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How Europe is connected through culture - a possible contribution of ECoCs to a cultural synthesis" Valletta 2014 by Hatto Fischer

Picasso's Guernica The best example of how people are connected through culture and specifically through stories being told free from ideological schemes is Picasso's Guernica. Painted in response to the bombing of Guernica in 1937, it is a human outcry against this technological onslaught upon innocent people. In knowing they can be buried in silence and forgotten in history unless their screams are heard, Picasso makes visible human pain. He transmits it in a language of human gestures which reminds of Giotto and ensures that the unity of mankind shall prevail over the sword which lies broken on the ground. - HF

 

Introduction

Since the outgoing President of the European Commission, namely Barroso, stated Europe needs a new narrative to explain itself, the question exists but why now, in the midst of a deep crisis? Presumably the Europe Union with now 28 member states has become too complex for citizens to understand. Inventing a new narrative about the European Union may help to simplify things, but raises at the same the question as to the difference between a true story and mere propaganda. Likewise many unpleasant truths are left aside since some stories are never told and others are only revealed over time. Altogether this state of affairs reflects how Europe can stay connected, if at all, through a culture of story telling.

Given then the importance of clarifying the need for a new narrative of Europe, it can be done best in conjunction in what European Capitals of Culture can and do to ensure Europe stays connected through culture. In reference to how Homer told the story of Odysseys, an appraisal is needed of the contributions ECoCs make to the creation of a cultural synthesis. Even though Eric Antonis, artistic director of Antwerp '93, admitted that “culture is the most difficult to evaluate”, such a synthesis is the prerequisite for any story. It implies any expression of culture is based on practical wisdom which allows us not merely to measure, but to bring together things i.e. make out of parts an 'imagined' but never completed whole. Naturally all this does remind of Ancient Greece when man himself became the 'metron': a measure of things. Hence to comprehend the role the narrative plays in Europe, and this without the need to take recourse to literary criticism, the following five questions shall be dealt with:

• What are stories all about?
• What stories are not being told about the European Union?
• European Capitals of Culture are remembered by what stories?
• Can stories tell how Europe is connected through what culture?
• When do stories reflect a cultural synthesis in the making?
  

 

1. What stories are all about?

Stories entail many things. They can reveal some things while others remain hidden till at a later stage and even in another place, the story can be enriched by the imagination and unfold a powerful vision. Time wise, stories tend to go beyond the actual, the daily news. While they carry traces of the past, they contain also an anticipation of what is to come. As such these 'memories of the future are unrealized ideas which acknowledge that changes are necessary, if mankind is to realize a happy life.

There is another angle to stories when they touch upon the imagination. Interestingly enough when Valletta was designated the title 'European Capital of Culture' for 2018 in May 2013, a conference was held with the title 'small city - big dreams!' It reminds of a story about the magic violin. It is about a boy who does not seem to grow, so that one day his father gets really angry at him. He wants him to grow up so that they can cut wood together. Upon hearing his father's angry shouts, the little boy is scared and runs out of the house straight into the forest to hide. The next day, after he has woken up, he realizes not to have grown a bit over night. Again he hears the sharp voice of his father and starts to cry. Suddenly a bird lands close to him and asks what is the matter? After being told by the boy the story, the bird says: “don't worry, I have a solution for you; I shall teach you to play the magic violin!” And so the bird shows him how to play on a violin which is magic for when higher tunes are played everything seems to become smaller, and when the lower tunes are played, everything becomes larger. The boy returns home and just before his father wants to shout at him again for not having grown a bit, the little boy plays quickly the violin. Upon hearing the high tunes the father feels humble, and when the low tunes, so strong that he is ready to cut the wood alone. After that the little boy says to the father, “even if I do not grow taller right away, I will make things look larger and smaller, and if you don't believe me, just watch for I will now go to play to the moon and you will see that the moon shall grow first larger and then smaller.”

Any story can evoke further going associations since full of unexplored hidden and deeper meanings. For instance, the title of V18 conference in 2013 hints not only at the relationship between the small and the big, but likewise at the interplay between physical and imagined reality. While children know only too well about an imagined reality, it seems as if adults have forgotten the importance of the imagination. It can reveal something else. Picasso was able to transform with a little touch a bicycle handle into a bull with huge horns. It is the imagination because not fixed to a given reality, which allows the seeing of another potential. Likewise with good stories.

Why then do adults lose their imagination? Is it a part of a growing-up process? Or is it what the youth in Malta claims to be the case, namely due to the pressure to be successful i.e. not to make any mistakes. Fear not to succeed does produce conformity. Once pressed into already articulated norms of society the imagination vanishes and with it as well empathy which facilitates the understanding of others. Once that happens, adults end up reproducing but misunderstandings even within the own family. James Joyce's 'portrait of a young artist' is a testimony of that. When no real dialogue with reality is possible because the imagination is missing, communication is entered but by being cut off from any source of inspiration no further going idea can be developed. People resign therefore to the fact that nothing changes, even though their children grow up and they grow older. Consequently they cannot question reality, but only denounce everything while they adapt to the given nearly blindly, and thus end up in daily patterns of conformity. All feel then something is missing best noticeable that no one knows any more to tell a good story.

Once that happens fictitious narratives set in to fill the gaps. Often they are officially sanctioned versions of what supposed to be the case, and which are used to justify in retrospect wrong decisions even though they had disastrous consequences like the start of First and Second World War. For example in a city like Volos, Greece, the official narrative is linked to the myth of the Argonauts. It is upheld by sculptures but also by an idea to create a museum around this myth as a novel tourist attraction. What young people feel when growing up in such a context, is that the official version suppresses so many other stories in need to be told, if the full social reality made up by different people is to be grasped and understood as part of the own identity process. So questions have to be asked why Barroso proposes a new narrative for the whole of Europe is needed? It may well end up functioning like the myth of the Argonauts in Volos, namely as a suppression of many other stories about Europe although needed to be told if Europe is to be connected by culture.

