My Contribution- From Dafna Tal

Graffiti on the Bethlehem's wall

How the humour of a British artist, painted on the west bank wall, is interpreted by local Palestinians


Banksy is a well-known British graffiti artist. His artworks, painted in cities around the world, are often-satirical pieces of art on topics such as politics, culture, and ethics. Described by some as "vandalism" and by others as "brilliant and funny", He's images are a subject for a whole article by itself.

In August 2005, Banksy painted nine images on the Israeli West Bank barrier, including an image of a ladder going up and over the wall and an image of children digging a hole through the wall. Magazines wrote that "they drew the world’s attention to the barrier in ways that protest and op-ed pieces could not". Banksy himself records on his website how an old Palestinian man said his painting made the wall look beautiful. Banksy thanked him, only to be told: "We don't want it to be beautiful, we hate this wall. Go home". Banksy returned to the West Bank in December 2007, leaving six new drawings on the wall near Bethlehem (see attached photos of those drawings from 2007).

Shepard Fairey, in an interview with Banksy, wrote that "His works are filled with imagery tweaked into metaphors that cross all language barriers", but the following article from SPIEGEL shows that language and cultural barriers exist in all forms of communication, and brings a challenge to the visual one too.

If you are not familiar with Banksy's work- take a minuet to look at the attached photographs of his work before reading the following article.


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TOURISM IN THE HOLY LAND
Taking a 'Banksy Tour' in Bethlehem

By Michael Scott Moore in Jerusalem


Paintings by the West's favorite graffiti artist, Banksy, are part of everyday life for Palestinians around Bethlehem. Some images have been erased, others protected -- but some inspire an odd local lore.

In the West Bank, Israel's security barrier has started to resemble the western side of the Berlin Wall. The Israeli side is bleak and clean, but on the Palestinian side graffiti can flourish.

I knew the British painter Banksy had tagged the wall a few years ago, but I had no idea where his stencils were. At first I didn't care -- I was just here to see Bethlehem -- but my taxi passed a stencil I had seen in news reports, a dove wearing a bulletproof vest. So I snapped a picture.

My driver got excited. "You like Banksy?" he said. "You want a tour? I can show you all the pictures."

I had stumbled on one of Bethlehem's new tourist attractions: the unofficial Banksy tour. In the year since he tagged buildings around Bethlehem -- and the three years or so since he painted famous trompe l'oeil stencils of holes in the massive wall around the West Bank -- Banksy's images have become part of the landscape. They even help bring a little money into Bethlehem's tourist economy, which was crushed when Israel built the security wall in 2002. Israel argues that the wall has stopped suicide bombings, which have largely been replaced by regular missiles from Gaza. But Palestinians say their livelihood has been squeezed, and now "Banksy tours" are a moneymaking venture for some taxi drivers.

Ahmed was lean, close to 50 years old, with a crevassed face and a thin salt-and-pepper mustache. He said he'd helped drive "colors" across the border -- paints -- for Banksy when he and a few other artists mounted a project to stencil wall surfaces and buildings around Bethlehem late last year.

"The people on our side like his pictures," he said, "because they can see what he mean" -- and because the artist raised money last Christmas for Palestinian kids through a temporary gallery called "Santa's Ghetto" on Bethlehem's Manger Square.

"Except for two pictures," Ahmed went on, "-- two they washed away. Because they didn't know what it meant. One was a donkey being checked by an Israeli soldier for passport. They didn't know if that meant donkeys also should have papers. They thought this is no good for the Palestinian people, so they clean it off."

In fact, last year a story went over the news wires that locals had painted over the donkey mural because they had felt offended. Irony doesn't always translate into Arabic, and instead of a jab at the Israeli regime of border controls, Palestinians worried it was a joke against them. "We're humans here, not donkeys," restaurant owner Nasri Canavati had told a Reuters reporter. "This is insulting. I'm glad it was painted over."

The punch line is that a BBC correspondent has been riding a donkey across the Holy Land this month, following the route taken by Mary and Joseph according to the Gospel of Luke. He had to replace his animal after Israeli soldiers at a West Bank checkpoint refused to let it through. "They informed us," reported the correspondent, Aleem Maqbool, "that our donkey did not have the correct paperwork."

