Exhibitions have always been at the heart of the modern art world. They are contested sites, where the joint forces of the art objects, their social agents, and institutional spaces temporarily intersect and provide a visual arrangement to specific audiences, whose interpretations feed back into the discourse on art. From this perspective, "contemporary Chinese art," both as phenomenon and discursive category referring to specific dimensions of artistic production in China post-1979, was mediated through various exhibitions that took place in the People's Republic of China. After 1989, exhibitions of artworks from the PRC in European and North American museums significantly contributed to the broadening of Western knowledge about this artistic production. Since then, the two strains of exhibition activities grew while becoming increasingly entangled and the discursive category of "contemporary Chinese art" has gone global. This paper reviews the beginnings of this complex process by investigating the conditions that configured the first large group exhibition of contemporary Chinese art from the PRC in Europe after 1979: the travelling group show China Avantgarde, which opened in Berlin in early 1993. The first part of the paper explores the wider historical conditions that impacted on the exhibition by contextualizing the event in relation to two important, if very different forerunners: the 1989 shows Zhongguo xiandai yishu zhan. China/Avantgarde in Beijing and Magiciens de la terre in Paris.Yet the important entanglements between the respective curatorial concepts, affiliated art discourses, and the agents involved are also analysed. Constituting a specific network of mediators, mediating factors, and mediating institutions, these forerunners influenced the making of China Avantgarde in Berlin three years later. The second part of the paper discusses the Berlin exhibition in detail. It argues that the title reflects the contested use of the discursive categories "avant-garde" and "modern art" in Beijing and Berlin at the time, which helped translate and thereby shape a certain image of contemporary Chinese art beyond the actual artworks on display. Of paricular interes are the concerns of the European curators, who had to overcome various political, logistic, as well as conceptual challenges when selecting artists and artworks. Examining the catalogue as an instance where diverging strategies of how to present artworks from thePRC become visible, the paper argues that China Avantgarde was not so much a clear-cut, singular, and–by now–canonical event, but formed as well as informed a complex canonizing process that is still relevant today.
Exhibitions have always been at the heart of the modern art world. They are contested sites, where the joint forces of the art objects, their social agents, and institutional spaces temporarily intersect and provide a visual arrangement to specific audiences, whose interpretations feed back into the discourse on art. From this perspective, "contemporary Chinese art," both as phenomenon and discursive category referring to specific dimensions of artistic production in China post-1979, was mediated through various exhibitions that took place in the People's Republic of China. After 1989, exhibitions of artworks from the PRC in European and North American museums significantly contributed to the broadening of Western knowledge about this artistic production. Since then, the two strains of exhibition activities grew while becoming increasingly entangled and the discursive category of "contemporary Chinese art" has gone global. This paper reviews the beginnings of this complex process by investigating the conditions that configured the first large group exhibition of contemporary Chinese art from the PRC in Europe after 1979: the travelling group show China Avantgarde, which opened in Berlin in early 1993. The first part of the paper explores the wider historical conditions that impacted on the exhibition by contextualizing the event in relation to two important, if very different forerunners: the 1989 shows Zhongguo xiandai yishu zhan. China/Avantgarde in Beijing and Magiciens de la terre in Paris.Yet the important entanglements between the respective curatorial concepts, affiliated art discourses, and the agents involved are also analysed. Constituting a specific network of mediators, mediating factors, and mediating institutions, these forerunners influenced the making of China Avantgarde in Berlin three years later. The second part of the paper discusses the Berlin exhibition in detail. It argues that the title reflects the contested use of the discursive categories "avant-garde" and "modern art" in Beijing and Berlin at the time, which helped translate and thereby shape a certain image of contemporary Chinese art beyond the actual artworks on display. Of paricular interes are the concerns of the European curators, who had to overcome various political, logistic, as well as conceptual challenges when selecting artists and artworks. Examining the catalogue as an instance where diverging strategies of how to present artworks from thePRC become visible, the paper argues that China Avantgarde was not so much a clear-cut, singular, and–by now–canonical event, but formed as well as informed a complex canonizing process that is still relevant today.