Admittedly communication between people is an art, but once filled with stereo typical images while taking recourse to well known symbolic meanings, then a representative structure described best by Michel Foucault in 'les mots et les choses' ¹ is going to make itself felt. Consequently all kinds of signs, even though they supposed to direct, stand in the way of human communication. Once more and more symbols, equally abstract notions creep into language, things become unbearable because reality can no longer be reflected upon in terms of the human being although alive, thoughtful, ready to pose questions and above all curious. All this would lead to a misconstrued idea of what human reality is all about. Because of this and more, including false generalizations meant to bridge gaps between individual and collective comprehension, misunderstandings and disagreements lead to despair and resignation. Consequently ideal worlds or 'utopia' are constructed to escape and to ignore that something else takes place in reality. Instead of being open to one another, and sincere, countless failures to communicate leave their mark. It amounts to a lack of freedom of expression when people sense that they cannot express what they feel, even though it may be a practice not to think what one feels, and not say what one thinks. Whatever the case, it can drive people to produce enemy pictures of the others. Thus a crucial task of culture would be to let adults regain their imagination and empathy for the others. Not to do so can explain already that culture being promoted by many ECoCs fails to connect people.

Once people fail to connect, they no longer know what is the case. Held to believe in official narratives, they sense and experience that politics is no longer in tune with the reality they live in. But how to judge the difference between a true story and propaganda, when the narrative being told does not touch them? If the gap with reality becomes too great to be bridged, then things – the sums of money named to explain a state deficit just an example as to what cannot be grasped – have gone way out of human proportions. All what people have left, if at all anything, is to imagine what is going on. In turn, this dependency upon 'fictions' which are real but turn out to be mere projections if not verified, makes all the more crucial that people have ways to validate the ideas used to explain the situation and to steer things in a certain direction. It matters, therefore, that information can be validated before it is claimed to be substantial knowledge on which to base decisions on.

Needless to say, mankind has searched continuously for ways to unlock this puzzle linked to this difference between what can be imagined, but which is an inner reality of the mind, and what they see but often not grasp since a part of outer reality. So far no convincing solution has been found, while it is clear neither option will do, namely to claim everything is subjective, but an illusion or else the world is too complex to be explained objectively. As this leads to a displacement of real communication based on understandable concepts ² , it is interesting to observe at the root of such a disposition to view life without concept is a romantic 'theory of love' brought about by the need to resolve this dilemma. The the agenda of love is problematic as it includes as well acts of unfaithfulness which has been punished with death, or at the very least leads to the outcast, or the not understood like the not recognized artist by the 'official' culture. It may lead to all kinds of counter cultures of pirates, anarchists, or artists living like Modigliani in permanent revolt on red wine and drugs, if only to die young.

Narratives help to keep the feet on the ground best done by verifying identity and the reality of the content transmitted by stories. The good ones are convincing because free from manipulation or distortions. Here then culture becomes a way to tell the truth. It entails learning to master exaggeration to the point that it is possible to stay within the law of proportionality. Thus stories even of the imagination should never be a lie. Since they contain that inherent danger to become a fiction which cannot be verified, it is important that they discard over exaggeration. The philosopher Ernst Bloch distinguishes between legends which merely repeat things as if nothing changes and true stories which set free the imagination to continue work even if need to be subversively (Carol Becker).

Story telling has the means to make culture into a critical filter, so that people cannot be deceived. By learning to distinguish a lie from a truthful account, they become immune against all kinds of ideologies or propaganda techniques. By not denying that human truth exists, reality is no longer a static given, but can be changed. Stories reflect then best what is being shaped by human beings who have come to terms with reality in a self critical way.

 

2. What stories are not being told about the European Union?

While President Barroso stated that Europe needs a new narrative, there are many more stories not told about the European Union. Of course, Barroso realized only an official version proving the EU to be a success story will do. Anything coming close to casting doubt, has to be silenced. For when a multiple crisis tests the capacity of the EU institutions to sustain 'business as usual', it matters that some success can be claimed. Yet Greece, Italy and even France are far from bringing their state budgets in order, while the entire EU project is jeopardized by highly risky monetary manoeuvres. But while the EU finds itself facing a crisis of multiple dimensions, it is engaged unwillingly in an 'ongoing constitutional process' according to the philosopher Jürgen Habermas. Practically it means that the narrative of Europe is ever more linked to reform. ³, itself an acknowledgement that plenty is amiss. Indeed, serious doubts exist that the European Union is still a successful project.

A re-adaptation of Orwell's Animal Farm can reveal a story in need to be told. Instead of 'all animals are equal, safe the pigs', it can be said in the European Union 'all citizens are equal, safe the member states'. But instead of identifying this to be the core issue, the official EU narrative chooses to ignore the true reason for citizens becoming ever more critical. As this problem of inequality out of structural reasons is linked more to moral and not merely legal legitimacy, it is important to keep that distinction in mind.

When the EU Constitutional Treaty was not ratified in 2005, it meant all EU institutions lost their 'moral' legitimacy. The Lisbon Treaty was a response to that, but merely papered over the cracks. Also the press at that time contributed to a misunderstanding by referring constantly to an unreadable constitution, when in fact it was a both a constitution and a treaty which needed to be ratified. Yet how to co-ordinate the voices of citizens with the opinions of member states especially if Europe is not one state, but made up by 28 member states? That entire dilemma was reflected in one key sentence of EU Constitutional Treaty, insofar recognition was given to the fact that “all citizens are equal with regards to the EU institutions.” In fact such a statement says that citizens remain outside the institutions. It is the member states which determine how these EU institutions work on what content. Citizens have no direct voice nor do they set the agenda.

