Video "The Dubrovnik Declaration 2008"

Video "You are an Outsider"

Video "Should Turkey be allowed to Join?"

Video "Europe in Turkish Schoolbooks"

Video "Anil and Samet - Migrant Rap Cologne"

Video "Paris in turkish literature"

Video "Interviews with Europeans on the ways they are seen"

Exhibition Photos

Exhibition Istanbul

24 October - 8 November 2008

Panel "European Migrations"

istanbul, Kadir Has University, 24 October 2008

Exhibition Bonn, 10-12 October 2008

The Theme Video 2008

IMPRINT 2008

See the complete “Breaking the Stereotype 2008” profile

“Breaking the Stereotype 2008. The Orient’s Image of Europe and Europe‘s Self-Perception – now and then”
is the second stage of the three-stage exhibition project “Breaking the Stereotype” which is curated by Veronika Bernard and a team of co-curators. The project has been set for the period of 2007-2010.
The exhibits for “Breaking the Stereotype 2008” have been created and/ or contributed by Austrian and Belgish artists, Jürgen Neitzert’s Cologne Migrant Youth Project, participants of the course “Challenges of a new Europe: In between local freeze and global dynamics” (a project by Wieger Bakker of the Utrecht School of Governance), students and university teachers of Beirut’s Notre Dame University, Istanbul’s Boğaziçi University, the University of Freiburg/ Germany, the University of Applied Sciences of Kufstein, and the University of Innsbruck.
They include cartoons, video clips of interviews with researchers, collages of photos, texts, statistics and advertisements.

Exhibition contact:
Assoc.Prof. Dr. Veronika Bernard
Cultures in Contact: www.uibk.ac.at/kik
Department of German Language and Literature
University of Innsbruck
Innrain 52
A-6020 Innsbruck
e-mail: veronika.bernard(at)gmx.at



Locations and opening dates (last update: Sept. 8, 2008)


"Breaking the Stereotype 2008. The Orient's Image of Europe and Europe's Self-Perception - now and then (selected exhibits)"

Bonn: Rheinische Friedrich Wilhelms Universität, Regina-Pacis-Weg 3D, 53113 Bonn, Universitätsclub, 9.-11.10.2008, 10-16 Uhr

"Breaking the Stereotype 2008. The Orient’s view of Europe and Europe’s Self-Perception"

Istanbul: Kadir Has University, October 24-November 8, 2008

"Breaking the Stereotype 2007-2008. Europe's View of the Orient, the Orient's view of Europe and Europe's and the Orient's Self-Perceptions"

Rome: National institute for the promotion of migrants' health and the control of poverty-related diseases, opening: February 10, 2009.

Curator

Assoc.Prof. (Privatdozentin) Dr. Veronika Bernard
Cultures in Contact/ Kulturen im Kontakt: www.uibk.ac.at/kik
Department of German Language and Literature
University of Innsbruck
Innrain 52
A-6020 Innsbruck
e-mail: veronika.bernard(at)gmx.at

Co-Curator

Dr. Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous
Faculty of Political Science, Public Administration & Diplomacy
Department of Political Science
Notre Dame University
Beirut


See the curator's profile

See the co-curator's profile

See the complete exhibition 2008 project team (by 03-06-2008)

Planning and General Responsibilties

General responsibility: Cultures in Contact, Leopold-Franzens-University Innsbruck, Innrain 52, A-6020 Innsbruck, and cooperating universities, institutions and organizations: GenderLink, Salzburg/ Austria; Kadior Has University, istanbul/ Turkey (Faculty of Communication), Ege University, Izmir/ Turkey (English Language and Literature Department); Notre Dame University, Beirut/ Lebanon (VCD-Department).

Planning, coordination and final editing: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Veronika Bernard, Cultures in Contact, Leopold-Franzens-University Innsbruck, Innrain 52, A-6020 Innsbruck.

Planning, coordinating and editing team (in alphabetical order): Assoc. Prof. Dr. Veronika Bernard (Leopold-Franzens-University, Innsbruck/ Austria), Ass. Prof. Başak Şenova (Kadir Has University, Istanbul/ Turkey), Ass. Prof. Dr. İsmail Boyacı (Dokuz Eylül University, Izmir/ Turkey), Prof. Dr. Günseli İşçi (Ege University, Izmir/ Turkey), Ass. Prof. Dr. Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous (Notre Dame University, Beirut/ Lebanon).