'The Angel'

The unofficial Banksy tour has no set itinerary, and no set script. A total of twelve images went up around Bethlehem last year; Ahmed showed me four.

One was a painting of two donkeys bearing cities on their backs, by two artists who had worked with Banksy, Sam 3 and Erica il Cane ("Eric the Dog"). There was also the armored peace dove, which we saw first, and a now-famous image of a girl patting down an Israeli soldier. "The meaning of this picture," said Ahmed, "is that kids stop the soldiers and take their guns. So if you're strong today, not all the time you're strong."

Sometimes his explanations were trenchant; sometimes they were bizarre. Well outside the town we stopped in front of a huge stencil of the "Flower Chucker," one of Banksy's best-known images, on the side of a building that was being demolished. It showed a masked Palestinian hurling a colorful bouquet of flowers. Ahmed said locals had agitated to keep the one wall intact because this image is the best-loved Banksy stencil in Bethlehem. It reminded locals of a bronze angel on a church nearby, he said, at Shepherd's Field. In fact, they called this stencil "The Angel."

"They understand what Banksy is saying," Ahmed said, "because this picture is also in front of the church."

"What, the same picture?"

"The same, yes."

"What church?"

"I can show you."

We drove to a small church outside the village of Beit Sahour, in Shepherd's Field. It's one of two rival locations where a host of angels is said to have sung to shepherds on the occasion of Jesus' birth. It's therefore a destination for pilgrimages and Catholic bus tours. An angel cast in bronze over the church entrance, with its arms raised in a certain posture, seems to have reminded locals — or at least local taxi drivers — of the Flower Chucker.

Ahmed insisted that Banksy knew about this statue and was quoting it in the "Flower Chucker" painting, and because of this connection to local art and lore, the concrete wall had been saved.

But the statue and painting looked nothing alike.

"Do people really call that Banksy picture 'The Angel'?" I asked. "Is that really the title?"

"Yes. It's a picture of this angel."

"But it's not an angel."

I wanted him to admit that it was a picture of a Palestinian militant. I also wanted to suggest that a picture of a militant throwing a bouquet of flowers was so absurd it worked as an ironic comment on violence in the West Bank.

Ahmed shrugged. "I don't know. People just like the picture."

On our way back toward Bethlehem we passed the towering security wall. Ahmed waved dissuasively at the jumble of graffiti. "Kids," he said.

So Banksy's stencils have taken up residence in the West Bank, and the people revere him as an artist — but on their terms, not his. Arab culture is not ironic, and his humor can be confusing. But even rough stencils and splatters of paint are better than a plain ugly wall. On the Israeli side, the only bit of color to relieve the unrelenting concrete at the crossing was a monumental work of propaganda, a banner rich with unintended irony, since no one in the West Bank sees the security barrier as anything but a prison wall.

"Peace Be With You," it says in three languages. "Israel Ministry of Tourism."


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Bibliography:
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* SWINDLE Magazine interview with BANKSY By Shepard Fairey:
http://swindlemagazine.com/issue08/banksy/

* Banksy on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksy

* Banksy's Website:
http://www.banksy.co.uk/

* SPIEGEL ONLINE, article: "TOURISM IN THE HOLY LAND: Taking a 'Banksy Tour' in Bethlehem" By Michael Scott Moore in Jerusalem:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,598010,00.html
December 24, 2008

East meets West

As economic development takes top priority in China's national policies, the country has changed, and its people have changed even more. Everyone appears full of aspiration and seems satisfied with the achievements of reform and rapid development, which are expressed in the Chinese slogan, "One change a year, one big change in three years, and one unidentifiable transformation in five years." Capitalism has «modernized» formerly agricultural country. In the last two decades, the economic reform has witnessed significant achievements-for example, being selected to host the 2008 Summer Olympic Games and China's entry into the World Trade Organization, both of which bring it into much closer contact with other countries. This rich contemporary China provides a huge resource for artistic inspiration.








Look Up! Look Up!, 2000



Wang Qingsong, arguably China's leading conceptual photographer, supplies a wicked impression of life in contemporary China through his personal observations on modern culture. His computer-manipulated photographs richly reflect a playful but serious opinion on the rapid changes within China's society. As China's developing economy continues to create an environment conducive to economic, cultural, and artistic change, areas such as consumer culture have been affected, challenging existing boundaries. Reactions to the economic development have greatly influenced that art produced in China within the past two decades. As a contemporary artist, Wang Qingsong looks to the immediate environment for inspiration, thus infusing his works with emotion generated by what is taking place around him.








