Forschungsprojekt TransExil

DFG-research unit FOR 5700/1 - TransExile. Negotiations of aesthetics and community in post-revolutionary Mexico (1920-1960) / DFG-Forschungsgruppe TransExil: Verhandlungen von Ästhetik und Gemeinschaft im postrevolutionären Mexiko (1920-1960)

spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Anja Bandau (Leibniz Universität Hannover)/ Co-spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Doerte Bischoff (Universität Hamburg)

• Team of investigators from academic institutions at Hannover, Hamburg, Tübingen, Wuppertal, Berlin together with colleagues from Mexico (COLMEX, UNAM) and Costa Rica (UCR)
• Cooperating disciplines: Literary- and Cultural Studies (Spanish, German, Comparative), Latinamerican Studies as well as Cultural Anthropology and Art History/Visual Studies
• funding: German Research Council (DFG)

start: 2025

Project description

TransExile focuses for the first time on networks between exiles of different origins and local artists, writers and intellectuals in Mexico from the 1920s to the 1950s. The research group starts from the thesis that Mexico became a testing ground of national, i.e. political and cultural reconstitution during this period, in which exiles played a significant role. In particular, it examines the diverse artistic activities and productions that characterized this field. Mexico is understood as an exemplary space of contact and as a hub of further ramified networks, and Mexican reform efforts had an inspiring effect on the activities of exiles from fascist-ruled Europe, but also from dictatorships in Ibero-America and the Caribbean. Part of the reforms was Pan-American indigenism, a political and multidisciplinary movement with national variations, whose representatives were concerned with finding ways to integrate the indigenous population. The accompanying debates about concepts of ‘raza’/race and heterogeneity expanded the possibilities of thinking and shaping community and belonging. The key term TransExile is conceptualized in close relation to concepts of transnationality, but also of diasporic space, and combines interdisciplinary perspectives on translocal and transmedial networking processes. It contributes to a cultural studies reorientation of exile research by revising its traditionally national framings and definition of subject matter with regard to the dynamics of knowledge circulation, translation and transculturation. The project's innovative focus lies on the extent to which cultural-anthropological discourses, cultural-theoretical reflection and a creative and transformative approach to narratives, images and objects in cultural encounters stimulate imaginations and practices of community that complement, but also undermine, dominant political programs and positionings of the time. In addition to transfer processes between literature, art and science, the project thus focuses on fundamental questions about the interweaving of political and literary-artistic activities. Their systematic description and theoretical explication is meant to put a particularly dynamic historical field and its impact on the present into a new perspective. At the same time, it will outline subsequent research on artistic and literary negotiations of community and belonging in a world characterized by migration and global networking.

Sub-project 1: Visions of Heterogeneity between Indo- and Afroamerica. Transexilic Networks in postrevolutionary Mexico

PI: Prof. Dr. Anja Bandau (Leibniz Universität Hannover)

As part of the FOR TransExil, the sub-project examines concepts of community that emerge from the engagement of exiled and Mexican intellectuals and artists with indigenous and Afro(Latin)American cultures in post-revolutionary Mexico. It focuses on how (re)conceptualisations of Indo- and Afro-America emerged between 1920 and 1950 through the articulation of anthropological knowledge and partly opposing aesthetics and asks in particular how these concepts relate to each other. One hypothesis is that the exiles' preoccupation with Afro(Latin) America took place against the background of indigenist conceptions of America. The question arises as to what extent the latter benefited from African-American research. The investigation of reciprocal references - analogies, parallelisms, but also an emphasis on their differences - is carried out at both the institutional and the textual level. In a first step, it traces how the demand for the visibility of an Afro(Latin)America was promoted by Caribbean actors in transexilic networks with European exiles and Mexican intellectuals and led to the founding of the Instituto Interamericano del Estudio de Afroamérica (1943 in Mexico). The main focus, however, is on an analysis of intellectual and artistic objects which contrasts anthropological concepts with aesthetic practices.  

