, tanto da risultare di estremo interesse anche in una prospettiva europea.

I film – "appassionanti, visivamente splendidi, che costringono a prendere posizione" – sono un cortometraggio con ragazzini che corrono sotto il sole del deserto rosso australiano su biciclette messe insieme con i rottami della discarica; e due documentari sull'impegno degli abitanti del Kakadu National Park che riescono a fermare un'industria mineraria decisa sfruttare il territorio del parco; e su una donna delle “generazioni rubate” che torna a vivere nel bush, dopo una vita da "angloaustraliana”.

Programma

ore 9,30 Saluto di Francesco Artale (presidente del Consiglio di Amministrazione CUMO) e diSalvatore Cavallo (direttore CUMO)

ore 9,40

Bush Bikes, di David Vadiveloo
ore 9,45 Introduzione di Lorenzo Perrona (Lacunae)


ore 10:15 Franca Tamisari (Università Ca' Foscari, Venezia), Le implicazioni morali dellaReconciliation e la politica del "sentimentalismo nazionale"


ore 11,15 Silvana Tuccio (University of Melbourne), La Reconciliation nel cinema di David Vadiveloo


ore 11,45 Dibattito





Il cinema di David Vadiveloo
ore 15
ore 15,10 Trespass, (2002, 26’)
ore 15,40 Beyond Sorry, (2003, 55’)


ore 16,40 Dibattito

Franca Tamisari insegna e conduce ricerca nel settore di studi demoetno-antropologici, Dipartimento di Studi Storici, Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia. È curatrice del libropubblicato da Jaca Book, La sfida dell'arte indigena australiana. Tradizione, innovazione e contemporaneità (Milano, 2007). Ha condotto ricerca antropologica tra le popolazioni Yolngu della terra di Arnhem nordorientale, Nord Australia. Ha pubblicato in Italia e all’estero su una serie di argomenti nell’ambito degli studi aborigeni: arte, estetica, religione e performance, con particolare attenzione alla danza, alle relazioni interculturali e all’educazione biculturale. Ha insegnato antropologia alla University of Sydney e alla University of Queensland.


Silvana Tuccio ha curato il volume Sguardi australiani. Idee immaginari e cinema degli antipodi (Le Mani, 2005) e pubblicato diversi articoli sul cinema australiano in rivista ("Studies in Australasian Cinema", Londra; "Metro", Melbourne) e in volumi editi da Le Mani (Recco), Jaca Book (Milano), Monash University ePress (Melbourne). Svolge ricerca presso la University of Melbourne.

Lorenzo Perrona ha pubblicato saggi sulla letteratura e cultura australiana in rivista (“Rivista di Studi Italiani”, University of Toronto; “Nuovi Argomenti”, Roma) e in volumi editi da Jaca Book (Milano), Rodopi (New York/Amsterdam) e ha tradotto e curato la prima edizione italiana del romanzo dello scrittore australiano Mudrooroo, Gatto selvaggio cade(Le Lettere 2005).

www.lacunae.it
3477343937

Diaspora and displacement: Australian Women Artists in Europe

CALL FOR PARTNERS

AILAE is looking for partners in seeking funding to promote a project that would take place between France, Spain, Italy.
The project aims at generating an event with various aspects to be scheduled in different venues:

- A traveling exhibit of Australian visual artists based in Europe or entertaining strong relations with European themes and places;
Three small festivals:

- A series of concerts by Australian musical and performing artists, especially of ethnic and indigenous origin;
- A writers' festival with Australian and European writers
- A short films festival of Australian films or European films that deal with the Diaspora and displacement ideas in the context of the two regions.
- One aspect of the project is the reciprocity dimension, which characterizes AILAE.

For this reason, all cultural aspects of local "responses" to Australian diasporas in Europe would be interesting to explore too. That is: any art form that has taken place in the European regions mentioned that has dealt with Australian art or themes is part of the event’s focus.

The objective and the aims of the Diaspora and displacement: Australian Artists in Europe concern also the Mediterranean thread in the work of Australian artists and its firm presence in their imagery.

This ambitious project although certainly vast-it is possible and very beneficial to all involved.
Advantages that all partners will gain from this project are:

- The institutions willing to support such event gain in international prestige and exposure also because no such event has happened before;
- As Australia is an extremely appealing and interesting subject to Europeans it is predictable that much attention and participation will be drawn;
- All partners will boost their image and attract- in the case of educational institutions- more students or more interest in their activities and programs;
- All people involved will intensify meaningful networking in Europe and Australia, generating new developments for the partners involved as well as for the artists;
- A number of industries can benefit from the various stages of the event and so benefit the partners too.

For the moment the project finds a strong interest in France, Spain and Italy.
For interested partners:
If you are interested in participating in this [project and in order to help us and your organization to apply for funds please indicate:

- What our/your reciprocal roles could be and will be
- What logistics are involved to prepare a realistic budget
- How to organize it effectively and economically but not to the detriment of its vision.
- If you are from Australia: how interested some Australian financing bodies could be in this project.

PETITION TO THE US PRESIDENT TO PROTECT ANCIENT PERSIAN TEXTS

Please sign the petition to the President of United States of America to protect Ancient Persian Achaemenid texts from the threat of confiscation and sale.

See the following text of the petition of the Societas Iranologica Europea and if you want to sign the petition go to :

http://www.societasiranologicaeu.org/

Imagined Australia June 2009, Bari ITALY

Imagined Australia International Research Forum 17-19 June 2009

2d IAIRF 17-19 June 2009, Bari, ITALY:

The 2d Imagined Australia International Research Forum will be held this year 2009, 17-19 June in partnership with the PLAT ( Dipartimento Pratiche Linguistiche e Analisi di Testi, http://www.lingue.uniba.it/plat/ ) at The University of Bari, Italy ( http://www.uniba.it/).

The forum title this year is:

Borders, theory, art and power. Contemporary borders, theory and art journeys in the reciprocal construction of identity between Australia and Europe.

Confini, teoria, arte e potere. Confini contemporanei, teoria e percorsi artistici nella costruzione reciproca di identita’ tra Australia ed Europa.

For event outline, Call for Papers and information see: http://www.ailae.org/gfx/poster.pdf