KARACHI: The annual German cultural weeks will begin on Friday with a photo exhibition and carry on till December featuring a variety of programmes, including musical concerts, academic discussions and film screenings.

This was announced by the consul general of Germany, Dr Tilo Klinner, at a press conference at the German consulate on Monday.

Dr Klinner said it’s the third time that the consulate was organising the weeks that had ‘interesting and fascinating’ programmes, a few of which were new.

He said this time round the German Embassy in Islamabad had joined hands for the event and a similar programme — German Cultural Weeks — was being held in Islamabad.

The cultural weeks in Karachi were a combination of musical concerts, discussions, seminars and training sessions. There were programmes whose dates were not decided because the artists had not yet finalised their schedule.

Dr Klinner said the weeks were supposed to commence on Aug 12 with a photo exhibition titled ‘Leap in Time’ at the Goethe Institut but due to certain problems with the customs it was postponed till Aug 15.

He said the event would also have a discussion on World War I participated by Dr Klinner and the French Consul General, to reflect on how conflicts started and how we could avoid them.

He cited the example of World War II where things went out of hand as people were drawn into a mega conflict because of their thinking and miscalculated steps.

Director of Goethe Institut Dr Manuel Negwer said Friday’s exhibitions contained works of two great artists — Erich Salomon and Barbara Klemm. It’s a fine example of German press photography, capturing two different eras in German history, the first being the time when the First World War. At that point he invited photographer and curator Andreas Rost to speak about the show.

Mr Rost said Salomon and Klemm were not just photographers, they were artists. The art of photography, with the advent of digital inventions, changed in the 1990s. So the exhibition was an opportunity to look back at Germany’s high point of photo journalism.

Dr Negwer said in June and July, owing to the uncertain security situation in the city a lot of artists cancelled their trip to Pakistan. Now things seemed to be moving in the right direction as a result of which some important artists were expected to take part in the cultural weeks.

Giving out details of the different programmes, he said there’s going to be a piano recital by Usman Anees on Sept 11. Then a string quartet and a jazz band from Germany were expected to arrive in the coming days. And as part of the PASCH school initiatives, some events had been planned and in order to make things interesting a rock band from Germany was expected to perform in October.

Dr Klinner emphasised the discussions on the horrors of World War I and said in Islamabad too programmes on the subject would be organised.

He cited Christopher Clark’s book The Sleepwalkers as an inspiration. Movies would be screened and discussions would be held on the topic for which the Goethe Insitut, the Alliance Franacise and Habib University would play host. He said the digital inventory of the cultural heritage of Sindh set up with the help of the Heritage Foundation and the Sindh government was complete. An event to celebrate that was one of the features of the weeks. Also, a programme Charisma of the Qalandar, based on the work of Prof Dr Jurgen Wasim Frembgen, followed by a Sufi music concert was on the list. While on Dec 5, a book Apricot Bloom on Balochistan landscapes by Tariq Qaiser would be launched.

Published in Dawn, August 12th , 2014