Prisoner ,1998


«For China, with 1/5 of the population in the world, it has to resolve problems of clothing, food, housing and transportation. In housing, developers of real estate have created such terms as "Chinese Manhattan", "Oriental Versailles ", "Park Avenue Apartments", "Palm Beach Springs", "Roman Garden", "Modern SOHO", and "European Classics". In food, it is well known that McDonald's and Pizza Hut are just fast-food stores in Europe and America, nothing more than convenience. However, when they came into China, they became the top cuisine and hot rendezvous for people to have parties, invite friends, celebrate birthdays and meet lovers. On the surface, this phenomenon of going after what is western style represents an ideal for Euro-American materialistic life. But in such an era of globalization, does this ideal also represent worship that can create a lot of ridiculous contradictions? With this thinking, I created many photographic works including "Thinker" (1998), "Prisoner" (1998), "Catcher" (1998), "Requesting Buddha series" (1999), "Can I Cooperate with You? " (2000), "Look Up! Look Up!" (2000), "Bath House" (2000), "Forum" (2001), and "Beggar" (2001)» says Wang Qingsong.



In Requesting Buddha No.1, he converts traditional Buddhist imagery into a contemporary pop image.
As the quintessence of Chinese traditional culture, Buddhism has accompanied Chinese civilization for thousands of years. It brings comfort and fortune to the people, inspires their soul and enlightens a responsibility for having good relations with the others. This Buddha used to set its goal to save the suffering through self-devotion. However, in the current commercial society, the respectable Buddha has also been changed. It reaches out its hands insatiably for money and material goods towards every troubled person. The "Requesting Buddha" Series is the faithful representation of such a phenomenon, overflowing with desires, hypocrisy and exaggeration.
By portraying himself as a thousand-armed Bodhisattva holding familiar modern products, Wang Qingsong enforces the coexistence of past and present, art and culture, traditional and colloquial.














Requesting Buddha No.1, 1999






Wang Qingsong again portrays himself as a Buddhist figure in The Thinker, this time in an aura of meditative emptiness. The irony is blatant in the McDonald's logo emblazoned on his chest. Here, Wang Qingsong skillfully juxtaposes China's religious past and cultural icons with popular western commercial names. The philosophical ideas of Buddhism combined with the recognizable McDonald's motif. He chooses to highlight commercialization in a less than serious manner by referencing product names with Buddhist motifs to effect a satirical comment on society past and present. His works demonstrate the rapid growth of consumer society, as well as the influence of western aesthetic and material culture, which can be seen to be increasingly dominant in China since the 1980s.


























Thinker, 1998














Can I cooperate with you? ,2000 Imperior Sedan, Yan Liben, Tang Dynasty*



With a strong awareness of the social changes China is experiencing, Wang Qingsong and his contemporaries confront these ideas and blend them with popular culture, producing works that force the viewer to consider what is going on in present-day society. China's push for modernization has not only affected the economy, but also cultural identity and art. The concerns facing artists today are inevitably influenced by this phenomenon. Wang Qingsong's works offer a social commentary with personal views on change, encompassing the judgment and critique of an emerging, global culture in an intelligible and at times amusing way.
______________________________________
* This painting talked about a historical event in 641 A.D. when the Chief of Tufan Minority Song Zan Gan Bu sought for marriage with the daughter of Tai Zong, Wencheng Princess. Tai Zong sat straight on the sedan chair carried by the court girls. The envoys from Tufan Minority and Tang officials sat in front of Tai Zong in deep respect. "Sedan Chair" is a documentary and historic figure painting that recorded friendship and communication of the central power with its minorities over 1000 years ago.

