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Cultural Crisis - Crisis of ECoC by Hatto Fischer
1. European Capitals of Culture – do they continue in the spirit of Melina Mercouri?
Since 1985, the ECoC have evolved into managerial driven cultural industries. This can be explained as has done Palmer (2004) by increase in budget and alteration in both concept and organization.
It should be recalled that for selection after the Palmer Report of 2004, ECoC institution must fulfill following prime criteria:
a) Citizens behind the bid
b) European dimension
c) Sustainability
Yet it has become more and more apparent that NGOs, civil society and artists are systematically excluded especially once a city has gained the designation to become European Capital of Culture (Pecs, Istanbul 2010) as other powers begin to dictate both program and implementation.
When it comes to assess what has been achieved, there becomes evident the failure in terms of sustainability. For sure, legacy cannot be upheld by short term PR strategies.
Altogether, it has to be underlined that functional use of culture to alter image of city risks to transform culture into propaganda. This mistake has been made ever since Glasgow (1990) utilized culture to bring about a new meaning in use of spaces like a church at the centre of the town. Even though Athens '85 included as well a build up of cultural infrastructures e.g. theatre of the rocks, the shift in paradigm is constantly identified with Glasgow. This reflects itself a characteristic of any discurse to over identify one element while blending out others just to identify a certain trend.
2. Crisis – problem, no problem
Crisis comes when communication is no longer functioning, not even the simple distinction making sense any more: "problem / no problem" were the only things a driver could say to his guest, so when they went through dangerous territory, he would say "problem", when out of that danger zone the relief in his voice could be sensed, insofar as "no problem" meant being safe again - a story told by the Polish journalist Kapusscinski in his 'travels with Herodot'.
A crisis is an augmentation of many things, but also alters the quality of interconnectivity to such a point that both the past and the present tend to crowd out the present. This failure to live in the present comes when no longer future goals can be seen and the past too heavy as to free oneself from past mistakes. Thus a three pronged attack on the freedom to live in happiness can characterize a crisis in the making:
- failure to adapt to reality and needs of people
- failure to anticipate future developments and things in need to be resolved now before it is too late
- failure to learn from the past as it is the case too often that no one pays anyone to correct past mistakes
The force of this three pronged attack is capable of negating culture's potential to shape the future.
3. EU 2020 vision and role of culture: loss of publicness and re-nationalisation
These discussion points can be linked to what Habermas defines as 'publicness' and what he considers to be symptomatic in an age of communication, but one dominated by persons like Berlusconi or Murdoch and which leads in his opinion to a 'pathology of communication':
- EU cultural policy 2020: digitalisation and economy of experience -mind the gap!
- Digital literacy - exclusion of citizens – technology and power, but no morality in reminder of what Bertrand Russell said already was the case after World War I, with emphasis in the digital age on 'cyber spaces' (see here the concept of Wroclaw 2016 as formulated by the philosopher Adam Chmielewski)
- Poverty and unemployment / cultural adaptation vs gentrification / purchasing power – meaning of work
- Social media and Info as new mendacity (M. Jay) – the silencing of the public (as extension of M. Foucault's 'history of insanity')
- Publicness: pathology of communication: (Jürgen Habermas), but also what Bart Verschaffel describes as cities redesigning themselves in terms of public and private spaces in: "public space - public truth"
4. Can ECoC contribute to sustainable culture: aesthetics and morality
Ethics and creativity
- creativity cannot be planned but made possible by setting constraints i.e. framework conditions (see the paper Bart Verschaffel gave at the ECCM Symposium 'Productivity of Culture' held in Athens 2007: www.productivityofculture.org)
- task of ECoC: artistic program made visible to audiences (a key advice by Bob Palmer)
From the point of view of an artistic director, giving shape to the program is about cultural investments / investments in culture to make possible to enter a creativity process which can be sustained over time (cultural planning).
- Innovation and creativity linked to cultural industries
- Economy of experience: technology induced patterns of cultural consumption in the digital age
- Smart regional specialisation - city and region: Lille 2006, Ruhr 2010
- Richard Florida: creative city e.g. Wroclaw 2016 - see the speech by the mayor of Wroclaw at the Cultural Forum held in Brussels, May 20 - 21, 2011
5. Cultural governance and the human spirit
Graffiti in Exarchia, Athens 2011
Note: the graffiti exists near the street corner where Alexandros was killed on Dec. 6th, 2008
Cultural governance is a term in need of further understanding, but it begins by giving the cultural sector a voice when it comes to decision making processes e.g. within the CIED project this would apply to business and development plans being proposed and enacted upon by city governments in relation to seeking gains through new economic activities and which would lead to expansions of various kinds. Galway at that time (1997-99) was one of the most successful cities reaping gains out of a festival which attracted many visitors not only for that specific time, but on a permanent basis. In conjunction with that retail business started to expand. The city then tried a model of mixed planning in order to have business (consumption), housing and culture (entertainment) conjoin in a new model of what would determine activities at city centre. Yet the citizens of Galway revolted at the CIED conference and articulated their dissatisfaction with all the changes going so far that they could no longer relate to the city as if all familiar places had vanished. This is not a mere continuity-change paradigm, but indicates sustainability requires as well a culture which can convey meanings over time.
- Reading of the writings on the wall (see David Haley with regards to Liverpool '08)
- Corruption in society and the youth (Athens '08)
- Uncertainty and human dignity (Tahrir Square in Egypt)
6. Challenging power – experience with Sonderborg 2017
- Concept border and not city but region in what Sonderborg 2017 tries to achieve
- How to challenge dominant power e.g. Danfoss
- Flashback Manifest
- Compete with Arrhus + cooperate with a city in Cyprus where the co-ECoC city is being selected as well for 2017
7. ECoC Selection of San Sebastian and Wroclaw for 2016
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San Sebastian |
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City's history begins anew in 1945 Guernica and Picasso's dove from Letter of redemption to neo liberal Darwinism
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Both cities were successful in their bid for 2017; in both cases, doubts were cast upon the jury selection.
The typical answer by the European Commission to this doubt in the jury is that always there shall be protest against such a decision as the other cities not receiving the designation had their own high hopes and invested a lot to get the title.
8. Networking between EcoCs and the question of continuity
- ECCM network folded in 2010
- Absence of continuity, no ECoC institution
- Informal network by Liverpool, Ruhr, Linz etc.
- No joint archive means loss of memory as sign of cultural failure
9. European Commission and the selection process
- Painful experiences of artistic directors
1o. Can the negative trend be corrected?
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Ethical principles and sustainable criticism |
Specifications and cultural guidelines for selection, implementation and evaluation |
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Overcome uniformity of bids by relying on artistic director Give space to real narratives Bring people together and develop audiences for artistic work
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EU + cultural governance Contribution to ECoC institution Criteria for selection Dialog between cultures Sustain criticism Memory work
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Conclusion
Flow of people – flow of ideas since Arabic Spring to Wall Street
New philosophical concept for ECoC
Cultural governance: one city responsible for what happens to culture in Europe and world
Create and do - free artists from danger zones – true meaning of creativity
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