- Film Screening: Goodbye, Lenin!Goethe-Institut Chicago, Chicago, IL
A playful, poignant exploration of nostalgia, social change, and the fall of the Berlin wall.
Watch the trailer hereAt the time one of the most successful German films ever made, Wolfgang Becker’s tragicomedy begins in East Germany in 1989, right before the fall of the Berlin Wall. When Alex's mother, Christiane, falls into a coma before the reunification of Germany, he faces a dilemma: how to shield her from the shock of realizing the world around her has drastically changed once she wakes up. Alex embarks on a risky endeavor to recreate the illusion of East Germany within their home, crafting elaborate charades and orchestrating historical reenactments to preserve his mother's fragile state of mind. Yet, as Alex immerses himself deeper into this elaborate ruse,*Goodbye, Lenin!*becomes more than just a tale of deception; it's a touching exploration of the lengths we go to protect the ones we love and the complexities of navigating personal and political identity.
Celebrating both the absurdity and poignancy of life during a tumultuous era, Goodbye, Lenin! offers unique insight into the aftermath of the Berlin Wall's collapse and the breakdown of the GDR's societal structures.Dir. Wolfgang Becker
Germany, 2003
DVD, 121 min
German with English subtitles - Artist Talk Beatriz Morales: CapisayoGoethe-Institut Chicago, Chicago, IL
Join Berlin-based artist Beatriz Morales for an artist talk on the occasion of her new exhibition, Capisayo, a site-specific installation at the historical Edith Farnsworth House. Morales will be introduced by curator Esenija Bannan, and the talk will be followed by a light reception.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Located in Plano, Illinois, the Edith Farnsworth House, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for Dr. Edith Farnsworth, was completed in 1951 and is one of the most iconic examples of modern architecture. With its simple and clean lines, flat, horizontal footprint, white-painted steel beams, and walls of glass and natural light, the single-story house is in complete harmony with nature.
Surrounded by woods and near the Fox River, the Edith Farnsworth House has been flooded by the local river numerous times, resulting in considerable damages to the house. Reacting to the space and its history, Beatriz Morales created the fiber art piece Capisayo as a sign of protection, accompanied by works merging painting with embroidery, as well as a number of abstract portrait paintings. The exhibition expands onto the premises of the historic site, including the gallery, where a large agave fiber installation piece dyed with natural ink titled Quimera envelops the round shape of the gallery space.
A Capisayo is a Mexican rain cape woven from palm leaves which, apart from its protective qualities, is also an aesthetically striking, even somewhat mysterious garment. Woven of an abundant natural resource – palm leaves – it is highly functional, offering substantial protection in times of torrential rain. In all of Mexico, there are only a handful of artisans left who still produce Capisayos. Morales transports the intricate weaving and knotting techniques of these Capisayos into a textile installation made of agave fiber, a medium which over the last decade has become central to the artist’s practice and expression of heritage.
Beatriz Morales
Born and raised in Mexico City, Beatriz Morales left her native country in 2001 to pursue largely autodidactic studies in painting and fashion design in Europe. Morales combines an investigative, abstract-expressionist approach with textile art, fibre art and conceptual components, often realized in monumental installations. As part of her practice, the artist incorporates traditional, pre-hispanic dyeing techniques, both in her work with plant fibers as well as when painting on canvases. Her paintings and installations are held in institutional and private collections in Mexico, Germany, Austria, the Groeninghe Collection Belgium, Switzerland, France, Canada and the USA, and were featured in numerous print and online publications. Beatriz Morales lives and works in Berlin and Hidalgo, Mexico.This event is presented in partnership with the Edith Farnsworth House.
Advanced registration is required, and please bring a photo ID for check-in.
- European Day of Languages | An Evening of Poetry in TranslationGoethe-Institut Chicago, Chicago, IL
A literary celebration of French, Italian, Yiddish, and Spanish poetry.
Join us for an evening of poetry in translation! Celebrating the rich linguistic heritage that makes up European and global literary traditions, three Chicago-based poets, poetry translators, and scholars will read selections from their work.