Goodness Gracious Me

Goodness Gracious Me
Topic: Media (TV and Radio)

Concept and Context

Goodness Gracious Me is a BBC English language sketch comedy show originally on BBC Radio 4 (1996-1998) and later televised on BBC Two (1998-2001) based on four British Asian actors: Sanjeev Bhaskar, Kulvinder Ghir, Meera Syal and Nina Wadia. In the television version most of the "white" parts are played by Dave Lamb and Fiona Allen, while in the radio version the white parts were played by the cast themselves.
The title and theme tune are based on a hit comedy song of the same title sung by Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren, in which they reprise their characters from the 1960 film The Millionairess in which Sellers played an Indian doctor and Loren his Italian patient (contrary to popular belief the song does not appear in the film). The show's signature tune is a bhangra arrangement of the song. The show's original working title was "Peter Sellers is Dead", but was changed because the cast generally liked Peter Sellers. (The character Sellers plays, although in itself a fairly crude and broad parody of an Indian man, is actually portrayed as an intelligent, diligent, professional person). In her 1996 novel Anita and Me, Syal had referred to British parodies of Asian speech as "a goodness-gracious-me accent".

It was wickedly apt for the creators of this show to choose a title so reminiscent of the stereotypical portrayal of Asians that had blighted the British media for decades. The cast casually drop Punjabi and Hindi/Urdu slang phrases into their speech, in the manner of many British Asians living in the UK.

Reactions and Evaluation, Artistic Quality and Awards
It started as a radio series and then broke out on television, with four British Asian performers (plus 'token white' Dave Lamb) taking part in sketches that managed to be bred from their own backgrounds and yet relevant and (most importantly) funny to a wider demographic.
They set their stall almost immediately with the classic "going for an English" sketch, in which a group of Asians embody the loutish behaviour of lager swilling Brits in an Indian restaurant (one diner asks for something "really bland"). They mispronounce the waiter's name, order the blandest thing from the menu (apart from one of them, who opts for the safer option of a curry) and ask for 24 plates of chips. This parodies the often-drunk English people "going out for an Indian", ordering chicken phall and too many papadums. This sketch was recently voted the 6th Greatest Comedy Sketch.
Like the best sketches, it was a simple idea done brilliantly, and their strongest ideas took Asian stereotypes but used them to illustrate comic ideas of universal appeal.
The reason it really worked through was because it was essentially an exercise in character comedy: each character strongly defined and recognizable enough not to alienate the general viewing public.
They included a man who firmly believes everything has its origins in India; Smeeta Smitten, a preening Bollywood reporter, who was instantly recognisable as an irritating embodiment of crass showbiz journalism everywhere; and best of all, the Kapoors (pronounced Coopers), social climbers who were at great pains to deny any of their heritage, desperate to be seen as 100% British.
Goodness Gracious Me had a fine ensemble cast, was generally very well written and boasted a broad range of comedy styles - TV spoofs, slapstick and catchphrases were all present and correct - whilst not shying away from satirical content.
It justly won a number of awards and stopped before it ran out of steam, allowing its core players to go on to deservedly glittering careers elsewhere.

Message to pass on
The "going for an English" sketch is often highlighted as the first time a British audience saw a parody of its own behaviour from a British Asian perspective. However some elements had been done before, including by Rowan Atkinson in his early 1980's stage show "Indian Waiter" monologue, which directly mocked such behaviour, whilst Alexei Sayle in his late 1980's TV show Stuff made a very brief hypothesis that residents of New Delhi enjoy alcoholic Friday nights out with English food.

The majority of the sketches explore the conflict and integration between traditional Indian culture and modern British life. Some reverse the roles to view the British from an Indian perspective while others poked fun at Indian stereotypes.

ANNEX
Parodies and references in the show
"The Six Million Rupee Man" - Parody of Six Million Dollar Man.
"Skipinder: The Punjabi Kangaroo" - Parody of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo.
"I'm a Punjabi Girl..." - Parody of Aqua's Barbie Girl song.
"Hindi People" - Parody of Pulp's Common People.
"Club Nirvana" - Parody of Wham!'s Club Tropicana.
"The Marriage Emporium" - Homage to Monty Python's Cheese Shop sketch and Dead Parrot sketch.
"Fawlty Turrets" - Homage to Fawlty Towers.
"The Delhi Tubbies" - Fictional Asian equivalent of the Teletubbies
"They Were The Blacked-Up Men" - Parody of Men In Black.
Other parodies are based on shows such as Animal Hospital (where members of lower castes take the place of the pets) and Rough Guide (where tourists from India visit and make unpleasant remarks about England).

