Los europeos no nos han entendido nunca” – the Europeans have never understood us. This statement by the Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez can be read either as a résumé expressing his resignation or as a call to improve things in the future. A better understanding between Latin Americans and Europeans requires mutual knowledge of culture, or rather cultures. Germany is making considerable efforts at many institutional levels to breathe life into this intercultural dialogue. The players of cultural exchange are as diverse as its content. They include, for example, lively twinning agreements like those between Berlin and Buenos Aires, academic contacts between individual universities, and the programmes of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). The Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa), funded by the Federal Foreign Office, runs a transnational cultural exchange service. The Federal Foreign Office is committed to preserving important cultural monuments in Latin America and supports the Goethe Institutes. In many Latin American cities, El Goethe epitomizes the communication of German culture and language. Fourteen Goethe Institutes operate in nine countries in the region.
One of the Institutes with the longest tradition has resided in the bustling centre of Buenos Aires since the 1960s. Behind a large glass façade, the extensive library is an open invitation to all those who would like to read German books – or watch and listen to German DVDs and CDs. The classrooms where Argentines can learn German are on the first floor. Goethe-Institut language diplomas are recognized by German authorities, an important argument for many Latin Americans. Institute Director Stefan Hüsgen reports with satisfaction that the demand for language courses is currently especially strong. Young graduates in particular want to learn German. Hüsgen says his institute’s task is to win the Argentines’ hearts and minds for Germany. And he seems to be succeeding, also with the cultural programme. A performance by three dancers from the Pina Bausch Dance Group attracted an audience of 1,200 in a theatre in the small town of Azul, Hüsgen says. Modern dance theatre, a field in which German productions are considered to be among the avant-garde, is again high on Hüsgen’s priority list for 2011. Tours of contemporary theatre from Germany are organized by the Goethe-Institut in Santiago. In October 2011 Thomas Ostermeier of the Berliner Schaubühne theatre will be presenting his production of Hamlet in Chile.
But El Goethe doesn’t only stands for cultural imports. A good example of this is the exhibition “Menos Tiempo que Lugar. El Arte de la Independencia: Ecos Contemporáneos”, which is currently in Mexico as part of its tour through Latin America. To mark South America’s bicentenary of independence, which is being celebrated in many countries between 2009 and 2011, Alfons Hug, director of the Goethe-Institut in Rio de Janeiro, has brought together contemporary works – photographs, videos and sculptures – by twelve Latin American and seven German artists.
The ifa has also committed itself to the goal of promoting understanding between cultures. In 2011 and 2012 it is presenting the exhibition “Leap in Time” in Quito, Cuenca, Curitiba and La Paz, featuring the works of two grand masters of German press photography: Erich Salomon, who used the camera to explore the parliamentary work of the Weimar Republic, and Barbara Klemm, who photographed pivotal moments of German reunification more than half a century later. Another ifa project is an exhibition of paintings by Gerhard Richter – one of Germany’s most important contemporary artists. It will be shown first in São Paulo, moving on to Porto Alegre in 2014 and later to Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Mexico.
Most of the Latin American art treasures whose conservation has been funded by the Federal Foreign Office since 1981 date from earlier eras. The Cultural Preservation Programme has made it possible to conserve more than 250 culturally valuable works in 16 countries of the region, including projects in Dominica, Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago. In the past two years, restorations have included the dome of the National Theatre of Costa Rica, the Beethoven Monument in Mexico City, the church in Viñales, Cuba, the Walcker organ in Medellín Cathedral, and works by the German-Brazilian painter Hansen Bahía.
