MIEKE BAL FILM EVENT MIEKE BAL FILM EVENT LogomoLogomo, , MoveMove 2 2 auditoriumauditorium

1 1 SeptemberSeptember 2013, 6 pm2013, 6 pm

State of Suspension

2008 |Directed by Mieke Bal & Benny Brunner Genre: Documentary | Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles

Geographically close, politically distant: Israel-Palestine in nine chapters State of Suspension is a drama of fragments in nine chapters; an unusual and provocative look at Israel, sixty years after independence. The fi lm is a composite of satirical performances, music and poetry especially composed for the fi lm, which transform the Israeli national anthem and the Declaration of Independence into inclusive rallying calls. These elements are interspersed with unique archival material, compelling situations, revealing statements by a variety of people, all related to the ongoing conflict and the occupation. Posing as “Patriotism Inspectors”, Israeli comedians Yossi and Itamar interrogate passers-by to check if they have served in the army; masquerading as officials shooting a Foreign Ministry video, they ask Jewish and Arab Israelis to apologize for the harming of innocent civil ians. The hilarious interaction of these daring comedians with Israeli society, revealing aspects of its deep psyche, forms the fi lm’s backbone, complemented by unique archival material, compelling interviews and dramatic situations. In-between episodes of these performances include short portraits of Israelis – Jews and Arabs – of different ages, cultural and religious backgrounds. They range from holocaust survivors to nakba survivors, from refuseniks to settlers, and from peace workers to refugees. These portraits are combined with present-day cultural manifestations of the conflict, and political attitudes vis -à-vis the Israeli Palestinians and the occupied Palestinians.

Separations

2009 | Directed by Mieke Bal & Andrea Seligmann Silva Genre: Documentary | Portuguese and Dutch with English subtitles

When migration runs in the family, a traumatic history looms In this autobiographical fi lm, a diasporic Brazilian family is reunited in São Paulo. All five siblings, at one time or another, have established themselves abroad. While exploring the reasons behind this connection to the foreign in her family, Andréa, a fi lmmaker living in Amsterdam, interviews the members of her family. They all evoke a psychotic crisis their mother had five years ago. So Andréa begins to focus her inquiry on what took place then, as well as on the traumatic events of a generation ago. Edith, Andréa’s Jewish mother, was three years old when her parents escaped from Nazi Germany in 1939. The question of the migratory now turns both backwards and forwards, and danger becomes as potent a motive as the attraction to foreign places.

Mieke Bal is a cultural theorist and critic, who also works as an art critic, curator and filmmaker. In her experimental social documentary films she explores the effects of global migration in everyday life and the creative

possibilities provided by the constant interaction of different cultures. Bal belongs to an international group of filmmakers, Cinema Suitcase, whose approach enhances the performative quality of filmmaking as a collective

process. Their aim is to facilitate the self-narration of their subjects, encountered on the basis of intimacy, rather than constructing their stories

f or them. (See www.miekebal.org.)

Mieke Bal & Cinema Suitcase Separations (52 min) & State of Suspension (82 min)

Mieke Bal introduces the films and answers questions afterwards.

The event is open for all – warmly welcome!

The event is organised by the research project The Experience of History and the Ethics of Storytelling in Contemporary Arts (Emil Aaltonen Foundation, 2013–15) in

collaboration with the Network for Research on Multiculturalism and Societal Interaction (mcnet.utu.fi) and Film Centre of Southwest Finland.

I t will be followed by an international symposium The Ethics of Storytelling: War, Trauma, Vulnerability (2–3 September 2013).

F or more information, see www.utu.fi/en/units/hum/units/comparativeliterature/research/Pages/experience-of-history.aspx.

