[Reader-list] ÜBER LEBENSKUNST

[Ravi Agarwal]

*About The Art of Living and the Art of Survival *

*ÜBER LEBENSKUNST*

A global conference



*Friday, 19 August - Saturday, 20 August*

*Siddhartha Hall, Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, 3 Kasturba Gandhi
Marg, New Delhi*



On August 19 and 20, New Delhi will be the international partner in a global
conference that connects the cities of Berlin, St. Petersburg, New Delhi,
São Paulo and Nairobi via internet. The conference is at the heart of the
ÜBER LEBENSKUNST Festival during which international artists, scientists and
activists will turn Berlin into a showcase for the sustainable "art of
living". Experts and artists will discuss possibilities for sustainable
living in the 21st century. Performances and presentations of model projects
will be on display and local problems and solutions for sustainable
development will be discussed from a global perspective. The complete
Festival programme can be found at www.ueber-lebenskunst.org

The Delhi programme is curated by Ravi Agarwal (artist, environmentalist).

* *

*FRIDAY, 19 August*

*5:30 **– 6.30 p.m **PERFORMANCE*

*Mega-Delhi Sublime*

“Mega-Delhi Sublime” is an experimental research project about contemporary
New Delhi, India - a city designed 100 years ago from scratch among the
ruins of seven previous cities by British architects and American planners
that is currently facing the greatest challenges in its history. The results
of the research will be curated into a multi-media installation centered
around a 35-minute, single-channel film shot in Delhi over several months.  The
installation and film will lead audiences along an unlikely historical
correspondence between two contested sites in New Delhi that mark 1911 and
2011 respectively:  The neglected British heritage site of Coronation Park
(the site of month-long massive Durbars in 1877, 1903, 1911); and the
infamous folk-artist slum of Kathputli Colony ('Colony of Wooden Dolls').
These two sites, rooted in India’s colorful history of spectacle and film,
provide the off-beat vantage points and inspiration for witnessing the
capital of the world's largest democracy as it bulldozes itself to the verge
of new self-discovery.

*Chris Green*, artist (USA), *via video live stream from New Delhi*

* *

*6:30 **– 9.00 p.m **DISCUSSION***

*On Megacities*

In the year 2008, more people lived in cities than in rural areas for the
first time in human history. The

United Nations projects that the world’s urban population will reach 5
billion people by 2030. The mass

movement of people away from rural areas and urbanization have resulted in
the formation of

"unplanned" megacities particularly in countries in the southern hemisphere.
In many of these cities,

questions of social and environmental sustainability have thus become
extremely pressing. What

particular environmental and social problems are these rapidly growing
cities in the Global South

confronted with? What are potential solutions? How could models for social
and environmentally

sustainable urban development look – particularly in the rapidly growing
slums in many areas? And

how can these models be implemented?



Introduction: Significance of the problem of urbanization and megacities

*Paola Alfaro d'Alençon*, Habitat Unit, Technische Universität Berlin
(D),*via live stream from Berlin
***

Film clips from Slum TV – *Sam Hopkins*

Discussion

*Sam Hopkins*, artist (Kenia), *via live stream from Nairobi*

*Arthur Adeya* Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and
Technology,* **initiator
of the “Kibera Public Space Project”**,* *via* *live stream from Nairobi*

*K.T. Ravindran**,* head of Urban Design, School of Planning and
Architecture, New Delhi, *live in New Delhi *

*Rahul Srivastava, *co-director, Institute of Urbanology and Co-founder of
URBZ,* live in New Delhi*

Input: *Marussia Whately*,* *coordinator*, *Programa Mananciais, Instituto
SocioAmbiental, Sao Paulo, *via live stream from Sao Paulo*

Facilitation: *Rahul Srivastava*

*9.00 p.m **RECEPTION***

* *

*SATURDAY, 20 August*

*5:30 p.m. LECTURE, DEBATE and DISCUSSION*

*On the role of the individual*

Can a sustainable future be reached through changes in individual behaviour?
What role can and

must individual action and local "bottom-up" approaches play in transforming
our society and what

approaches are there? Where are their limits?