Scientific team (theoretical background, research; in alphabetical order): Assoc. Prof. Dr. Veronika Bernard (Leopold-Franzens-University, Innsbruck/ Austria), Prof. Dr. Levent Soysal (Kadir Has University, Istanbul/ Turkey), Ass. Prof. Dr. İsmail Boyacı (Dokuz Eylül University, Izmir/ Turkey), Prof. Dr. Günseli İşçi (Ege University, Izmir/ Turkey), Erika Pircher (LibanLink/ Salzburg), Ass. Prof. Dr. Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous (Notre Dame University, Beirut/ Lebanon).

Creative team (exhibit and exhibition design; in alphabetical order): Assoc. Prof. Dr. Veronika Bernard (Leopold-Franzens-University, Innsbruck/ Austria), Isabel Becker (Vienna/ Austria), Ass. Prof. Dr. Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous (Notre Dame University, Beirut/ Lebanon).

Consultants (in alphabetical order):
Dr. Linda Choueiri Notre Dame University, Beirut/ Lebanon), Dr. Dima Dabbous-Sensenig (Lebanese American University, Beirut/ Lebanon), Dr. Guita Hourani (Notre Dame University, Beirut/ Lebanon), Erika Pircher (GenderLink, Salzburg/ Austria).

Contributors and Interview Partners (by 03-06-2008; in alphabetical order):
Olcay Akyıldız (Boğaziçi University, Istanbul/ Turkey)
Christine Ankele (Kufstein, Austria)
Wieger Bakker (Utrecht School of Governance at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands)
Veronika Bernard (Leopold-Franzens University of Innsbruck, Austria)
Isabel Becker (Vienna, Austria)
Recep Cirik (Antwerp, Belgium)
Rianne Dekker (University of Humanistics Rotterdam, The Netherlands)
Astrid Federspiel-Kraßnigg (Leopold-Franzens University of Innsbruck, Austria)
Kerstin Geder (University of Applied Sciences of Kufstein, Austria)
Natalie Ismael (Kufstein, Austria)
Franka Karsten (Utrecht School of Governance at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands)
Marco Kircher (University Freiburg, Germany)
Ursula Neumayer (Kufstein, Austria)
Eren Özalay (Boğaziçi University, Istanbul/ Turkey)
Nikola Popovic (Belgrade, Serbia)
Kathrin Wiblishauser (University of Applied Sciences of Kufstein, Austria)
Hakan Yılmaz (Boğaziçi University, Istanbul/ Turkey)
Andrea Zwack (University of Applied Sciences of Kufstein, Austria)
NDU Team Beirut

Go to the interactive exhibition project website to submit your contribution (under construction)

If you would like to contribute to our project

The general deadline for preparing an exhibition stage is three months in advance of the exhibition opening date. This does not refer to online-contributions to the interactive exhibition project website. They are possible at any time.

List of relevant topical fields and fields of research to be included in the exhibition:

Varieties of self-perception (regional/ ethnic varieties, religious/denominational varieties, ideological/ political varieties, migrants view) ought to be highlighted and contrasted against the mostly simplifying stereotyped perception of the “Other”.
Currently these are:
+ people’s character/ mentality (calm, dignified, phlegmatic, traditional, religious etc.)
+ dress codes: covering your body in public/ showing one’s body in public/ scarf/ veil/ public nakedness
+ women and men (social status, patterns of relation)
+ mosques/ minarets/ churches
+ means of transport (camels, caravans, ...)*
+ sceneries (desert, bazars, colours, ...)*
+ religious belonging (Muslim, Christian)
+ representative places/ cities

* Aspects marked with an asterix are not considered relevant by all contributors, and therefore may be eliminated in case there are no exhibit proposals refering to them.

In order to ensure a well balanced range of exhibits colleagues from as many research fields as possible have been invited for contribution.
Currently these are:
+ (national) literatures, linguistics and cultural studies
+ literary criticism
+ media studies
+ gender studies
+ history of arts
+ social and political science
+ history
+ VCD

Exhibition Program (topical perspectives)

Stage 2 (Istanbul, 2008): „Breaking the Stereotype“. Part 2: The Orient’s Image of Europe and Europe‘s Self-Perception – now and then.
- The Eastern Mediterranean‘s perception of Europe (present and past)
- The 2nd and 3rd generation Eastern Mediterranean migrant perspective of Europe (present)
- The perception-in-return of the 2nd and 3rd generation Eastern Mediterranean migrant perspective of Europe by Europeans (present)
- The perception-in-return of the Eastern Mediterranean‘s perception of Europe by Europeans (present and past)
- Europe’s self-perception (present and past)

Stage 3 (Austria, Italy: Southern Tyrol, maybe, Beirut, 2009, Istanbul, 2010, hopefully as part of the „European Capital of Culture“ events): „Breaking the Stereotype“. Part 3: A Mutual Understanding of Images: The Orient and Europe – now and then.

