KARACHI: The annual German Cultural Weeks will have a range of activities, including academic lectures, musical concerts and exhibition of works of art. This was said by German Consul-General Rainer Schmiedchen at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Thursday.

Mr Schmiedchen started off by telling journalists (in the form of a question) that the “biggest portion of the budget of German foreign ministry is for cultural affairs”. Germany considered cultural affairs as the most important part of its foreign policy. Pak-German relations entailed many subjects — political, economic, science and technology, etc — and the biggest part was that of culture.

Mr Schmiedchen said the German weeks held once a year in Karachi was a series of cultural events jointly organised by the German consulate general and the Goethe Institut.

Mentioning the highlights for this year’s events, he said there would be a presentation on ‘The reformation and its effects on culture and politics in Europe’ by Prof Gury Schneider-Ludorff. This will take place at the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs. Then there would be a special Sufi night where Wasim Frembgen and musician Kashif Zafar would be seen on stage. He also talked about a football tournament organised in cooperation with Karachi United Football Club.

Head of Goethe Institut Pakistan Stefan Winkler shed light on some more highlights of the weeks. He first spoke about a few concerts, first of which was a jazz gig by a group called C.A.R. There would also be a fusion concert ‘We Work in Space’, featuring sitar player Ashraf Sharif Khan and Viktor Marek, joined by another set of German musicians. Other than that, a series of documentaries, two of which are on refugees, was on the list of programmes.

Mr Winkler said they were working on bringing the German pavilion set up in the last Venice Biennale to Pakistan under the name ‘Factory’. Remaining on the subject of art, he said a book by photographer Manolo Ty titled Pakistan Now would be launched in November. Several activities with schools were an integral part of the weeks as well.

Mr Winkler said this was the 60th year of the Goethe Institut’s existence in Pakistan and it’s going to be celebrated on Dec 16 and 17 with an array of art activities.

When Mr Winkler finished his address, Mr Schmiedchen once again spoke to the media saying the “real situation of security in Karachi” was much better than the reputation that the city had. He underlined that so many Germans were coming to Karachi meant that the security had improved. In the end he unveiled the brochure published for the German Cultural Weeks 2017 to be held from Oct 11 to Dec 17.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2017