* *

*5:30 p.m. **LECTURE*

*On the Ecological art of living*

*Wilhelm Schmid**, *free philosopher and author of "Ökologische Lebenskunst"
(Germany)

What could an ecological art of living look like? How can we get there – how
do we have to change

our behaviour, what can we contribute as individuals? What new
interpretations and concepts do we

need?, *via live stream from Berlin*

* *

*6 p.m. **DEBATE*

*On the limits of individual action*

What role can and must individual changes in behaviour play in the
transformation to a sustainable

future? What limits do these contributions have in light of their
individualised and apolitical character?

Do we not need to instead change political institutions, don't we need
*political
*movements?, *via live stream from Berlin*

*Wilhelm Schmid*

*Martin Unfried, *expert for European environmental policy, European
Institute of Public Administration

and columnist for the taz newspaper ("Ökosex") (Germany)



Facilitation: *Tilman Santarius, *head of International Climate and Energy
Policy, Heinrich Böll Foundation (Germany)



*7 p.m. **DISCUSSION*

*On bottom-up approaches*

*Practical examples*

In this discussion, examples of bottom-up approaches and their development
in Germany, Russia and

Brazil are presented. What potential do they have? Where are their limits?
When do they have to be

professionalised or institutionalised and what overall conditions are
necessary for them?

*Tatyana Kargina*, development director, EcoWiki Project (Russia)

*Live stream from St. Petersburg*

*Sebastian Sladek*, managing director of the Elektritzitätswerke Schönau
(Schönau municipal power

works) (Germany)

*Live stream from Berlin*

*Sergio Prado, *of Curadores da Terra (Brazil)

*live stream from Sao Paulo*

Facilitation: *Tilman Santarius, *Heinrich Böll Foundation (Germany)* *

* *

*8:30 – 10:00 p.m. **DISCUSSION***

*Salto Mortale*

For artists, a "Salto mortale" is a particularly risky leap no matter how
talented one is. In many parts of

the world, in the "Global South" and in the "emerging economies", many
national economies face the

challenge of guaranteeing basic rights such as shelter, food, education and
healthcare for everyone

and, at the same time, structuring economic development to achieve this goal
in an environmentally

sustainable way. Can these national economies simply bypass 250 years of
extremely energy and

resource-intensive industrialisation? What models are there and what
obstacles are they up against?

What environmental consequences could they bring with them? What role do
governments and

transnational organisations need to play to ensure that this Salto is
successful?



*Sunita Narain*, director of the Centre for Science and Environment (India),
*live in New Delhi** ***

*Chandran Nair*, founder and CEO of the Global Institute For Tomorrow;
author of "Consumptionomics. Asia's Role in Reshaping Capitalism and Saving
the Planet" (Hong Kong), *live stream from Berlin*

*Sergej Bobylev*, economics department, Moscow State University (Russia), *via
live stream from St. Petersburg*

Facilitation: *Angelina Davydova*, *live stream from St. Petersburg*



*10 p.m. – 11 p.m*. *PERFORMANCE*

*Earth.Territory.Music
*
Earth's music transcends, and orbits each one of us. Territories rotate on
its axis. The earth knows. It no longer revolves around the sun, merely to
repeat seasons, but History.

*Inder Salim*, artist (India), live stream in New Delhi



For the opening and the other dates please register by Wednesday,
17thAugust with Mr. Dennis Yücel from the programme department: Tel.
011-23471-132, Email: programm at delhi.goethe.org

*This event is part of the project ÜBER LEBENSKUNST in cooperation with the
Goethe-Institut. **ÜBER LEBENSKUNST is an initiative project of the* *German
Federal Cultural Foundation in cooperation with Haus der Kulturen der Welt.
**The conference is funded by **German Federal Cultural Foundation**.*

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