Clash of Symbols

Slide lecture (English), unpub­lished. Devel­oped later as:
Taking on the Mantle 1999 

Art or life (style) — paci­fier or provo­ca­tion? Inter-disci­pli­nary, English artist Tanya Ury talks about the inspi­ra­tion and content of her creative work.

The holo­caust — is it a suit­able subject for art? Certainly it has been a highly topical theme recently. But now that 50 years have passed, should one let sleeping dogs lie? Has the subject been exhausted? It is unusual to see this theme taken up by a Jewish artist in Germany because the need to iden­tify with more posi­tive histor­ical aspects of Jewish history has created, among Jews, a veto of images portraying them­selves in the role of victim. Rather than allowing her hands to be tied, second gener­a­tion Jewish artist Tanya Ury has made it an issue to approach this history with an uncom­pro­mising stance verging on the polit­i­cally incor­rect. Tanya Ury will show her video Hotel Chelsea – Köln and discuss her other wide-ranging activ­i­ties, the moti­va­tion, the prac­tice and the means of acquiring public visi­bility in a world more inter­ested in commer­cially viable products.

In order to immerse herself at the source, Tanya Ury moved to Cologne from the UK in 1993. The talk accom­pa­nied by slides, will be in English; the video is in German and English.

Tanya Ury


Presen­ta­tion

1997 Der Durchtriebene Blick” (The Sly Look) Insti­tute for Theatre, Film and Tele­vi­sion Studies, Univer­sity of Cologne (D)
1997 Wi(e)der-sprache” (Talking Back) confer­ence, Marginale Brüche, Migran­tinnen, Schwarze Frauen, Jüdische Frauen im Kulturellen Diskurs Deutsch­land (Marginal Cracks, Migrant Women, Black and Jewish Women in Cultural Discourse), Cologne (D)

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