“circular” exhibit structure: 20-25 stereotypical themes analyzed/ presented/ portrayed from the perspectives listed below.
- Europe’s perception of the Orient as its Other (present and past)
- The Eastern Mediterranean‘s perception of Europe (present and past)
- The 2nd and 3rd generation migrant perspective of the Eastern Mediterranean (present)
- The 2nd and 3rd generation Eastern Mediterranean migrant perspective of Europe (present)
- The perception-in-return of the European perception of the Eastern Mediterranean by 2nd and 3rd generation migrants living in Europe and the 2nd and 3rd generation migrants‘ self-perception (present)
- The perception-in-return of the 2nd and 3rd generation Eastern Mediterranean migrant perspective of Europe by Europeans (present)
- The perception-in-return of the European perception of the Eastern Mediterranean by the people living in the area (present and past)
- The perception-in-return of the Eastern Mediterranean‘s perception of Europe by Europeans (present and past)
- The Eastern Mediterranean‘s self-perception (present and past)
- Europe’s self-perception (present and past)

Exhibition Program (fields of stereotyping):

Stage 2 (Istanbu, 2008): „Breaking the Stereotype“. Part 2: The Orient’s Image of Europe and Europe‘s Self-Perception – now and then.
Period of time: 20th plus 21st century
Fields:
- tourism (catalogues, brochures etc)
- literature (bookcovers, text passages etc)
- media (press photographs, film ads/ posters, film clips etc)
- material individually designed (by students etc) to illustrate Eastern Mediterranean stereotyping of Europe
- material individually designed (by students etc) to illustrate European self-perception
Period of time: 16th – 19th century
Fields:
- tourism (travellogues etc)
- literature (illustrations, text passages etc)
- paintings

Stage 3 (Austria, Italy: Southern Tyrol, maybe, Beirut, 2009, Istanbul, 2010, hopefully as part of the „European Capital of Culture“ events): „Breaking the Stereotype“. Part 3: A Mutual Understanding of Images: The Orient and Europe – now and then.
Period of time: 20th plus 21st century
Fields:
- tourism (catalogues, brochures etc)
- literature (bookcovers, text passages etc)
- media (press photographs, film ads/ posters, film clips etc)
- material individually designed (by students etc) to illustrate Eastern Mediterranean stereotyping of Europe
- material individually designed (by students etc) to illustrate European self-perception
- material individually designed (by students etc) to illustrate Eastern Mediterranean stereotyping of Europe
- material individually designed (by students etc) to illustrate European self-perception
Period of time: 16th – 19th century
Fields:
- tourism (travellogues etc)
- literature (illustrations, text passages etc)
- paintings

Exhibit Types and Exhibit Creation

Exhibit Types:
Photos which have been shot by contributors themselves, creative combinations (collages) of photos, texts, statistics etc., texts of fiction and non-fiction (or parts of such texts), book covers (with historical piece, digital photos of the covers), advertising materials (posters, catalogues, leaflets, brochures etc), film clips (in case there are no copyright restrictions), video tapes of interviews with researchers presenting and discussing their findings on the exhibition topic, video clips, readings by authors (live or as DVD-clips), computer animations, reproductions of historical prints/ illustrations etc.

Exhibit Creation:
Exhibits are designed, produced, collected and selected by the contributors (for instance in student workshops etc.).
All exhibits will be forwarded to the exhibition organisers together with an explanatory text both in German or English and the native language (Turkish or Arabic; single exhibit: maximum 50 words; per exhibit-group: maximum 150 words; German, English, Turkish as a Microsoft-word-for-windows file, current version; Arabic as a .jpg-file) which gives all necessary information on the exhibit (including background information), and has been authorized by the contributors to be used in the exhibition.
NOTE: Exhibits forwarded to the exhibition organisers lacking an explanatory text will not be shown in the exhibition.

Number of Exhibits and Balancing of Exhibit Types

„Exhibition-in-progress“ principal: The exhibition starts off at a maximum of 10 significant exhibits (or exhibit groups) per exhibit category (in 2007) and may grow to up to a maximum of 15 exhibits (or exhibit groups) per exhibit category (in 2009/ 2010).

