International showcase of past, ongoing Enlightment'
- Source: Global Times
- [21:45 March 29 2011]
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by Jiang Yuxia
An "Enlightenment in Dialogue" series, funded by Germany's Stiftung Mercator Foundation, is to kick off Saturday following the opening of the "Art of the Enlightenment," the first international exhibition to be held at the newly reopened and enlarged National Museum of China.
The series, spanning a period of 12 months, consists of five "dialogue blocks" and will discuss different facets of the Enlightenment, such as its relationship with modernity, capitalism, consumerism and media, Andre Wilkens, Director of the Centre for International Affairs at Stiftung Mercator, told the Global Times recently.
"What we really want to explore with this project is what does Enlightenment' really means today and what it means for the future," Wilkens said.
"The period of the Enlightenment is not just a historic fact which happened about 300 years ago. For us this is a process which is still continuing, in a way of global movement which hasn't finished For me enlightenment means there is no ultimate truth. You are always in a process of finding truth and knowledge.
" About 25 experts from Germany, China and other European countries are expected to take part in the dialogue, including journalist and historian Tilman Spengler, sociologist Wolf Lepenies and Huang Ping, professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, as well as Director of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Pan Gongkai.
Their main purpose is "first to promote dialogue with different cultures and nations. We do this because we think people first have to understand each other and they should be able to learn from each other," Wilkens said, adding that the dialogue will be more than just scholarly debate, but will be "modern, current, and as practical as possible."
Along with the dialogues, ten classic-style salons will also be held, in which participants can exchange ideas and vieon intellectual, philosophical, social and artistic aspects of the Enlightenment.
