Sunday, 15 January 2017

Féelix Nussbaum in the 1930s and 1940s and the refugees in nowadays


Nussbaum was born in Osnabrück, Germany, in 1904, and died in Auschwitz in 9 August 1944, 39 years old. Before, he was taken to the detention camp Saint Cyprien, from where he managed to escape. He painted the reality of the destruction provoked by nazism.


Legend: Prisioners in Saint-Cyprien (1942)

Osnabrück has a Museum with the name of Félix Nussbaum, with much of his works. In 1995, the Osnabrück contest for the realisation of the Felix Nussbaum Haus was won by the American architect Daniel Libeskind. The extension based on plans by American architect Daniel Libeskind links the Cultural History Museum with the Felix Nussbaum Haus retaining the basic concept of the Felix Nussbaum Haus, opened in 1998. Materials of wood, concrete and zinc which determine the early building complexes of the Felix Nussbaum Haus, are complemented by a grey-coloured façade. The arrangement of the windows with their asymmetrically pointed shapes imitate the façade design of the Felix Nussbaum Haus, lending the building a distinctive appearance. While the extension gives visitors direct access to the Cultural History Museum, the exhibition rooms of the Felix Nussbaum Haus are reached via an enclosed glass corridor. In 2011 the Felix Nussbaum Haus and the Cultural History Museum Osnabrück opened their doors again after almost a year of reconstruction.




Legend: Self-portray with tea towel (dish towel) (around 1933)



Legend: Self Portrait with Jewish Identity Card (1943)

In this painting, I particularly like the white blossoms that appear in the top of the painting, as a sign of hope (for me, at least). 

The visit to Nussbaum Museum was a vivid experience about the tragedy of the nazism in Europe, but it also remembers me the situation of refugees in Europe in nowadays.

In Varusschlacht learning from history


I learnt many things about German and Romanian history in Germany.
The gold coins are amazing at the Museum in Varusschlacht







Great company with Carol Hagemann-White and Bianca Graffe.


Friday, 16 October 2015

Preparing Action Research Paper



A "collective researcher" (in the words of Bataille) is already established to think about the action research process in the Project Artways in UMAR. The abstract of our paper:


Comprehensive external evaluation using a collaborative research-action methodology

Comprehensive external evaluation using a collaborative research-action methodology proposes the Social and community development research as a sensitizing and formative construct of the best practices for prevention of violence and juvenile delinquency. Aims to map the integration of all facilitators used in communication for the development of prevention of violence and juvenile delinquency in the key moments of realization of the ARTWAYS  project [1], according to the ERAC cycle (Evaluation; Research; Action; Collaborative) and the principles of transparency and credibility as a goal that guides the ARTWAYS Project. Subsequently to the time of completion of the project, it plans to establish prevention memory through artistic expression in order to facilitate the transfer of innovation to territories/places where environmental scenography claims the necessary to foster creative and competitive social cohesion, able to promote social inclusion for the essential defense of  human rights, inherent to the interests of human development progress.
We observe the relations network for strategic monitoring of the ARTWAYs Project actions, processed as a quality observatory of best practices to prevent violence and juvenile delinquency, through the collaborative research-action. The strategic monitoring system, which we propose for the  external evaluation, through a methodology of collaborative action research, is profiled with the relevance to promote its value in a continuously and systematically way.

Authors:
Isabel C. Viana
icviana@ie.uminho.pt
Institute of Education, University of Minho, Portugal
Maria José Magalhães
Faculty of Psychology and Sciences of Education, University of Porto, Portugal




[1] The project "Artways - Educational Policies and Training Against Violence and Juvenile Delinquency "is a project of UMAR, financed by the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area (EEA Grants) and managed by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

Friday, 18 September 2015

Cultural studies and postcolonial feminist thought

The polysemy of the concept culture makes difficult to operationalize it when analyzing discursive material about power dynamics of gender relations.
Culture is heritage, inheritance.

