A Glimpse at Our Work
This page provides a glimpse of the different fields of work at the Ibero-American Institute (IAI). This quarter we would like to introduce:
Art – King – Enlightenment
A lecture series of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
January 24th, 2012 marked the 300th anniversary of the birth of Frederick the Great. To mark the occasion, the five institutions that make up the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation have joined forces to offer a series of diverse exhibitions and events to guide visitors through this important anniversary year.
Since Frederick II’s anniversary day, the Berlin State Museums, the Berlin State Library, the Secret State Archive, the Ibero-American Institute and the State Institute for Music Research under the title “Art – King – Enlightenment” have been highlighting different areas related to the king as a person and the age he lived in. Keywords like coinage reforms, Montezuma, the image as a mass medium, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Chinese porcelain service, secret correspondence and the concert flute are just some of the varied insights visitors can expect to see in conjunction with the tercentenary anniversary of this famous Prussian king.
The Ibero-American Institute is participating with two lecture series as part of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation’s theme year:
In the program accompanying the State Institute for Music Research’s exhibition “Frederick’s Montezuma: Power and Meaning in the Prussian Court Opera,” the IAI will take a deeper historical, legal and cultural look at various aspects of the exhibition. For instance, the final lecture in the series discussed depictions of the conquest of Mexico, in particular the image of the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and the Aztec emperor Moctezuma.
A second lecture series beginning in fall 2012 will focus on the Enlightenment in Ibero-America. Areas discussed will include new forms of bourgeois public expression using the example of the tertulia and gender portrayals in 18th-century Spain. Another lecture on the clandestine book trade will explore the circulation of knowledge between Europe and the Iberian Peninsula.
For more information, please visit the theme year website: www.smb.museum/kunstkoenigaufklaerung/