Due to the strike in France the lecturer of today, Catherine David could not be here. Instead there was an impromptu panel with Deborah Cherry, Galit Eilat and Shaheen Merali. Deborah Cherry introduced the other two speakers and told the audience how these hours would be filled. First Shaheen Merali would give his response on yesterday’s lecture by Homi Bhabba. Secondly Galit Eilat would present. Afterwardsthere would be time for debate with and questions from the audience.

Shaheen Merali responded to yesterday’s lecture by using six points. And even more questions. At times he agrees with Homi Bhabba, but the majority of his speech is more negative and disagreeing. “It was a very charismatic but dense lecture”, Shaheen Merali says. “But I am happy to give response.”
He does not agree to the statement that having the world at our fingertips is a good thing. “It makes us deployed of search engines. And with that we ignore the white noise with takes care of possibilities.”
It also worries Shaheen Merali that history is reduced to sightseeing. “It is strange how we try to come to terms with it. Our readiness to use technology changes the way how we react on history.” There are more questions that are not all answered. “How to work without the tradition of war, conflict and monstrosities?” “Is globalization viewed as a movement of data?” “What is the condition of the contemporary?” What is cultural heritage?” The audience writes along and some of the questions he addresses now wil later on return during the question session at the end.

Ghalit Eilat has a complete different presentation. She only speaks about one question: the question of who creates an image. It used to be artists, now it’s the media. Is that right, should it change? No other questions follow, but she shows the audience four short films. The first one, We will win, shows the Israeli/Palestine conflict in a humorous way. Everybody laughs, the mood lightens. The other films (La margue Turque, Tokyo Tonight, Beyond Guilt #1) aren’t hilarious like the first one, but the difference with the first presentation is obvious.

When Deborah Cherry says it’s time for questions, the audience takes its chance. They have paid attention and do not make it easy for the speakers. Especially Shaheen Merali gets even more questions to answer. The meeting ends fifteen minutes late and with the majority of the questions answered to satisfaction.