Celluloid Cities: Raw and Uncut
A series of events on the theme of the postcolonial city

At a moment when national identities are being eroded and ethnic identities are being asserted violently within Europe's borders, the postcolonial cities of the world offer up the promise of a cosmopolitanism where cultures and ethnicities co-exist and inter-mingle. In the urban hubs of cities like Birmingham, Cairo, London and Bombay, no single group can lay claim to possess the city in its entirety. In London, the continuous influx of migrants over the centuries from the Huguenots in the seventeenth century to the postwar migrations from the Caribbean and Indian sub-continent and the more recent arrivals from Eastern Europe in the twentieth century, has created a dynamic urban culture which is constantly shifting the character of the city. Not only is London changing but also our understanding of what it means to be British. According to Gordon Brown, we are witnessing the dawning of a 'new Britain' which is 'multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-national'. But like other radical transformations in British culture and society, this is not guaranteed to be a peaceful one. Out on the streets as well as behind the closed doors of our institutions, there is both polite and violent resistance to the changing face of the metropolis and the nation.

This summer, inIVA's Celluloid Cities season reflects on the performative aspects of postcolonial experience, drawing attention to the transient and visceral encounters that take place on the streets of the city. The iconography of one of the world's oldest and most dynamic cities collides with one of Europe's largest and most culturally-diverse metropolises when inIVA presents Egyptian Cinema Posters - a site-specific installation of posters produced in the last twenty years and displayed on massive billboard sites throughout London in June. Rio de Janeiro and its inhabitants play an important part in the discussion later in the month on the work of H�lio Oiticica and the launch of a new CD-Rom on the artist's work. Oiticica's performances and participative approach to making art relied on the unique character of this Brazilian city and its residents. Later in the season we publish Reading the Contemporary - an important, new anthology of essays on contemporary African art and culture edited by Olu Oguibe and Okwui Enwezor. The book will be launched in September at the Lux Cinema to coincide with Urban Exposure - an international film programme which reflects the experiences of migration, isolation and belonging of the inhabitants of different, postcolonial cities. As Derek Walcott said in his Nobel Prize lecture, 'a culture, we all know, is made by its cities'.

Gilane Tawadros