THE ETHICS OF STORYTELLING:THE ETHICS OF STORYTELLING: WAR, TRAUMA, VULNERABILITYWAR, TRAUMA, VULNERABILITY University of Turku, 1University of Turku, 1––3 September 20133 September 2013

Monday, 2 September Janus, Sirkkala (Kaivokatu 12)

10.00–10.15 Hanna Meretoja (University of Turku & University of Tampere): Welcome words: The Experience of History and the Ethics of Storytelling 10.15–11.15 Mieke Bal (University of Amsterdam): Art Moves: A Cultural Analysis 11.15–12.15 Max Silverman (University of Leeds): Palimpsestic Memory and the Ethics of Storytelling

Lunch

13.15–14.15 Colin Davis (Royal Holloway, University of London): Don’t Mention the War: The Afterlives of Levinas and Althusser 14.15–15.15 Jens Brockmeier (Freie Universität Berlin & University of Manitoba): If Wittgenstein’s Lion Could Tell Stories, Could We Understand Them? On the Cultural Ethics of Understanding

Coffee

Minerva, E325 (Kaivokatu 12) 15.45–16.05 Ilona Hongisto (University of Turku): The Ethics of Documentary Fabulation 16.05–16.25 Riitta Jytilä (University of Turku): The Ethics of Literary Dialogue 16.25–16.45 Mia Hannula (University of Turku): The Ethics of Migratory Aesthetics

16.45–17.15 Discussion

Sunday, 1 September Logomo, Move 2 auditorium (Köydenpunojankatu 14)

18.00 Film Screening: Mieke Bal & Cinema Suitcase Separations (52 min) & State of Suspension (82 min)

Mieke Bal introduces the fi lms and answers questions afterwards.

The symposium explores how different forms of storytelling – such as those developed by contemporary literature and audiovisual arts – enable different ways of coming to terms with traumatic historical experiences, particularly with experiences of war and other political conflicts, such as the Second World War, its aftermath, and the experiences of violence linked to colonialism and migration. It focuses on the ethical dimension of storytelling through which the arts attempt to deal with such traumatic experiences in ways that address the complex vulnerabilities of the subjects of experience.

The symposium discusses different aspects of the ethics of storytelling – from the intertwinement of storytelling with practices of power to the capacity of alternative modes of storytelling to produce experiential understanding of history that unsettles dominant historical narratives. Rather than thinking of storytelling in terms of representing events, the symposium will explore ways of conceptualising storytelling from the perspective of the subject of experience and in terms of imagining the possible, in ways that undermine the dichotomy between fact and fiction. From this perspective, it will discuss the ethical potential of storytelling that lies in its power to enlarge the possibilities of acting and thinking, imagining and experiencing.

The event is organised by the research project The Experience of History and the Ethics of Storytelling in Contemporary Arts (Emil Aaltonen Foundation, 2013–15) in collaboration with the Network for Research on Multiculturalism and Societal Interaction (mcnet.utu.fi) and the Turku University Foundation. For more information, see

www.utu.fi/en/units/hum/units/comparativeliterature/research/Pages/experience-of-history.aspx.

Tuesday, 3 September The Lecture Hall Mikro (Kiinamyllynkatu 13)

9.00–9.55 Anu Koivunen (Stockholm University): Affective Histories, Traumatic Memories. The Politics of Re-Enactment in Auf Wiedersehen Finnland (Virpi Suutari 2010) 10.00–10.55 Miguel Ángel Hernández Navarro (University of Murcia): Art of History: Writing Past Through Images 11.00–11.55 Brian Schiff (The American University of Paris):The Use of History for My Life Narrative: Palestinians at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Lunch & Project meeting

Janus, Sirkkala (Kaivokatu 12) 14.00–14.20 Kaisa Kaakinen (Cornell University & University of Turku): Displaced but Material History: Embodied Reading in Peter Weiss’s The Aesthetics of Resistance 14.20–14.40 Nora Hämäläinen (University of Helsinki): History Through the Lens of a Life and a Life Through the Lens of History – The Case of Doris Lessing’s Parents 14.40–15.00 Lotta Kähkönen (University of Turku): Life Writing and Gender Variance: Imagining Alternative Ethics and New Knowledge

15.00–15.30 Discussion and closing words