Stage 2 (Istanbul, 2008): „Breaking the Stereotype“. Part 2: The Orient’s Image of Europe and Europe‘s Self-Perception – now and then.
Maximum number of exhibits: 75 (at a maximum of 12 items each)

Stage 3 (Innsbruck, 2009, Istanbul, 2010, hopefully as part of the „European Capital of Culture“ events): „Breaking the Stereotype“. Part 3: A Mutual Understanding of Images: The Orient and Europe – now and then.
Maximum number of exhibits: 200 (at a maximum of 15 items each)

Balancing of Exhibit Types within Exhibit Categories/ Groups: 1/3 „fact sheet“ material, 1/3 audiovisual adaptations of research findings, 1/3 artistic contributions

Gathering, Creating and Forwarding of Exhibits

Gathering and creating of exhibits and explanatory texts to be used in the exhibition: by contributing universities/ institutions/ organizations.
Exhibits will be identified by names of cooperating and contributing universities and institutions while shown in the exhibition.
NOTE: Exhibits lacking identification will not be shown in the exhibition.

Forwarding of exhibits by the Austrian Foreign Ministry’s forwarding service.
Costs for transport within Austria and within the country of the exhibition site (up to 60 Euros one way) are paid by the exhibition organizers.

Exhibits will not be insured.

Forwarding procedures: please, contact Austrian Culture Forums for suitable date of forwarding by the Austrian Foreign Ministry’s forwarding service to the exhibition sites whenever possible (please, mind: forwarding by the ministry’s forwarding service needs certain formalities which are obligatory and which may take up to three weeks).
Exhibition Documentation

Video-taping of stages no.1 and no.2. Video tapes to be published on the Culture in Contact homepage and to be visited via the link www.uibk.ac.at/kik.
An exhibition catalogue (including a DVD/ CD showing a walk through exhibition stages no.1-3) with the concluding exhibition in 2009/ 2010.

© Veronika Bernard

See the complete project profile

The exhibition project „Breaking the Stereotype“ has been initiated by the Humanities research focus „Kulturen im Kontakt/ Cultures in Contact“ at Leopold-Franzens-University of Innsbruck. The three-stage project has been set for the period of 2007-2009/2010. It deals with the connotative changes in the ways Orient and Occident have been mutually stereotyped from a cultural studies point of view. The exhibition aims at documenting the products of stereotyping as well as the mechanisms active in the stereotyping processes and their partial rooting in the cultural system of Orientalism, which has been analyzed by Edward W. Said, and at opening them to de-construction. Therefore the exhibition contrasts the representations of cultural perception concerning the Orient and the Occident against the representations of Oriental and Occidental self-perception as they appear in literature, the media and every day life in order to break the stereotypes. In order to differentiate the problem even further the representations of cultural perception are contrasted against the perception-in return of this perception by the people living in the Eastern Mediterranean and by the migrant perspective on this point.

As the exhibition aims at opening as many aspects of stereotyping to de-construction as possible it presents a well balanced mixture of research findings on the exhibition topic, audiovisual adaptations of research findings and artistic approaches to the exhibition topic. By including the arts into the exhibition also the soft (atmospheric) aspects of Oriental and Occidental stereotyping are considered in terms of de-construction in addition to the hard (factual) aspects of stereotyping.

It is crucial to mind that stereotypes will not to be analyzed on grounds of evaluating whether they are true or false, right or wrong, within the exhibition context. Stereotypes are rather seen as generalizations and simplifications of what has been encountered individually. Stereotypes are products of intellectual modelling. They are not true or false. They do not oppose what is defined as reality so ever. They rather reduce what is perceived as reality by its varieties and details in order to make individual perception processes more efficient. This is particularly true of cultural perception and cultural representation, although cultural self-perception may also be open to stereotyping.

Stereotyping opens ways of categorizing perception and representation processes aiming at defining one’s „Other“ and one’s „Self“. In this process the relevant criterion is how well people are able to identify with what they perceive in terms of cultural input, and how well they identify with their cultural „Self“. Resulting from this, stereotypes fall into positive and negative ones. However, positive stereotypes are hardly considered stereotypes whereas negative stereotypes are. Idyllizing, idealizing and romanticizing representations therefore find their way into cultural self-perception and self-representation whereas negative stereotyping (depreciatory, disparaging, demonizing, stigmatizing, criminalizing representations) keeps restricted to the cultural perception and representation of the „Other“. Nevertheless, even positively connotated stereotyping may turn into its opposite if integrated into an intellectual model of overriding importance.

