Bernd Scherer

HKW was a gift from the United States to the city of Berlin in 1957 • A symbolic locale in Cold War Berlin • First sign of the West when crossing over from East Berlin • Criticism that the HKW was a realm or space defined by the ‘exotic’ • It also played a transmitter role for quite a number of intellectuals and artists • Post-colonial discourse – Homi K. Bhabha, Okwui Enwezor, the Short Century • The Black Atlantic with Paul Gilroy • Third phase of the HKW seeks to encourage an interaction between local and global discourse • What is art, and what are art institutions doing? • The reconceptualisation of the HKW • Global Prayers – working together with academics, artists, and cultural and social activists in cities such as Berlin, Rio de Janeiro, Lagos, Beirut, Istanbul, and Mumbai • Processes of modernisation and secularisation involve removing religion from the picture • 80 researchers in these cities, with different artists • Artist Aernout Mik • The border between scientific and artistic approaches • German Research Foundation (DFG) starting to support workshops in order to develop a conceptual approach to these issues • Whole Earth • How counterculture transforms into big business • After Year Zero • Cultural and political movements in the non-western world

Bernd Scherer, director of the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), holds a doctoral degree in philosophy from the Universität des Saarlandes and is the author of several publications focusing on aesthetics and international cultural exchange. Previously, he headed the Department of Humanities and Culture at the HKW and has also served as its Deputy Director. He served as Director of the Goethe Institute Mexico from 1999 through 2004 and subsequently as Director of the Arts Department at the Goethe Institute’s headquarters in Munich.