Epistemological failures as an important layer of oppression.
"Highlighting the patterns of suppression and the corresponding impact of rendering black feminist though easily dismissed" (Dotson, 2015: 2323) mean placing black feminist thought in the focus or analysis.



"For Collins (2009: 302-305), engaging in epistemology is necessary for empowerment, particularly with respect to the operations of hegemonic power." ((Dotson, 2015: 2324)

Rosana Paulino, Embroideries, 1997.

"Hegemonic power, for Collins (2009: 302), 'aims to justify practices' in structural, disciplinary, and interpersonal domains of power." (Dotson, 2015: 2324) 

References:
Collins, Patricia Hill. 2009. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the
Politics of Empowerment. New York: Routledge Classics.
Dotson, Kristie (2015) "Inheriting Patricia Hill Collins's Black Feminist epistemology", Ethnic and Racial Studies 38:13, 2322-2328, DOI: 10.1080/01419870.2015.1058496. 



Tuesday, 8 September 2015

Symposium of the CEINAV at European Conference on Domestic Violence, Belfast 2015

Liz Kelly, Rita Lopez, Bianca Graffe and Vlasta Jalusic present the research of CEINAV in the Belfast European Conference on Domestic Violence.
In this symposium, preliminar findings of the CEINAV were presented, giving special attention to the research questions of the Project, that is the ways cultural encounters play out in ethics, justice and citizenship.
Although CEINAV focus on three forms of violence — domestic violence against women, child abuse and neglect and trafficking for sexual exploitation, the symposium was centred on domestic violence intervention in the forth countries involved in CEINAV: Germany, United Kingdom, Portugal and Slovenia.
Cultural encounters were approached with a methodology based on focus groups with professionals from several areas who were asked about the sequence of intervention and the specificities of intervention with survivors belonging to ethnic minorities groups.
The research of CEINAV can be followed at the blog http://ceinav-jrp.blogspot.pt/ as well as in the site http://www.fpce.up.pt/love_fear_power/ceinav/ceinav_eng.html

Saturday, 15 August 2015

The Salt of the Earth - with Sebastião Salgado


I knew the 1954 movie Salt of the Earth, about a long strike, in 1961, in Mexico. It is a feminist film, showing women striking to support workers struggle for a better work conditions. The film shows how the miners, the company, and the police react during the strike. It's style is neorealist, the producers and director used actual miners and their families as actors in the film. It was a great movie that strengthened my radical feminist point of view and my solidarity with workers' movements. 

Miners claimed equal payment and wages with Anglo workers as well as better health programmes for them and their families. Because of the fear of police, the miners' wives replaced them in the strike and stand there firmly into the end. Esperanza Quitero is one of the characters protrayed in the movie, played by Rosaura Revuletas. 
I remembered the circle of women with small posters in their hands, and walking around all the day. Also the solidarity among them and from the neighbours to support with food, medicines and whatever they need to go on striking for so long time. 

Tonight, I saw another The Salt of the Earth, a Brazilian-French and Italian biographical documentary directed by Wim Wenders — the director of Der Himmel über Berlin —, and Sebastião Salgado's son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado. I knew some of the photographs of Sebastião Salgado but I didn't imagine how much he had worked. The movie received many awards, the Cannes Festival Special Prize and César Award for Best Documentary Film.  In the team of the producers, there is also Wim Wenders, but also Lélia Wanick Salgado, Sebastião's wife, and David Rosier, Julia de Abreu, Fakhrya Fakhry, Andrea Gambetta and Christine Ponelle. 

The movie shows how important his wife was in his career — Lélia Wanick Salgado.



References:
Salt of the Earth (1954) written by Michael Wilson, directed by Herbert J. Biberman, and produced by Paul Jarrico
Salt of the Earth (2014) written by Wim Wenders, Juliano Salgado and David Rosier, Directed by Wim Wenders and Juliano Salgado and produced by Wim Wenders, but also Lélia Wanick Salgado, Sebastião's wife, and David Rosier, Julia de Abreu, Fakhrya Fakhry, Andrea Gambetta and Christine Ponelle.