All of this is underlined by the fact that the European Commission has the sole Right to initiate legislation. Moreover Simon Mundy observed that politicians practise a kind of schizophrenia. For when in Brussels they refer to European values, but once back home only to national-local ones. Basically citizens have no real voice at European level. MEPs for the European Parliament are selected according to national party slates. At best it can be called indirect representation which explains the weakness of the European Parliament itself.

Since this amounts to a mere top-down process, there is one telling story about what is missing. When Dr. Baader, Under Secretary of State of the US government came to the European Parliament to sign the new Educational Treaty between Europe and the USA, he explained a prime concern of his is that too many students take up business studies and once they have graduated work for private companies. According to his information, not enough students were ready to take up policy research. He went on to wonder if European governments and the EU do not get any critical feed back with regards to their policy measures, how will they really know what works, what not? He found this lack of policy knowledge alarming. That was in 2000. It has not improved since then.

Due to the lack of policy knowledge, the European Union has not only adopted a severe austerity policy, but also a pro mega project logic in the belief only this would sustain the European economy. While the former reflects a poverty of experience in terms of alternative policy tools, the latter reveals an over drive designed solely to mask a failure to convince the citizens. By now policy is generally driven by Neo-Liberal attitudes which reduces everything to the need to have 'economic value', if to be funded. Not only does it lead to over simplified analysis as to the reasons for the economic failure to secure full employment, as if all public services are inefficient while private actors know better, but it leaves both nature and the public good defenceless. Also not really mentioned is that EU funding programmes amount to be similar to state subsidies. In reality, they tend to distort the free market mechanisms, best demonstrated by the many start-ups companies being unable to sustain themselves once EU funds stop. The EU has yet learn not pseudo, but only real needs will do if sustainable solutions are to be found.

Admittedly the European Union is a fairly new construction and for some actions, in particular for culture, the legal base is not very strong. For culture enjoys only secondary competence at EU level and is subject to the subsidiarity principle which Schäuble wishes to evoke even more so during the 2014-2019 period of the new European Commission under President Juncker. Yet there is more trouble ahead since diverse arrangements formulated as treaties between the member states is no longer sufficient for some. As for cultural policy, Robrecht Vanerbeeken articulates an important critical view:

„The Creative Europepolicy documents, the cultural policy of the European Commission, reads like a good news show. The EU declares that it wishes to help the arts sector in this difficult time of crisis, in which the continuing austerity policy in the Member States only threatens to increase. The fact that the EU itself is responsible for this threat because it implements a policy in which austerity and social disintegration are the answer, regardless of the question, for obvious reasons goes without mention. According to the EU, it also does not just want to leave art subject to the caprice of the free market. On the contrary: Creative Europe would – according to the newspeak used – be a ‘sustainable’ and ‘social’ policy serving as a corrective to the market.

The problem, however, is that from its very first lines, this programme approaches art and culture like a market economy: according to the EU, it simply concerns creative sectors that together create 8 million jobs and 4.5% of the EU GDP. In other words, this support policy is a pure, market-oriented economic policy with its principal objective being to increase free trade to Europe’s advantage. This implies that art and culture must be in conformity with the market as much as possible: developing more markets, generating innovation for the creative economy, developing transnational business cooperation, increasing internationalization. It may be clear that critical art or artistic freedom is not a priority here. On the contrary, the EU conceives artists and art institutes as resources, that is, as raw materials.” ⁴

Such an understanding of artists is highly questionable, for culture is more than the economy (Michael D. Higgins). Without active participation by citizens, the cultural impact of things brought about will not be taken into consideration, and therefore the policy knowledge as to what culture can sustain, completely left out. It would amount to a pseudo-reform, otherwise known as reshuffling the cards but while the game continues, the people suffer the consequences of bad decisions. It reminds of the film depicting First World War as a lovely game being played by the power stake holders at that time.

While the 'official' narrative refers to European values and repeatedly refers to cultural diversity as the true strength of Europe, prime recognition is given to member states. Consequently cultural diversity is not being upheld but single national narratives and their value orientations. By reinforcing moreover a synthesis between local and national level in terms of identity and citizenship, migrants with a non-European cultural background are forced to adopt the national identity of the country where they sought refuge. The European Union does not offer them a chance to find a new identity based on their own and that of their immediate surrounding within a European dimension. Hence a citizen from former Yugoslavia decided to leave Denmark even after he had worked there as taxi driver for 15 years precisely because he does not wish to give up his mother tongue.

While Jürgen Habermas would identify the huge gap between citizens and the EU decision making process as to what is amiss in Europe ⁵, the critical thinker Zygmunt Bauman goes a step further and claims that we all have become 'strangers' ⁶. Further anxiety was expressed prior to the European elections on May 25^th 2014, for what would happen to Europe if only united by hate? In view of so much anti-Europe rhetoric by UKIP, AfD, LePen, Chrysi Avgi, not to forget the worrying trend in Hungary, it seems populist up-shoot parties are becoming ever more skilled in the use of hate language against anything setting constraints. ⁷ By being against the super state of Europe, these forces want to drive everything in the direction of 'self assertiveness.' Yet a clear concept of governance is needed, so that citizens feel empowered and can express their opinions freely. As one person would put it, climate change cannot be tackled alone. Likewise experience shows once people are left to their own, they can easily be deprived of their human dignity in absence of any agency setting international standards. Once a legal and cultural void exists, criminal gangs can easily move in and take the law into their own hands. Eastern Ukraine or other enclaves in the world show what happens then. The lack of accountability leads directly to violence, if not reign of outright terror. The lack of knowledge about who shot down the M17 Malaysian plane testifies that.