Massimiliano L. Delfino (Northwestern University) will read from his recent Italian-language poetry, and Anna Elena Torres (University of Chicago) will read from her translations from the Yiddish of multilingual poet and philosopher Debora Vogel. Rachel Galvin (University of Chicago) will share selections from her translations of the work of Raymond Queneau, co-founder of the French literary movement Oulipo, and from the poetry of Argentinian avant-garde poet Oliverio Girondo.
The evening will be introduced by Célie Landry, Operations & Project Coordinator at the Consulate General of Switzerland in Chicago, and the readings will be followed by a reception.Advanced registration via Eventbrite is required, and please bring a state-issued photo ID for check-in in the lobby.
This event is presented in partnership with EUNIC Chicago, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Chicago, the Instituto Cervantes of Chicago, the Consulate General of Switzerland in Chicago, and the Consulate General of Hungary in Chicago.
PARTICIPANT BIOS
Massimiliano L. Delfino
Massimiliano L. Delfino is a poet, film director, and Assistant Professor of Instruction at Northwestern University. He received a Ph.D. in postwar Italian cinema and literature from Columbia University in New York and studied film direction at USC's School of Cinematic Arts. His poems, published in anthologies and magazines, have received several awards, such as the first prize at La Parola Vista (2023), a special mention at the Renato Giorgi Prize (2023), and the Italians for the Future Award from the Italian Cultural Institute of New York (2023). In 2024 he published L’apocalisse nuda, his first poetry collection (Marietti 1820).Anna Elena Torres
Anna Elena Torres is an Assistant Professor in the departments of Comparative Literature and Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity at the University of Chicago. Torres is the author of 'Horizons Blossom, Borders Vanish: Anarchism and Yiddish Literature' (Yale University Press, 2024) and co-editor of 'With Freedom in Our Ears: Histories of Jewish Anarchism' (University of Illinois Press, 2023). Torres has published in Prooftexts, Jewish Quarterly Review, Nashim, make/shift: a journal of feminisms in motion, In geveb, ArtsEverywhere, and other journals. Torres’ creative practice has included working as a community muralist and exhibiting at the Venice Biennale’s Yiddishland Pavilion (2022) and the POLIN Museum, Warsaw.Rachel Galvin
Rachel Galvin is a poet, translator, and scholar. She is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Chicago, where she directs Translation Studies. She has published a work of criticism, News of War: Civilian Poetry, 1936–1945, and three poetry collections, most recently Uterotopia (Persea Books, 2023). Her translation of Raymond Queneau’s Hitting the Streets (Carcanet) won the Scott Moncrieff Prize for Translation and was named one of the year’s best poetry books by the Boston Globe. Her cotranslation of Decals: Complete Early Poetry of Oliverio Girondo (Open Letter Books) was a finalist for the 2019 National Translation Award. Her current translation of Mexican writer Alejandro Albarrán Polanco’s poetry is supported by a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She is a co-founder of Outranspo, a creative translation collective. - TALK: Without a plan: Germany and migrationGoethe-Institut Chicago, Chicago, IL
Mark Terkessidis on migration in Germany and Europe
It is a strange picture that Germany is presenting these days. Although workers are needed everywhere and the acceptance of refugees on the labor market is a success story, “irregular migration” seems to be the most controversial topic. People in areas whose populations have been shrinking for years are particularly afraid of migration. How can these contradictions be explained? Germany is de facto only until very recent a country of immigration and obviously attitudes are not really keeping pace with reality. The “crisis” is not so much one of migration as one of mentality.
This talk will also be streamed live on our YouTube Channel.
### Part of the Festival “Longing / Belonging”
Stories of migration characterize our modern societies, in which people from different cultural backgrounds search for belonging. Cultural diversity is celebrated on the one hand, but at the same time new social boundaries are emerging. The Goethe-Institut's “Longing/Belonging” festival presents artistic contributions and social discourses from Germany and North America.
Advanced registration is required, and please bring a photo ID for check-in.