Spectres of a Myth: The Afterlives of Displaced Olive Trees in the Mediterranean - Käte Hamburger Lecture

Das Käte Hamburger Kolleg für kulturelle Praktiken der Reparation (CURE) und das CEUS | Cluster für Europaforschung laden herzlich zur Käte Hamburger Lecture ein. Im Fokus der Vortragsreihe stehen aktuelle Forschungspositionen der CURE Fellows zu kulturellen Praktiken der Reparation. Nach den Vorträgen können die vorgestellten Themenschwerpunkte in einer öffentlichen Diskussionsrunde vertieft werden.

Die Käte Hamburger Lectures bieten einen Einblick in die aktuellen Forschungsarbeiten des Kollegs, tragen diese in die Universität hinein und laden die interessierte Öffentlichkeit zu einer Diskussion über kulturelle Praktiken der Reparation ein.

Hilal Alkan: Spectres of a Myth: The Afterlives of Displaced Olive Trees in the Mediterranean

Uprooted ancient olive trees have become a prized landscaping fixture in Turkey. They are called “macro-bonsais”, grown in steel pots, with pruned and maimed limbs, their foliage carefully razed to look like trays or balls. Ghostly remainders and reminders of the bearers of the “liquid gold”, with their evergreen foliage, statuesque form and embodied stories, they now serve the wealthy, not the peasants.

The processes that have led to the emergence of these lively commodities are multifold, ranging from rural abandonment to extractivist projects. Yet they also relate to the cultural production fed by contemporary olive mythologies.

In her lecture, CURE fellow Hilal Alkan looks at the myths surrounding the olive, which on the one hand increases its value, as a health enhancer, an immortal witness to history and an identity marker, and on the other hand creates the market for its circulation as a looted and displaced entity—a specter of itself. Alkan asks under which circumstances the olive tree, which characterizes the Mediterranean, a region disproportionately affected by the ecological crisis and raging wars, offers a phantasmagorical remedy to heal these wounds, while at the same time being subjected to an array of violent destructions and displacements itself.

Live-Übertragung der Veranstaltung

Die Lecture wird am 22. April ab 18 Uhr live über Microsoft Teams übertragen. Der Beginn der Vorlesung erfolgt spätestens um 18.15 Uhr. Den Link zur Online-Teilnahme finden Sie auf der Website.