The Urban Cultures of Global Prayers
Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst | NGBK
November 12, 2011–January 8, 2012
Oranienstr. 25, D-10999 Berlin
Camera Austria, Graz
January 27–March 31, 2012
Lendkai 1, 8020 Graz, Austria
www.globalprayers.info
www.metrozones.info
www.ngbk.de
www.camera-austria.at
www.hkw.de
Gilles Aubry (CH), Sabine Bitter / Helmut Weber (AT/CA), Lía Dansker (AR), Aryo Danusiri (ID), Katja Eydel (D), Frida Hartz (MX), Magdalena Kallenberger / Dorothea Nold (D), Verónica Mastrosimone (AR), Rika Collective (KE), Sandra Schäfer (D), Surabhi Sharma (IN), Sevgi Ortaç (TR), Jens Wenkel / Lagos Film Workshop (NG), Paola Yacoub (LB)
In Lagos, the largest Pentecostal church offers room for five times as many believers as the world’s biggest soccer stadium; a very own City of God is emerging on the outskirts of the metropolis. In Beirut, Islamist organizations are taking charge of rebuilding quarters destroyed during the war and control the provision of housing. In Rio de Janeiro, movie theaters are converted into temples, while in Mumbai public spaces temporarily become stages for religious theater. New religious movements demonstrate their physical presence in the streets and are expanding their territory.
New religious movements and organizations obviously play an increasingly important role in the large cities of the world. They are transforming the urban topography, appearing as economic as well as political players, and often replacing the role of the state—across all regions and religions.
For the first time, the exhibition the Urban Cultures of Global Prayers at the Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst (Berlin) offers differentiated insights into cultures, policies, and economies of faith in urban space, into the interrelations between urban development and sacred practices, between promises of spiritual redemption and social liberation. Beyond ideological debates on the “regained strength of religiosity”, it becomes evident in the works of the artists from twelve countries that big cities are also always places of religious innovation.
In photo sequences, video installations, and soundscapes, they above all address the cultural and urban practices of globally active, new religious movements, allowing viewers to experience urban settings, strategies, and productions of meaning of religious players and communities in metropolises of the Global South such as Lagos, Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro, Beirut, Kinshasa, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Nairobi, or Tehran—but also in New York, Istanbul, and Berlin.
Guided Tours: Sunday, 3 pm, December 4 and 18, 2011, January 8, 2012
project group the Urban Cultures of Global Prayers | metroZones: Jochen Becker, Christian Hanussek, Anne Huffschmid, Nadine Jäger, Stephan Lanz, Oliver Pohlisch, Katja Reichard, Kathrin Wildner
Scenography: ifau – institut für angewandte urbanistik
Design: image-shift – büro für gestaltung
A bi-lingual exhibition booklet is published at the opening of the exhibition. The publication the Urban Cultures of Global Prayers will be out in spring 2012. Already published is Urban Prayers – Neue religiöse Bewegungen in der globalen Stadt (metroZones, ed.).
At Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, the festival “Thematic Days Global Prayer” will take place form the 23rd to the 26th of February, 2012.
the Urban Cultures of Global Prayers is an exhibition by NGBK within the framework of global prayers • redemption and liberation in the city. global prayers is a project by metroZones – Center for Urban Affairs with Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Europa-Universität Viadrina in Frankfurt/Oder and a research project at the Forum Transregionale Studien - co-produced with Goethe-Institut, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung and Camera Austria, Graz.
www.globalprayers.info | www.metroZones.info
www.ngbk.de | www.camera-austria.at | www.hkw.de
