KARACHI, Sept 17: An interesting range of events will be presented in the city by the German consulate-general and the Goethe Institut Karachi from Sept 20 to Nov 30.

This was announced by consul-general of the Federal Republic of Germany Dr Tilo Killner and Goethe Institut Karachi Director Dr Manuel Negwer at the Karachi Press Club on Monday.

Dr Killner briefed the media about the philosophy behind the festive series of programmes. He said when he started working in Pakistan he felt that the projected picture abroad of Karachi in particular and the country in general left out a lot of fascinating events. The consulate felt that on its part it should try and change the narrative of the city by bringing different artists into Pakistan and by holding fruitful discussions. He hoped the events would have a positive resonance because “we never had weeks like these before” where artists, professors, academics, musicians etc were engaged. “It’s an experiment, and if it proves successful, we can have it on a regular basis in autumn,” he commented.

Dr Negwer introduced the programmes and said the first of the series was a collaborative project between the famous German saxophone player Peter Weniger (with his trio) and a young Pakistani guitarist Asif Sinan. He said while Weniger from Berlin was known for his jazz music, Sinan, a Karachiite, could bring in the flavour of local music, including ragas.

He added that their first performance would be held at the consulate general in Karachi on Sept 20 after which the musicians would travel to Islamabad and Lahore and then come back to Karachi for a final performance at the Goethe Institut on Sept 23.

After that Dr Killner and Dr Negwer gave a summary of the other programmes. Dr Killner talked about a discussion with Ingrid Muller on her feature on Karachi titled The City of Lights on Oct 8. Ms Muller is a noted journalist and a forum discussion with her would be organised at the Press Club. Then a piano concert by Thomas Hitzlberger at a local hotel was also lined up for the month of October.

Dr Negwer informed the media on an exhibition titled Documenta to be held at the VM Art Gallery on Oct 4, a photo exhibition, lecture and film on Moenjodaro on Oct 16 and a lecture on Fredrick the Great on Oct 15. A lecture and concert on Sufism by Peter Pannke would be held on Nov 7.

Apart from that, the different collaborative programmes, such as Pasch-Day (German partner schools in Karachi) were also lined up. Last but not least, a tribute to the great writer Hermann Hesse was slotted for Nov 30.