Let us introduce the AGORA-sessions and amazing keynote-speakers of this year’s ABOAGORA!

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“Sharkmania: A Cultural History”

Wednesday, 19 August, 18:00 – 19:30

Janet M. Davis, Professor of American Studies and History (University of Texas at Austin), will explore the historical roots of the relationship between humans and sharks through “Sharkmania”, a longstanding transnational American barometer of social upheaval, fear, and sometimes, veneration.

Human/shark entanglements are tied to war, empire building, colonialism, pop culture, and sea pollution. These encounters were connected to the whaling industry and its demise; the rise of beach vacation economies in old whaling centers; and the ascendency of physical culture and new codes of bodily display framed intersectionally by class, gender, and race.  Human/shark interactions have been technologically mediated over time—from the Age of Sail to the Age of Internet Sharks.

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“The Eternal Circulation of Water. A Visual Journey into the Arctic Waters, Myths and Facts”

Thursday, 20 August, 10:00 – 11:30

The Finnish film producer, director, and writer Marko Röhr will take the audience on a visual journey into the Arctic Waters. 

Marko Röhr has a wide experience on international co-productions, drama series, and documentaries. His films have won awards in festivals around the world, e.g. in the USA, France, Germany, Japan, China, Spain, and Scandinavia. In 1997 Röhr was elected as a voting member in the European Film Academy. Röhr has directed numerous award-winning underwater and nature films, e.g. “Underwater Iceland” (1997) and “Tale of a Lake” (2016), the latter being the best-selling documentary in the Finnish cinemas.

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“Historical Waterscapes: adaptive Strategies between Technology and Art”

Friday, 21 August, 10:00-11:30

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Professor Carola Hein (Delft University of Technology) accompanied by the architect, educator and researcher Negar Sanaan Bensi (TU Delft) and the urban designer, teacher and researcher Jens Jorritsma, will explore the idiosyncratic historical water systems and infrastructures.

How has water has served and sustained societies throughout human history? People have actively shaped its course, form, and function for human settlement and the development of civilizations. Around water, they have created socioeconomic structures, policies, and cultures; a rich world of narratives, laws, and practices; and an extensive tangible network of infrastructure, buildings, and urban form. It’s a story of health, wealth and beauty. It is the story of often common knowledge with wondrous infrastructures and architectural objects which are not only functional, but also beautiful to behold. They are cultural objects, which can inform us about our relationship to ‘nature’. Such research and artistic investigation can invite policy makers and designers to work together to recognize and build on the traditional knowledge and skills that old structures embody.

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“Stormy Waters: Secrets Inherited and the Creation of a Family. David Grossman in conversation with translator Natalie Lantz on his new novel”

Friday, 21 August, 15:00 – 16:30

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The internationally awarded Israeli author David Grossman will discuss his new novel “Med mig leker livet” with the Swedish translator and doctoral candidate in Hebrew Bible Natalie Lantz (Uppsala University).

The novel explores the awful power of secrets and wounds passed from one generation to the next. The story revolves around three women, Vera, her daughter Nina and her granddaughter Gili. A bitter secret pits them against each other for decades, leading them finally to embark on an odyssey over stormy waters to Goli Otok, “The naked island” off the coast of Croatia. There, Vera had been imprisoned, enslaved and tortured for three years, having refused to betray her husband and denounce him as an enemy of the people.

David Grossman himself travelled to Croatia last year, and with him came ten translators. Now, the author is reunited with the Swedish translator Natalie Lantz, to discuss the novel and the translation journey.

Posted on: June 18, 2020, by : admin