The Goethe-Institut launches a digital magazine – L’Express Financier

An art exhibit and interactive pop-up installation were presented to the public to explore the lessons of interlocking through artwork and visual material produced for the project website.

Will wedding receptions in India be limited to 100 guests instead of 1000?
Will the elbow bump replace the kiss on the cheeks as the standard greeting in Brazil?
Will FFP2 face masks become a staple in everyday shopping and train travel in Germany?
Is the private sphere drawn into the public in Korea or vice versa?
How to maintain a social distance in megalopolises like Seoul, Delhi or Sao Paulo when four generations live in 12 square meters?

Last week, the Goethe-Institut’s digital magazine titled “Proximity and Distance” explored these questions in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and invited authors and artists to engage in intercultural exchange through the writing and art, at an offline event at the Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan New Delhi.

An art exhibit and interactive pop-up installation were presented to the public to explore the lessons of interlocking through artwork and visual material produced for the project website.

Four experts – Korean philosophy professor Kwang Sun Joo from Busan, Brazilian artist Rosana Paulino from Sao Paulo, German sociologist Jan Paul Heisig from Berlin, and Indian author and filmmaker Paromita Vohra from Mumbai – came together to focus about the future, about the changes brought in by the pandemic and finding answers to: How close can we be to others and how close do we want to be? What is the real importance of physical proximity and what other forms of proximity are possible? How much social distance can we expect in the post-pandemic era?

Elaborating on the origin of the project theme, Berthold Franke, Regional Director, Goethe-Institut South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iran), said: “The pandemic has hit the world in waves and different intensities and has caused humans and civil societies to unlearn and learn a lot in a short time. The “Proximity and Distance” project was born because we too, at the Goethe-Institut, wanted to learn from our experiences with Covid-19. “

He added that distance and proximity is a fundamental parameter that allows us “to understand the experience of Covid, not only in one country, but across the world. Of course, illness and weather are also universal, but we have chosen to favor proximity and distance because it is a social as well as a cultural parameter that we also find in Korea and Brazil, but in different forms. . And this particular contrast of cultures was an exciting starting point for us.

Here are some impressions from the digital magazine “Proximity and distance”: Manifestations of everyday pandemic life, by Srishti Guptaroy.