In Europe, the state debt crisis resulted in strengthening the role of the European Central Bank, and has led to a strict monetary-fiscal policy with the sole aim to safeguard the purchasing power of the currency in use i.e. the Euro. As a result the Rights of the working people has been weakened, while wages, pensions, social securities, etc. all have been cut and many more made unemployed or forced to join the grey economy, if not to migrate. Many of the youth in Greece have left for Germany, England or Australia. Already they are called the 'lost generation'. At institutional level, the crisis has led to by-passing the European Parliament, while in Greece and Italy non elected technocratic governments were installed to resolve the crisis. All these 'crude' measures are taken because of a false diagnosis, itself the result of an one sided blame culture. The narrative is nevertheless repeated that over bureaucratization prevents investors from spurring on the economy while privatization is the main salvation. It all explains why citizens fail to connect with what is going on in the name of Europe. Deprived of their purchasing powers by a combination of wage / pension cuts and increase in taxes, they are in addition disenfranchised in their political Rights by the narratives being told as if they cannot change anything.

The philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis pointed out that even when people do not participate in debates held in the European parliament or are directly involved in the decision making process, they do tend to project upon EU institutions what they imagine takes place in politics. ⁸ Hence the narrative about Europe needs constant verification best done in reality by matching what goes inside these institutions with what people image and expect. Setting the agenda of Europe would require as much a bottom-up approach as a passing down of information which is validated by independent sources of knowledge. The latter has become rare as even universities are geared to serving strictly business interests. It leads to an even greater lack of policy knowledge as mentioned earlier as being a key problem. The real stories about the European Union have still to be told. Nothing is more helpful than relating real needs to precise formulations of the issues in need to be decided upon. This is not said to support the camp of the Euro-sceptics. Rather criticism out of a sense of responsibility when it comes to governing Europe means articulating knowledge on the basis of an ethical vision of Europe. In that sense, it is helpful to keep in mind what the philosopher Bart Verschaffel considers Europe to be, namely a fiction, but a very necessary one. ⁹

 

3. European Capitals of Culture are remembered best by what stories?

The European Capital of Europe project is cited repeatedly within the European narrative as one of the most successful European projects, and this despite the EU not really having a cultural policy in place, given a weak legal base for cultural actions and the subsidiarity principle. Still, even in this acclaimed success story more often culture is displaced by a series of events which start and end with fireworks, and once a year has passed by, one wonders why people retain so little in their memories as to what took place. Tania Brandmayr in 2014 states no one recalls what happened in 2009 when it was the turn of Linz to be European Capital of Culture. Even more critical is for her that the free artistic scene failed to sustain criticism of the arts throughout that one year, even though the arts live off criticism if they are to know that their audiences have been reached. The crisis in culture becomes even more explicit when artists in Athens state, that they no longer produce works to exhibit them since no gallery sells no longer any of their works, but now only for the depot. What damage this will do in the long run to even the most creative artists, no one knows but it will have a definite negative impact.

Since culture is work with memory, it is important to note that by now 48 cities have been European Capitals of Culture and more are still coming. Just recently the selection for Italy in 2019 has been made with Matera getting the designation. So it is not strange that only few remember that the European Capital of Culture project started by Melina Mercouri and that Athens was the first ECoC in 1985. Therefore to remind about Melina, a lovely story reaccounts how she sought to gather support for Athens – the city had only six months to prepare. She went first of all to Genscher who was then Foreign Minister of West Germany. After she had asked him if Germany can bring the opera, the theatre of Peter Stein, exhibition of painters etc. to Athens and pay for it all, and Genscher had replied with a definite “yes”, Melina went over to him and gave him a kiss on his cheek. Genscher turned then around and said to those standing in the same room: “all of you have just now witnessed the most expensive kiss.”

Unfortunately the stories about EcoCs are at best distorted ones. For the sake of simplification, the so-called paradigm change (much akin to how Thomas Kuhn would account 'the structural changes due to scientific revolutions') is resorted to. After Athens, Florence, Berlin and Paris, all being already capitals of culture, it is said along came Glasgow in 1990 with Bob Palmer its director and ever since successful, the concept of culture applied by EcoCs has been linked to urban renewal. This new orientation left everyone guessing where precisely the city having been designated the title had fulfilled the European dimension as required by the European Commission. When Liverpool '08 came along and hived Bob Scott thereafter into the role of president of the jury selecting future EcoCs, he replaced the European orientation by stressing that each selected city should not be a border city like Görlitz in Germany, but the representative of its nation. More over he stressed the need to heed the importance of public relations. Patras 2006 had shown without the media in Athens paying any attention, that the project was deemed not to be successful since no one took notice. Consequently priorities of ECoC cities shifted with PR and other forms of communication techniques receiving up to 20% of the budget, and this at the expense of the artistic programme. By the time when 25 years of a successful project were celebrated in Brussels 2010, Bob Palmer worried about the increase in spin doctor like reports. They were drafted increasingly so to ensure everything was portrayed as a success story. Instead it was the best indication that culture had been embraced by powerful forces as a new form of propaganda. The film maker Wim Wender went even on record that year by recommending Europe needs a new form of propaganda, in order to sell itself better as a successful project.

When reviewing the various concepts implemented by EcoCs, it becomes apparent that all of them leave out one crucial term in the title they have been designated with, namely to be a cultural 'capital' of Europe for one year. Being a cultural capital has less to do with being a centre of attraction for visitors, but much more with the willingness to assume responsibility as to what is happening to culture throughout Europe. There is after all a constant need to respond to countless challenges. If the EU is to become more knowledgeable as to what cultural policy needs to be implemented, so that Europe stays connected through culture, then EcoCs must facilitate a refinement of such cultural policy. Still other reasons might exist why European Capitals of Culture continue to ignore the meaning of being a 'capital of culture', but this failure is not reflected upon.