The project is organized along the three systematic axes of the FOR. It is based on the reconstruction of hitherto little-researched networks between Caribbean, Ibero-American and European intellectuals, which opened up not only political, but also scientific, cultural and aesthetic horizons. The four intellectuals at the centre are the Haitian author, politician and anthropologist Jacques Roumain (between 1942 and 1944 in Mexico), the French surrealist Benjamin Péret (between 1942 and 1948 in Mexico), the Guatemalan artist and cultural politician Carlos Mérida (1932-1940 and from 1942 until his death in Mexico) and the poet and political activist Salomón de la Selva (between 1935 and 1959 in Mexico). While interacting with political and aesthetic actors and institutions in the post-revolutionary Mexican field they all process anthropological knowledge into transmedial practices, according to the central thesis of this project. The extent to which the essayistic and artistic designs lead to transcultural visions of communities will be a chore question of the investigation. The aim is to contribute to the history of discourses on race and cultural difference in 20th century Latin America.

Sub-project 2: Translation and Transnationality. Practices, Aesthetics and Reflections of Translation in the Networks of German- and Spanish-speaking Exiles in Mexico

PIs: Prof. Dr. Doerte Bischoff (Universität Hamburg) / Prof. Dr. Albrecht Buschmann (Universität Rostock)

Within the research group on trans-exilic networks in post-revolutionary Mexico (FOR 5700/0), the sub-project focuses on interactions between the two largest groups of exiles who arrived in the country beginning in the late 1930s: Spanish and German-speaking émigrés who fled the fascist regimes in Europe. Despite the many parallels and points of contact—some of which stemmed from their shared European origins—these relationships, including their aesthetic productivity, have received little scholarly attention. An analysis of the reasons behind this selective reception history aims to contribute to a programmatic expansion of transnational perspectives. A central desideratum of a cultural studies–oriented exile research is the examination of translation activities, which can provide a more precise account of networking processes. In addition to interlingual translation, the study will also consider forms of “cultural translation” (Wagner 2009), as well as their material and aesthetic effects.

Sub-project 3: Mythical Thinking and Transnational Community Formation in the Medium of the Cultural Magazine. Networks between Politics, Anthropology, and Aesthetics

PI: Prof. Dr. Hanno Ehrlicher (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen)

The sub-project will pursue the objectives of the research group with a particular media-specific focus on cultural magazines during the period from 1917 to 1936. It aims to examine the networks of various cultural mediators and their concepts of community as observed in this medium within the context of post-revolutionary Mexico. Additionally, it will study the reception, appropriation, and transformation of the community-building models discussed in Mexico in other Latin American countries, also bringing into view inter-American trans-exilic networks. Beyond a purely discourse- and intellectual-historical perspective, the aesthetic dimension of the magazines will play a central role—especially through the analysis of visual programs and the interconnected visual elements within the publications. This will be approached using data-driven methods and a mixed-methods methodology.

Sub-project 4: Cultural Anthropology, Indigenismo, and Local Materialities in the Context of Exile

PIs: Prof. Dr. Karoline Noack (Universität Bonn) / Prof Dr. Jordan Troeller (Leuphana Universität Lüneburg)

The sub-project examines, along the three research axes of networks, articulations, and revisions, the interrelations and mutual influences of Cultural Anthropology (Antropología), Indigenismo, and local materialities in Mexico—including those from the pre-Columbian era—in the aesthetic work and everyday practices of exiles under the conditions of the "diasporic space" (Brah 2003) of exile. The focus lies on how these elements contribute to the negotiation and re-conceptualization of aesthetics and community. At the center of the study are Hannes Meyer and Lena Meyer-Bergner, affiliated with the Bauhaus, who arrived in Mexico in 1938, as well as Anni and Josef Albers (Bauhaus, later Black Mountain College), who emigrated to the United States in 1933 and made regular visits to Mexico from the late 1930s into the 1950s. In addition, the project considers two artists associated with the Taller de Gráfica Popular (TGP): the African American graphic artist and sculptor Elizabeth Catlett, and the photographer Mariana Yampolsky. From the perspective of these exiles' aesthetic practices, sub-project 4 investigates how transnational migration movements in post-revolutionary Mexico—under the specific conditions of exile—led to new conceptualizations, imaginations, practices, and spaces of community and aesthetics. In the encounters between exiles from different national contexts and the transcultural realities of Mexico, Antropología emerges as a central node in Mexican exile research, as it links the scholarly discourse and political agenda of Indigenismo with its aesthetic practices that draw on the pre-Columbian past.