As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported in 2013, climate change will have significant impacts on all water sectors. Since water is essential for live, culture, economy and ecosystems, climate change adaptation is crucial. Therefore, a legal and political framework was established by the commissions of the European Union, the United Nations and on national levels. For the Danube River Basin (DRB), the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River got the mandate to develop an adaptation strategy in 2012 and to update this strategy in 2018. The natural science basis on which the adaptation strategy and its update are based on are two studies, conducted in 2011/2012 and updated and revised in 2017/18. Numerous documents from actual research and development projects and studies dealing with climate change and its impacts on water related issues were analysed in detail and the results summarised. It is agreed that temperature will increase basin-wide. The precipitation trend shows a strong northwest-southeast gradient and significant changes in seasonality. Runoff patterns will change and extreme weather events will intensify. However, the magnitude of the results shows a strong spatial variability due to the heterogeneity of the DRB., It is assessed that these changes will have mostly negative impacts on all water related sectors. Based on the scientific findings an approach for an improved basin-wide strategy on adaptation to climate change is developed. It includes guiding principles and five categories of adaptation measures targeting different objectives.
Mit den Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) haben sich die Mitglieder der Vereinten Nationen das Ziel gesetzt, die Lebensmittelabfälle entlang der gesamten Wertschöpfungskette bis 2030 zu reduzieren. Ziel des REFOWAS-Projekts war es, den deutschen Agrar- und Ernährungssektor hinsichtlich der Entstehung von Lebensmittelabfällen und insbesondere des Anteils an vermeidbaren Abfällen zu analysieren sowie Strategien und Ansatzpunkte für Maßnahmen zur Abfallreduzierung zu identifizieren und praktisch zu erproben. Das Projekt verknüfpt zwei Betrachtungsebenen. Zum einen wurde eine ganzheitliche Analyse des deutschen Ernährungssektors hinsichtlich des Abfallaufkommens vermeidbarer und unvermeidbarer Lebensmittelabfälle und der hiermit zusammenhängenden Umweltwirkungen durchgeführt. Gleichzeitig wurden verschiedene Teilbereiche in der Praxis anhand von Fallstudien (Obst und Gemüse, Backwaren, Schulverpflegung) und einer sozialempirischen Studie (private Haushalte) detailliert untersucht. Zu den gewählten Methoden gehören Fachgespräche, Round Tables, Beratungen, Status-Quo und Kontrollmessungen, Analysen von Befragungsergebnissen, leitfadengestützte Experteninterviews, Workshops sowie Praxistests zur Validierung der Ergebnisse und ermittelten Handlungsoptionen. Die gesamtsektoralen Untersuchungen stützen sich größtenteils auf Daten des Statistischen Bundesamtes und abgeleitete Literaturwerte. In den Fallstudien wurden Lebensmittelabfälle quantifiziert und Reduktionsmaßnahmen erprobt. Aus den vielfältigen und differenzierten Erkenntnissen konnten Handlungsempfehlungen für Akteure in Politik, Wirtschaft und Zivilgesellschaft abgeleitet werden. Insbesondere durch die praktisch getesteten und bewerteten Maßnahmen, die entwickelten Materialien wie Fachartikel, Broschüren und Videoclips sowie die breit angelegte Ergebnisdiskussion mit Vorträgen und Workshops wurden die Projektinhalte kommuniziert (siehe REFOWAS Website - https://refowas.de). ; Volume 2 (Anhang): http://hdl.handle.net/10419/209665 ; With the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), the countries of the United Nations have set themselves the goal of reducing food waste along the entire value chain by 2030. The aim of the REFOWAS project was to analyze the German agri-food sector with regard to the production of food waste and, in particular, the share of avoidable waste, and to identify and test strategies and starting points for waste reduction measures. The project combines two levels of analysis. The first, a holistic analysis of the German food sector, was carried out with regard to the waste generated by avoidable and unavoidable food waste and the related environmental effects. At the same time case studies were used to examine various subsectors in more detail (fruit and vegetables, baked goods, school meals) and a social empirical study (private households) was carried out. The methods chosen include: technical discussions; round tables; status quo and control measurements; household survey analyses; guided expert interviews; workshops and field tests to validate results and previously established options for action. The sector-wide investigations are largely based on data from the Federal Statistical Office and derived literature values. In the case studies food waste was quantified and reduction measures tested. From the varied and differentiated findings, recommendations for action for actors in politics, business and society could be derived. The results of the project were communicated in particular through the practically tested and evaluated measures, the subsequent information materials such as articles, brochures and video clips, as well as the wide-ranging discussion of results with lectures and workshops (see REFOWAS website - https://refowas.de).
