Exhibiting Capital(s): Berlin and Beyond (NeMLA); Montreal (15.9.2009; 7-11.4.2010)
Modern German cities, particularly regional and national capitals, have often been studied in relation to German national identity. For this reason, cultural displays (for instance, films and exhibitions) in and of these metropoles are often seen to demonstrate unique brandings, unique particularizations of space that define major cities with respect to each other and their national cultures. Much recent scholarship on post-unification Berlin, for instance, evidences this kind of perspective and has furthered a unifying comprehension of the new Republic as it is manifested in the re-made city. Our panel seeks to unsettle such predominant spatial analysis through focusing more closely on the heterogeneity of urban branding practices.