Such an intellectual model in terms of stereotyping the Orient by the Occident is the system of Orientalism as defined by Edward W. Said. The term „Orientalism“ stands for one culture executing power over another one. Stereotyping is a factor in executing power over cultures different from your own. The exhibition takes this aspect into account by using Edward W. Said’s terminology and definition of Orientalism in those fields where they are relevant in terms of deconstructing the stereotypes given.

Edward W. Said has pointed out that the concepts of the „Occident“ and the „Orient“ in their opposing qualities have been deliberately designed by occidental minds. According to Said, the Orient has been assigned the part of the „Other“, or rather: the inferior „Other“, within this opposition. The latter has been put into perspective by literary historical research on individual European national literatures and by feminist research. Said‘s central point of understanding the two concepts as products of occidental intellectual modelling, however, has remained unquestioned.

As both the Occidental and the Oriental concept and the products of stereotyping are to be understood as intellectual working models both are subjects to changing cultural environments. Consequently, they have not been stable but have kept changing in the course of time.

In illustrating the quality of these changes in stereotyping the Orient and the Occident the exhibition starts off with present stereotyping and moves on to more historical ones.

As the exhibition concept is based on reciprocity it is self-evident that in working on the exhibition issues university and non-university institutions and organizations at Innsbruck and Salzburg (Leopold-Franzens-Universlty of Innsbruck and Salzburg based GenderLink) will closely cooperate with colleagues/ partners at university and non-university institutions and organisations in those geographical regions having been defined as „the Orient“ by Occidental thinking. Currently these are colleagues at Boğazici University, Istanbul; Dokuz Eylül University, Izmir; Ege University, Izmir; Notre Dame University, Beirut. Further cooperating partners and participants to the project are highly welcome. The project is supported by the Austrian Culture Forum at Istanbul.

As the exhibition aims at highlighting the varieties of self-perception and self-representation (regional/ ethnic varieties, religious/ denominational varieties, ideological/ political varieties, migrants perspectives) the exhibits chosen to illustrate these varieties will be contrasted against exhibits which illustrate the relevant aspects of cultural perception of the Other, of the perception-in-return of this perception by the people living in the Eastern Mediterranean and by the migrant perspective on this point.

The exhibits will be designed, produced, collected and selected by the contributors (for instance in student workshops etc.). The contributors are free to use photos which have been shot by themselves, creative combinations (collages) of photos, texts, statistics etc., texts of fiction and non-fiction (or parts of such texts), book covers (with historical pieces: digital photos of the covers), advertising materials (posters, catalogues, leaflets, brochures etc), film clips (in case there are no copyright restrictions), video tapes of interviews with researchers presenting and discussing their findings on the exhibition topic, video clips, readings by authors (live or as DVD-clips), computer animations, reproductions of historical prints/ illustrations etc. to create their exhibits. All exhibits will be forwarded to the exhibition organisers together with a text both in German or English and the native language (Turkish or Arabic; as a Microsoft-word-for-windows file, current version) which gives all necessary information on the exhibit (including background information), and has been authorized by the contributors to be used in the exhibition.

To ensure that the exhibits can be compared in terms of their messages and, by this, will be fit to illustrate the quality of the very approach the exhibition will concentrate on a limited number of stereotyped fixtures. They are selected by the team of contributors. The leading idea in doing so is to choose those aspects which are considered relevant and significant by the contributors. The list of fixtures selected may be added to if considered necessary.

To keep the range of exhibits well balanced people from as many research fields as possible have been invited to contribute.

The exhibition is designed as an exhibition-in-progress, i.e. exhibits may be constantly added to the exhibition. It will start at a maximum of 10 exhibits per exhibit category at stage no.1 in 2007. The number of exhibits per exhibit category may be increased to up to 20 for the final exhibition in 2009/ 2010.

An interactive exhibition website on which people can comment on the exhibition or contribute their personal exhibits of the types defined above will be integrated into exhibition stages no.2 and no.3 as a separate exhibit. It can be entered via this blog.

Exhibition sites are located at Innsbruck and Kufstein in 2007, at a centrally located place in Istanbul in 2008, at a place in Austria or abroad near the Austrian border and at Beirut in 2009 and at a centrally located place in Istanbul again, probably, as part of the events „European Capital of Culture 2010“ in 2010.

Exhibition stages no.1 and no.2 will be video-taped. The clip will be published on the Cultures in Contact homepage. It can be visited via the link on www.uibk.ac.at/kik. An exhibition catalogue which consists of pictures of all the exhibits, the texts going with them and a DVD/ CD showing a walk through exhibition stages no.1-3 will be published for the concluding exhibition in 2009/ 2010, and will be on sale for exhibition-goers.