Sub-project 5: Spectatorial Communities. Cinema as a Transcultural Public Sphere in Mexican Exile

PI: Prof. Dr. Matei Chihaia (Bergische Universität Wuppertal)

The central thesis of the research group is that “transnational migration movements lead to new conceptualizations of community,” with “literary and artistic imaginations and practices of community and belonging” raising the question of the mutual relationship between aesthetics and community (see central proposal). While the encounters between exiles of various origins and the transcultural reality of post-revolutionary Mexico have been partially explored (see, for example, Linhard 2023 for literature), they have not yet been examined from this specific perspective or through the interdisciplinary lens envisioned by the research group. An essential element in this context is cinema—for several reasons: In post-revolutionary Mexico, films play a central role in imagining and reflecting on community. The Mexican film industry became a space of encounter for several generations of exiles and offered employment to people from diverse backgrounds. The production and reception of films are collective endeavors, enabling shared aesthetic experimentation. Sub-project 5 specifically investigates the role of cinema in the formation of a transcultural public sphere—one that distinctly differs from the traditional local and national communities of the theater (which tend to be institutionalized through municipal, regional, or popular theaters). The significance of these spectatorial communities—the subproject’s central heuristic term—in the Mexican context, and their correlation with various exilic experiences, represents a research desideratum that is relevant to multiple disciplines represented in the research group: literary-historical avant-garde and cultural translation studies (sub-project 1, sub-project 2, sub-project 3), cultural-anthropological research on materiality (sub-project 4), as well as sociological network studies (Fellow-project). Sub-projects 5 specific approach to these cinematographic spectatorial communities in post-revolutionary Mexico is the analysis of two relevant film magazines. This is a logical choice, since newspapers and magazines have traditionally been associated with the formation of public spheres and the negotiation of collective identity. A clear Mexican example of this is the role played by the magazine Savia moderna in the founding of the Ateneo de la Juventud (Leinen 2000: 95). To confirm the research group’s hypothesis, it is necessary to ask what role exiles played in this context and how trans-exilic networks can be modeled. To investigate the articulation of community in the medium of these magazines, textual contributions will be analyzed that are transhistorically relevant for conceptualizing community and aesthetics. Ultimately, it is these very contributions—especially when the two magazines are compared—that reveal narrative imaginations and revisions of community.

Fellow-project: Jewish Diaspora and Cultural Translation

Fellow: PD Dr. Marta Zapata Galindo (Freie Universität Berlin)

In her article "Paul Westheim in Mexico – From Exile to Chosen Homeland," Barbara Beck asks whether the critic’s interest in Mexico’s pre-Columbian art is connected to his Jewish identity. She finds an answer in one of his manuscripts, "On the Change of Fate" (Beck 1995: 231), which is held in the archive of the Academy of Arts (AdK) and deals with the fate of certain Jewish artists. Here, Westheim compares "the fate of the Jewish people with that of the pre-Spanish Mexican cultures" (Beck 1995: 230). By doing so, he draws a connection between the genocide of indigenous peoples and cultures and the fate of the Jews in Europe during National Socialism. Paul Mayer also returns to his Jewish identity in Mexico, not only in the context of the destruction of Judaism but also to confront the dilemma of continuing to live after the catastrophe in Germany (Walter 1978, Rivera Ochoa 1995: 222). Leo Katz reflects in the magazine Tribuna Israelita on the destruction of European Jewry and addresses the persecution of Jews not only in Bukovina, his birthplace, in his literary work. Aladár Tamás recalls the anti-Jewish terror and extermination of Jews that began in Hungary long before the establishment of fascism. The cases of these four refugees in Mexico provide an interesting example of intellectuals who articulated themselves as “cultural mediators” (Lima Costa 2014: 135) between exile networks and the German-Jewish, Austrian, and Hungarian diaspora in Mexico City from the 1930s to the 1960s. These cases also illustrate how cultural knowledge and practices circulate through transnational networks and contribute to reflections on cosmopolitan identities and their belonging to deterritorialized communities. Within the framework of the TransExil research group, this fellow-project will examine the strategies these actors employed to contribute, on the one hand, to intra- and inter-exilic communication, and on the other, to build bridges between various exiles, Mexican society, and translocal support networks during flight and exile in post-revolutionary Mexico—a country that at this time was reinventing itself as a modern nation through various cultural designs. During this period, a cosmopolitan and pluricultural atmosphere prevailed, promoting exchange among intellectuals, writers, and artists from different countries and leading to the formation of various translocal spaces in which connections developed not only among exiles from Europe and the United States but also from across Latin America and the Caribbean. At the center of this investigation are four cases of “cultural mediators” who share not only a socialization within an enlightened and cosmopolitan Judaism (Sznaider 2007) but also their professional work as cultural and political critics.