ARTS & INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS Abstract
This article describes the role of a Palestinian cultural institution — the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music ( ESNCM )— in creating national infrastructure and cultural ambassadorship that is part and parcel of the project of legitimizing Palestine , and Palestinian modernity , on the world stage . The focus on cultural production provides the ethnographic basis for analyzing the interface , alongside inherent tensions , occurring between the aid economy set up in Palestine to support international interests in the name of “ state building ” and “ peacemaking ,” and local moves and desires — in a context in which state building , colonization and occupation are all happening simultaneously . While postcolonial readings of the aid economy in Palestine view it as a neocolonial intervention detrimental to Palestinian society and its struggle for liberation , this study points to a much more dynamic process that shows how both the accommodation of foreign interests , and the assertion of Palestinian agency , work ( and do not work ), in tandem . Moving away from domination-resistance binaries and associated essentialisms , the article analyzes the evolving and changing meanings awarded to music making , locally and globally , in the political and performative moment . The article also ponders the growing role of nationalized cultural production in a context of the ever-shrinking geography within which it can be actualized .
Keywords : institutions , culture , colonization , infrastructure , music , performance
ENTRE LO LOCAL , LO GLOBAL Y LA ECONOMÍA DE LA AYUDA EN PALESTINA : EL CONSERVATORIO NACIONAL DE MÚSICA EDWARD SAID ( ESNCM ) EN EL CHRISTMAS CONCERT FOR LIFE AND PEACE EN BELÉN
Resumen
Este artículo describe el papel de una institución cultural palestina , el Conservatorio Nacional de Música Edward Said ( ESNCM ), en la creación de una infraestructura nacional y embajada cultural que es parte integral del proyecto de legitimar Palestina y la modernidad palestina en el escenario mundial . El enfoque en la producción cultural proporciona la base etnográfica para analizar la interfaz , junto con las tensiones inherentes , que ocurren entre la economía de ayuda establecida en Palestina para apoyar los intereses internacionales en nombre de la “ construcción del estado ” y el “ establecimiento de la paz ”, y los movimientos y deseos
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