Bibliography
http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/goodnessgraciousme
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhangra_Man#Recurring_characters

Humour in art & cultural projects

Humour in art & cultural projects


The pluralistic societies resulting from globalization of the 1990s produce ever-growing opportunities for artists and viewers to encounter a wide variety of cultures. As well as needing to understand different peoples, cultures and beliefs, individuals are gaining greater awareness of their own cultural backgrounds. Laughter and humor play a substantial role in facilitating cross-cultural understanding, as artists take light-hearted swipes at their own cultures and the communities to which they belong.




The artist and works we found by now are TOOLS we can use to illustrate our ideas that still have to be developped in the frame of our thematic seminar.
Following selection of artists is a pool that will be useful once we know in which direction we want to guide our researches.
We focused on contemporary visual arts only, as it seems to bet he most appropriate tool due to ist interdisciplinarity and because it is experimental & innovative

Hyungkoo Lee
Mauricio Cattalan
Roman Signer
Piero Golia
Gianni Motti
Santiaggo Sierra
Martin Kollar
Martin Zet
Primoz Novak & Nika Oblak
Tamy Ben-Tor
The Blu Noses
Robin Rhode
Sisley Xhafa
Aida Makoto
Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla
Carlos Amorales
Tim Lee
Aldo Giannotti & Stefano Giuriati
Jesper Alvaer

We will present more details of the artist’s works during our next meetin on Cyprus.


Further on, we found two probably very useful exhibitions and publications about the topic:
-MORI ART MUSEUM, All About Laughter: Humor in Contemporary Art (2007)
http://www.mori.art.museum/english/contents/laughter/index.html
-Kölnischer Kunsverein: MIGRATION (2000-2006)
http://www.koelnischerkunstverein.de/migration/


For the further work in the thematic seminar it would probably make sense to find a specific case study to focus on, like for example the turkish rooted community in Germany (Berlin?), or the maghrebine one in France (Marseille?), migrants from the very new EU-Countries in Slovenia... etc.

Also, as a remark: with all the interesting research we have to do, and already did, we should keep in mind that our basic subject is/was: Intercultural Dialogue. So, even resarching on humor or/and contemporary art, it still should be connected to cultural diversity, dialogue, migration, living better together, sustainability... ;-P

Nevenka & Suzanne
Larnaca, October 14th

Hi,
I send you this message to keep in contact with you after this time without connecting to the blog. As I didn´t see any other messages I would like to know how is going the subject for everybody if there is any comment, suggestion.
Best wishes.
Ana

test

Hi,

This is my first test using the blog. Thanks Dafna, Suzanne and Catherine for your useful work. Not many news, firstly I began to look for some bibliography on humour, linked to archaeological heritage, as I told you there has been some publications on that subject and I think I can find there other intereseting bibliography more linked to humour in culture and specifically to humour in my country; second I found a project wich "laughs about" EU bureacucracy . This is its reference:

EU BUREAUCRACY CAN BE FUN

Inspired by the well-known game Monopoly, Europoly is a playful art installation about migration to Europe. Created by Dejan Kaludjerovic and supported by the ECF's grant scheme, the installation reveals different aspects of the European Union: from the enlargement of borders to the opening up or closing down of prospects for both old and new EU citizens.



The game shifts between politics, economics and a more ‘human' dimension, highlighting the delicate balance of choices, risks and decisions in the lives of immigrants. The winner of the game receives Europoly citizenship. A player can obtain this by satisfying all the real bureaucratic requirements needed to obtain citizenship in any EU country, such as possession of a regular working permit or a permanent address certificate. A mix of artistic project and social commentary, Europoly provides no definitive solutions but moves instead among the everyday contradi

http://www.dejankaludjerovic.net/europoly.htm

http://www.europoly.org/


In relation with the European Documents, first that can be a common reference to begin is the Commision Staff working document. Inventory of community actions in the field of culture. the other one is the Ericarts document sharing diversity and although not estrictly European the Agenda 21 for Culture could be interesting considering the local policies in a global perspective.

Please let me know how to upload these documents.

Best wishes.
Ana

My skype name is Ana Mansilla, or my hotmail address anamansillac@hotmail.com

hahaha :-D

hi there ;-P
Suzanne