Mit den Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) haben sich die Mitglieder der Vereinten Nationen das Ziel gesetzt, die Lebensmittelabfälle entlang der gesamten Wertschöpfungskette bis 2030 zu reduzieren. Ziel des REFOWAS-Projekts war es, den deutschen Agrar- und Ernährungssektor hinsichtlich der Entstehung von Lebensmittelabfällen und insbesondere des Anteils an vermeidbaren Abfällen zu analysieren sowie Strategien und Ansatzpunkte für Maßnahmen zur Abfallreduzierung zu identifizieren und praktisch zu erproben. Das Projekt verknüfpt zwei Betrachtungsebenen. Zum einen wurde eine ganzheitliche Analyse des deutschen Ernährungssektors hinsichtlich des Abfallaufkommens vermeidbarer und unvermeidbarer Lebensmittelabfälle und der hiermit zusammenhängenden Umweltwirkungen durchgeführt. Gleichzeitig wurden verschiedene Teilbereiche in der Praxis anhand von Fallstudien (Obst und Gemüse, Backwaren, Schulverpflegung) und einer sozialempirischen Studie (private Haushalte) detailliert untersucht. Zu den gewählten Methoden gehören Fachgespräche, Round Tables, Beratungen, Status-Quo und Kontrollmessungen, Analysen von Befragungsergebnissen, leitfadengestützte Experteninterviews, Workshops sowie Praxistests zur Validierung der Ergebnisse und ermittelten Handlungsoptionen. Die gesamtsektoralen Untersuchungen stützen sich größtenteils auf Daten des Statistischen Bundesamtes und abgeleitete Literaturwerte. In den Fallstudien wurden Lebensmittelabfälle quantifiziert und Reduktionsmaßnahmen erprobt. Aus den vielfältigen und differenzierten Erkenntnissen konnten Handlungsempfehlungen für Akteure in Politik, Wirtschaft und Zivilgesellschaft abgeleitet werden. Insbesondere durch die praktisch getesteten und bewerteten Maßnahmen, die entwickelten Materialien wie Fachartikel, Broschüren und Videoclips sowie die breit angelegte Ergebnisdiskussion mit Vorträgen und Workshops wurden die Projektinhalte kommuniziert (siehe REFOWASWebsite – https://refowas.de). ; With the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), the countries of the United Nations have set themselves the goal of reducing food waste along the entire value chain by 2030. The aim of the REFOWAS project was to analyze the German agri-food sector with regard to the production of food waste and, in particular, the share of avoidable waste, and to identify and test strategies and starting points for waste reduction measures. The project combines two levels of analysis. The first, a holistic analysis of the German food sector, was carried out with regard to the waste generated by avoidable and unavoidable food waste and the related environmental effects. At the same time case studies were used to examine various subsectors in more detail (fruit and vegetables, baked goods, school meals) and a social empirical study (private households) was carried out. The methods chosen include: technical discussions; round tables; status quo and control measurements; household survey analyses; guided expert interviews; workshops and field tests to validate results and previously established options for action. The sector-wide investigations are largely based on data from the Federal Statistical Office and derived literature values. In the case studies food waste was quantified and reduction measures tested. From the varied and differentiated findings, recommendations for action for actors in politics, business and society could be derived. The results of the project were communicated in particular through the practically tested and evaluated measures, the subsequent information materials such as articles, brochures and video clips, as well as the wide-ranging discussion of results with lectures and workshops (see REFOWAS website - https://refowas.de).