Repeatedly ECoCs fail as well to make clear a clear commitment to a truly cultural programme best indicated by not hiring right from the start an artistic director. The lack of investments in the arts explains why nothing can be sustained after the year is over. Cultural resources need constant care, to be developed over time, used in a good way and above a challenge to do more for culture. Instead most organizations set up for that special year are operated solely by project managers and close down once the year is over. Even though an independent artistic director is badly needed if a truly artistic programme is to be realized, there is no one who can 'steer' the creative process potentially made possible by everyone being able to participate at the level of the imagination, and even more so by having a long-term horizon of at least five, if not more years ahead before something has to be realized. The title can truly inspire people to participate. It happens, if cultural terms are set in such a way that people begin to understand themselves what they envision. This is best done by giving them feed-backs once ideas have been solicited from them. This dialectic of the imagination would entail likewise a culture which gives them access to further going connections with Europe and the world. For example, poets can build bridges of understanding and bring about an awareness for lesser spoken languages and create the beginnings of delicate dialogues.

As for Valletta 2018, there are in 2014 four years ahead to prepare for being European Capital of Culture in 2018. Already the logo 'image 18' reflects a potential on how to animate not only the imagination, but how to solicit stories from the elderlies as to when they were 18 years of age compared to what the youth images to be at when 18.

Interestingly enough as well, the time period ahead runs parallel, retrospectively speaking, to First World War which took place from 1914 until 1918. The term 'parallel reflection' reminds of Robert Musil describing parallel actions, small and large, which marked developments in Eastern Europe after 1918. Since Europe is based on a peace concept which has emerged out of these two terrible world wars, it is important in how history present itself at times in a strange way as a kind of continuity. Here stories told during events commemorating First World War can deepen an understanding of how memory works and lead to the question if the enemies back then have become friends today. Europe is very much about making a difference in relationships, in particular between Germans and French people, but not only.

All this working through of memories requires a new understanding of the European context. Here Karsten Xuereb, project manager of Valletta 2018, makes a critical point when he cites from a report :

„The importance of local and regional cultural policy building should not be underestimated in this regard. The title of the seminar proposed the concept of “territorial diplomacy”. Ferdinand Richard, President of RCF, explained that this concept, which could also be called “diplomacy of local governments”, is based on the shift in sovereignty to territories alongside nation states. This shift is linked to the development of Europe and globalisation. The political impact of regional development funds, for example, has strengthened the autonomy of local and regional authorities. Local cultural identity is being consolidated by touristic attractivity for the better or for the worst. A local politician will have to imagine the common future of his or her local inhabitants with the good quality creative talents that his/her territory deserves. Elected leaders could become mediators between local cultural actors and public spending, so as to define their territorial assignment on the long--‐term. International contacts are being developed to extend attractivity elsewhere. In this context it is no surprise that a timely local cultural policy framework has developed, the Agenda 21 for Culture, produced by a worldwide network of local governance, United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG). The indisputable effect of the European Capital of Culture phenomenon has lead to a transfer of cultural interests and aims to local authorities and this shift is upheld by international treaties such as the UNESCO Convention of 2005 on the promotion and protection of the diversity of cultural expressions.“¹⁰

More needs to be said about these local-national linkage, for it puts mayors and other political authorities into a new role of mediators between cultural actors and global forces. It means a lot depends on how local cultural policy is being shaped. A bottom-up approach is definitely needed, as is critical to retain the 'sense of community'. Already on hand of this can be noticed that a new shift in the paradigm indicates that the EcoCs are adopting a new approach. Seen positively, it would encompass the following priorities:

• bring the city in dialogue with reality of a world gone global

best done by fostering dialogue as base for culture e.g. local residents interacting with visitors, so that they are no longer treated as mere tourists who buy stereo-typical items in tourist shops as if icons of the narrative of that city while not hearing true stories from citizens themselves.

• realize the failure of Intercultural Dialogue as a policy tool when fostering international relationships

European Capitals of Culture can improve cultural governance within Europe by enriching at the same time the cultural dimension of the EU foreign policy. Culture is often called a 'soft power', but more crucial is upholding such values which ensure conflicts can be resolved by talking about the problems each side faces. However, to succeed other tools than merely 'intercultural dialogue' are needed, if peace is to prevail in the world. The failure of the peace talks in the Middle East underlines that the European concept of 'intercultural dialogue' will not do. As a general concept, it allows too many different forms of dialogues to go unnoticed. More often, reference to the concept is but a construed excuse not to look at the reasons for failures to uphold conditions for dialogue.

• Reflect upon the context being the 21^st century

Above all, EcoCs have to ensure Europe realizes life in the 21^st century shall be no longer be a culture which unfolds between the poles 'abstraction and empathy' as had been predicted by Worringer at the beginning of the twentieth century, but by what the Indian poet K. Satchidanandan (Indian poet writing in Malayalam)states to be the case:

"Albert Camus once said that the central problem of the twentieth century was suicide. I am afraid that this was the central problem of the twentieth century and not of the twenty first century which is homicide or genocide. I mean by this the massive destruction of life and the worsening of conditions of life by various forces that promote violence of all sorts. It makes the ideal of peace more and more unrealisable. Global imperialism, predatory capitalism, religious fundamentalism, jingoistic nationalism, patriarchal domination, hierarchies of caste and class and race, irrational terrorism, have all contributed to this escalation of violence in our time. These outbursts we find happen today in all nations." ¹¹

How things shall be shaped by future ECoC cities, that depends on many things. San Sebastian 2016 wants to use the title to overcome terror and violence with a culture of non-violence, while Aarhus 2017 seems unfortunately to consider this to be just another development project of the city with the aim to attract highly qualified experts needed by its companies. Still, most telling is what a taxi driver answered when asked what he hopes would be the result after Wroclaw has been ECoC in 2016: „a good story!“

4. Can stories tell how Europe is connected through what culture?

Stories can tell a lot about the culture people live in, and therefore how Europe is connected through what culture. Starting with Homer and not ending with James Joyce, the story of the traveller is itself a method to observe changes over time. That twenty-two years have been reduced in the meantime to 24 hours in Dublin, signifies how changes manifest themselves in a technologically speeded up world. Given the Internet, and social media, stories told on 'you tube' are of a different quality. They seek the instantaneous fame by making even intimate moments public.

