Civilisations

Civilisations (2018)

EndedDocumentary showHistory

Civilisations explores the visual culture of societies from around the globe, revealing alongside the magnificent objects made in the West the wealth of treasures created by other cultures, from the landscape scrolls of classical China and the sculpture of the Olmecs to African bronzes, Japanese prints and Mughal miniatures.

Network
Scheduleevery Thursday at 21:00 (60 min)

Last Episode

The Vital Spark
Season 1Episode 960 min

The Vital Spark

Simon Schama begins Civilisations with this premise: that it is in art - the play of the creative imagination - that humanity expresses its most essential self: the power to break the tyranny of the humdrum, the grind of everyday. Art, then, makes life worth living; it is the great window into human potential. And societies become civilised to the extent that they take culture as seriously as the prosecution of power, or the accumulation of wealth. But in the century of total war and industrial slaughter was (and is) that enough? The cause of humanity went up in the smoke of the Nazi crematoria. Horror and terror brushed beauty aside and stamped on its pretensions. And in the modern world art has become increasingly commodified.

Simon's last programme explores the fate of art in the machine and profit-driven world. It looks at the rise of art as a tradeable commodity and turns on one central question: should art create a realm separate from the modern world, a place where we can escape and pull the ladder up after us? Or should it plunge headlong into the chaos and cacophony while transforming the way we see it and live in it? Using the works of both dead and contemporary artists of the 20th and 21st Simon seeks answers to these profound questions.

His conclusion is imbued with hope: despite all the travails of the present, by engaging with the here-and-now art still offers civilisation an insight into the incomprehensibility of the world and a way to transcend its horrors with the enduring creativity of the human spirit.

März 1, 2018

Recent Episodes

EpisodeNameAirdate
S01E09The Vital SparkMärz 1, 2018
S01E08The Cult of ProgressMärz 1, 2018
S01E07RadianceMärz 1, 2018
S01E06First ContactMärz 1, 2018
S01E05The Triumph of ArtMärz 1, 2018
View all episodesView all seasons

Cast

View all cast

Characters

View all characters

Also known as

  • Civilizations (PBS) (United States)

Recently Updated Shows

Recently updated shows that might be of your interest.
The Mandalorian
Running

The Mandalorian

After the stories of Jango and Boba Fett, another warrior emerges in the Star Wars universe. The Mandalorian is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. We follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic...

Alien: Earth
Upcoming

Alien: Earth

When a mysterious space vessel crash-lands on Earth, a young woman and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet's greatest threat. As members of the crash recovery crew search for survivors among the wreckage of a mysterious crashed space vessel, they encounter mysterious predatory life forms more terrifying than they could have ever imagined. With this new threat unlocked, the search crew must fight for survival and what they choose to do with this discovery could change planet Earth as they know it.

Invasion
Running

Invasion

Earth is visited by an alien species that threatens humanity's existence. Events unfold in real time through the eyes of five ordinary people across the globe as they struggle to make sense of the chaos unraveling around them.

Peacemaker
Running

Peacemaker

The series will explore the origins of the Peacemaker, a man who believes in peace at any cost - no matter how many people he has to kill to get it.

The Rookie
Running

The Rookie

The Rookie is inspired by a true story. John Nolan is the oldest rookie in the LAPD. At an age where most are at the peak of their career, Nolan cast aside his comfortable, small town life and moved to L.A. to pursue his dream of being a cop. Now, surrounded by rookies twenty years his junior, Nolan must navigate the dangerous, humorous and unpredictable world of a "young" cop, determined to make his second shot at life count.