So while European networks and institutions like the European Cultural Foundation in Amsterdam seek to promote artistic mobility as one of the things the EU can safeguard, it is quite another thing when Ces Noteboom from Holland sits down in Berlin to write another story made possible by listening to others. Whether rivers, streets or public squares, there are multiple ways on how to connect through culture with others and to Europe.

Most telling is, for example, the 'Flash Back' manifest by Danish and other artists who seek to reinvent Europe outside the grip of the institutions of the European Union. ¹² At the same time, Leeuwarden and Valletta, both ECoC 2018, are already cooperating with each other with one project which has started is to have children send poems in potato sacks to each other. ¹³

Indeed, cultural connections begin with the small, insignificant and hardly to be noticed, but can become large if given space and time. This was the case with Ars Electronica in Linz. It started out with some engaged people seeking space to unfold their dream but by now has become an international centre for media related art.

Important is that ECoC funded projects mature around one key objective as advised by the Irish poet Brendan Kennelly, namely to learn how to use but not abuse culture. ¹⁴ Says it and goes outside of Trinity college to listen to the stories the children living in the streets have to tell the professor who is willing to believe them even if freely invented. It is what the artist from Lampedusa said at the conference held in Valletta, namely that children playing barefooted football in the streets and an old man seeking shade from the sun, that they are the biggest capitals of Europe. ¹⁵

To all of this can be added the meaning of the term 'culture' as being 'politismos', or the knowledge people have of their city. Since Ancient Greece, the story of the city has become by Mumford explanation as to why they keep expanding. His story gives as well a reason why a museum of a city serves best the purpose of organizing memory. For the city is too complex an entity to be ever tamed, never mind to be planned completely. Even if modern cities like Brazilia have been created after the outburst of architects like Le Corbusier, last exhibited when Marseille 2013 wanted him to return to the Mediterranean shores and to the play with light he was so famous for when designing buildings for the South ¹⁶, people themselves wish to preserve a sense of community. That sense is kept best alive by telling stories if not to the children, then to neighbours and friends.

Once culture is reflected upon in this way, namely how stories link up with different activities and experiences, then one thing stands out: how memories of the past are retained while ways are searched to go into the future. How memory works is complicated. Wittgenstein said, it is a special way to philosophize. Others would say “to remember you need to forget!”

There comes to mind Parmenides. This poet stated the key of fate has to be turned before it is possible to step outside the city and to experience again nature. Meant by this is the need to let the senses be free again from artificial constraints and to let instead nature to do the work. A prerequisite for that to happen is to forget all experiences made in the city but also to have trust in nature. That is, however, not self understood in modern, equally over urbanized culture. The remark is important because in the consultation process organized by the European Commission on how ECoC cities should be selected after 2019, it was repeatedly stated, cities are the hub for innovation. That has to be taken with a grain of salt, while it is as well a response to such modern notions as the creative city or even in a broader sense the creative region. If Silicon Valley was a model, it did not work, however, in the case of Ruhr 2010 for after the year was over, the 54 cities making up the Ruhr, and former industrial region, did not stay together, but went again their own independent ways. Only for a brief moment they were united by this common image of Ruhr 2010.

When seeking to pick up stories, it is not about finding proof that urban centres mean only total alienation from nature and other people. When Vincent Van Gogh visited people in deprived areas of London, he discovered that far from being alienated, they kept the good old stories in their hearts alive like the coal still burning long after midnight in the stove when it is cold outside. Likewise a woman coming from the Arctic circle into Helsinki astonished everyone with her stories, for all of them contained so much light.

Like the story which brings light to shine on what matters to human beings, culture as 'theory' underlines the need for acknowledgement over time that aesthetics and therefore beauty do matter. For people it is crucial to gain in self understanding, while maturing in their relations to others. Thus it is important in what language they are being addressed and how they address the others. Good use of language reflects that stories are told from an early age on so as to imagine where humanity came from and goes to, for all poets know each small tribute feeds into the great stream of humanity seeking like all rivers the open sea.

Through stories people learn to see that sense perception matters as to how concepts are used. This is crucial since it allows to deduce out experiences further going theoretical reflections, in order to find out what lies ahead. Things can then come into existence without the need to completely understand how. If this wonder of life can be sustained over time, then the lasting beauty of a painting by Rembrandt shall set such a measure. Van Gogh recalls Rembrandt when seeing his father, a priest, come out of mine shaft and cross the field covered by snow in his black robe, for he could paint that scene better than anyone else. This recalling made Andre Malraux say every artist creates an imaginary museum in which own works hang beside all those other works which gave them inspiration. These creations over time add to the various layers of experience and which can be called rightly so cultural knowledge. The same applies when the loving eyes of parents accompany a child throughout the years it grows up and integrates itself into a world not of its own making but ready to alter it nevertheless.

One good way to connect people with Europe is to show different ways to handle the imagination. All the arts, whether music, painting, poetry etc. entail illusions by seeking to capture the beauty of the imagination. Since this is in reality impossible, Michel Foucault was wise to recommend there is a need to take away from existing things the illusions they do not need, but to leave those people need to go on with their daily lives. That is crucial since people do project upon power the illusion of omnipotence while robbing themselves of ideas what they could do themselves to alter the situation. Likewise those who state the world is but only an illusion needed to be refuted for it amounts to an excuse not to seek a rational explanation. If such attitudes of both disillusionment and projection that everything is only an illusion would prevail, it would lead to the displacement of the concept. Definitely culture is not illusion but also not solely a real fact. Rather it is a way of finding out the truth when no other method seems to work best demonstrated when a story is told and finding out through various responses what took place in reality. ¹⁷

Of interest is that every trial lawyer knows the jury has to be convinced by laying out a narrative which is self convincing and therefore closer to the truth than any other story told, otherwise his client shall be convicted even if not guilty. Likewise the chorus in Ancient Greek plays demonstrates how critical is the judgement of people as to what is the case. Bob Palmer sees and advises that the most important guarantee for a successful implementation of a cultural programme by a city being ECoC is audience building. It is a critical mass in need to be convinced that the city has found a way to tell the story about culture connecting Europe other than through common currency or Intercity trains.

It has been stated that the EU for various reasons lacks policy knowledge, and that the EU has really no cultural policy. Of course, there exists funding programmes like Creative Europe which together with Horizon 2020 and Regio can further so called cultural projects, but most of them reduce their outcomes in such matters as events held, networking and dissemination of information by use of social media and other forms of IT based communication platforms. Moreover Creative Europe wishes explicitly to promote primarily the film and media industry. It follows the trend taken by neo liberal policy makers who wish the state to support solely business and the free market. ¹⁸ Thus it is no accident that the ECoC title has been used by many cities to foster the creative and cultural industries while seeking to alter their image, in order to become more attractive. It is called in modern jargon 'city branding'. Yet no city has been a border city working at the margin. ¹⁹

Despite this lack, the EU continues its saga by seeking to unite Europe solely through the economy. By now this has taken a hold as well of culture. Already Ruhr 2010 was the first city to make the Creative and Cultural Industries into a top priority in their cultural programme, and thereby gave still another meaning to culture. As a result, it has led not only to a greater confusion about the concept of culture to be promoted by ECoC cities; in addition, the term 'creativity' has become synonymous to mean 'innovation'. In reality, it is understood as key factor for economic growth and supposedly, so the claim, for job creation, but not necessarily a force to find solutions of social injustices and inequalities in wealth in a non-violent way.

All this has transformed the story of culture and with it Europe in not a good way. Ever since the KEA study about the value of culture to the economy has been published by the European Commission in 2007, a key orientation has become the promotion of the Creative and Cultural Industries. The European Commission Green Paper (COM (2010) 183) in this regard mentions as one of the three central challenges, for instance: “To move towards a creative economy by catalysing the spill-over effectsof CCIs on a wide range of economic and social contexts.” – p. 4 (their emphasis). “Through these spill-over effects, Europe’s CCIs offer a path towards a more imaginative, more cohesive, greener and more prosperous future.” – p. 3 (The other objectives: helping the global presence of local and regional CCIs; increasing the capacity of entrepreneurs by, among others, providing easier access to funding). Thus Allison Reekie from KEA can state that:

„In less than a decade, EU policies have moved towards a broader understanding of culture and creativity accompanied by an increasing willingness to support culture and creative industries’ (CCIs) impacts on the wider economy.
Whilst the European Commission’s 2007 Agenda for Culture is the first document that goes beyond the intrinsic value of culture, the Innovation Union initiative of October 2010 - one of the flagship initiatives of the EU 2020 Strategy - already makes reference to culture and culture-based creativity and broadens the concept of innovation.“ ²⁰

Mike van Graan considers on the other hand creative and cultural industries to be important, but by no means “silver bullets” which can empower especially the youth to overcome the dreary prospects of finding no job. His nuanced way of looking at this seeks to balance between cultural entrepreneurs who work for profit orientated companies while other, equally important cultural entrepreneurs work for the public good and therefore need governmental support. Alone that difference means it is not a homogeneous sector, while entry to it may prove difficult for especially the youth. Moreover the sector needs as well a market to sustain itself, yet what happens when artists no longer sell their works? Altogether he poses a series of questions most crucial for the European debate about the Creative and Cultural Industries:

“There is the broader context in which we practice as creative people, which raises important questions such as who do we make our art for? Who are our markets? If it is primarily those with disposable income who constitute the markets for the creative and cultural industries, does this mean that most of our population is to be denied their fundamental human right “to participate in the cultural life of the community and to enjoy the arts” as stated in Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? Do we simply shrug our shoulders and say, this is as it is the world over, that the arts are by definition elitist in terms of who has access? Do we comfort ourselves that in concentrating on the creative and cultural industries as means to empower a few, we exclude many? Do we perpetuate the much-maligned trickle-down myth that by contributing to economic growth through the creative and cultural industries, we will generate the resources necessary to drive human and social development, so that the poor will ultimately benefit?” ²¹

When thinking once again about the incredible creativity of Ancient Greece, then because the culture was back then open to ideas. By taking them in and reinventing them while stories were told how the Egyptians discovered mathematics, they created new ideas and concepts. That is cultural innovation at best. It includes as well a mother telling her child stories in support of the power of the imagination. Unfortunately the commercial world encroaches on this kind of creativity which has real value in the lives of people and which children and the youth need to find a voice. Too often all of this confused and spoiled by seeking solely 'commercial success'.

ECoC cities require the art of bringing together people and artists so that audiences are created which can listen. Bob Palmer stresses that. It carries forward cultural programmes when designed for dance, music, film etc. as all of them require special audiences composed by people who can relate to these forms of expressions. There is a need to sustain criticism which requires in turn a free artistic sector which is active independently and at the same time able to collaborate with the formal institutions set-up to uphold culture e.g. museums. Over and again the legitimacy in the arts has to be sought anew since nothing is self-understood, but it does mean that everyone has the Right to unfold his or her creative self.

Creativity brings about stories once told people do remember. Kenneth Loach in his film 'Kes' showed how suddenly the entire class would listen because something real was being told. Indeed, the best stories indicate to humanity that there are more things to learn that what is being taught at school in a formal, highly exclusive way. Children are branded from an early age on to assume but one identity. Hence it is important that Louis Armstrong would sing about things, 'that you don't learn at school!' The aspect of informal learning, the learning in the streets, has to valued. In the long term, something of that has found an institutional equivalent at European level in the programme called 'Life Long Learning', and which Ana Magraner from the European Commission has transformed into 'Life Long Love'.

5. When do stories reflect a cultural synthesis in the making?

Once ECoCs understand the concept of culture as the art of bringing together people, and people with artists by creating audiences, freedom of expression can be sustained by letting cultural synthesis be created. The latter can never be enforced or planned. For alone the term 'together' is problematic when viewing how is Europe connected through culture. Here the poets Cavafy and Amir Or warn about use of cultural categories to delineate oneself as did Ancient Greeks from the others as if 'barbarians', even thought they “are among us!” The problem nowadays is that no one can be sure that amongst those waiting at the bus stop, that there is not one ready to be a suicide bomber. Recruited out of the many 'radical losers' ²², itself resulting out of lack of a cultural synthesis which empowers people to live together in peace, recourse is taken to all kinds of pseudo-units. They no longer hold once panic breaks out. Freud refers to hierarchical organisations like the church or the army when either God fails or the enemy stronger than initially thought. When Greece entered financial crisis, the wealthy panicked and took all their money abroad. Panic occurs in the absence of a libido keeping people, but rather together only artificially and by coercive force. Bismarck united Germany by starting wars with neighbouring countries with all the negative consequences, including the Holocaust. All the more reason that the European Union should retain social and economic cohesion as prime priority. To become sustainable, the EU has to rely on culture.

Likewise any ECoC must inspire so that new links are created between parts and the whole. Even though people intermingle in all kinds of ways, horizontally and vertically, but also in cross sectorial ways, there are those who stay apart and exclude. Consequently redesigning a city is altering society. Interactions take place in windy streets and noisy public squares but a cultural programme can bring about another binding force. Hence cultural mapping should start by learning from artists on how to use all kinds of spaces for such a purpose. As a matter of fact, almost anything goes from an abandoned bus to a former church. Like Picasso who can transform a bicycle handlebar into the head of a bull, such conversion principles need to be applied to places and spaces so that activities open up people to one another and lead on to the next events. If things go really well then general understanding of what role culture can and does play in people's life and in Europe can bring about a bottom-up approach to cultural policy.

A further idea about synthesis can be gained from Nabokov when narrating about the street car which he predicted would not be around for long. Fortunately he was wrong but most interesting is what he noticed upon entering a street car. He was reminded of how a Russian fable is told: each new chapter begins by re-accounting what took place before the main part of the story is continued. During that retelling a synthesis is created which serves as energy source for what is to follow. It allows to distinguish between what holds all together while many parts seem to go off on their own. Likewise a person entering a street car will get a whiff of what happened before, but soon the conductor rings the bell and the street car rumbles on through the streets. What is so crucial about this art of telling a story is synthesizing what happened before and then continue with the story.

Likewise with any ECoC, it would be great if the year starts by retelling the story as to what happened in the previous cities. In that way, Europe would be connected through the narrative about culture and how this reflects people's lives. Since a thematic cultural programme shall make a stamp the city with activities taking place throughout the year, so unique stories can be grasped and be retold in future ECoCs. Ruhr 2010 applied that idea by having writers living 2-3 streets over to hold fast in their writings what changes occurred throughout that one year. Unfortunately their writings were too much censored to retain the liveliness of subtle alterations in people's lives.

Not to be forgotten is that taxi driver who wishes as outcome a good story once Wroclaw has been ECoC in 2016. That is important but for evaluators a mere detail. Yet details matter if a cultural programme is to be deemed as having been successful, as it depends on taking care of both people and artists. In the latter case, artists are not reduced to be simply clowns in some kind of fake entertainment with the real interest being just to make a lot of money. As for people, it matters if they are touched by what artists do communicate to them. Likewise the criterion of 'authenticity' to ward off this commercial encroachment has to be doubted as well. There are some lessons to be drawn out of the fateful application of this criterion in architecture according to Bart Verschaffel. ²³

If a true narrative depends upon a 'cultural synthesis', then different strands of the arts need to be brought together. It is very much like a conductor who gets finally everyone to play in tune with the others. As such culture can and does make the entire system appear to be functioning in a rational, equally humane way. The poetess Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke would call that “destiny still flows” and water would retain the quality of remaining 'imperishable' – another criterion of sustainability. If culture is not used to mask a society as being together when not, then culture can be both a kind of fluid to make things work and at the same time the air we breathe. Of course, culture is more than that.

Karsten Xuereb made the significant remark that "democracy is really about synthesis, and not about people leading their lives separately from each other while guaranteeing rights with no interaction and sense of community." ²⁴ But if democracy is to be sustained through a cultural synthesis, people need to be free to express their opinions not only on the Internet, in social media, but truly in public. A prime condition for that is a cultural development which allows opinions be expressed but equally by challenged by others. ²⁵ If people do not know what is public truth, then people shall stay silent and for lack of orientation not participate. Rather than enter dialogues with others, and not public truth but manipulation of information, otherwise known as the practice of mendacity (use of public lie) shall prevail. ²⁶

Most difficult is the realization of a just society, for needed are just measures to appraise the task ahead. Here Ancient Greece set an example. Laws were passed to prevent those who are already rich and powerful to become even more rich and more powerful. Inequality is not only a matter of having social status in society or not, but also what resources are accessible to uphold such a status. Injustice prevails if culture is merely used to mask of being civilized, when in reality quite other things matter. The poetess Anna Lambardo believes that Europe is at risk to be united by a “dictatorship of freedom” since not real because only the wealthy and powerful enjoy a freedom of movement. Out of protest against that she writes poetry because

"Poetry has got a great gift to make a synthesis which brings the human feelings, (the good and the bad ones) the nearest possible to the truth. Poetry has the rare chance (as well as music) to communicate what is “unspeakable”, that impossibility to say the “real”, because this “unspeakable real” has no words to be said, because it inhabits itself the “real.” Poetic writing gives the chance to translate that “real”, called in this world nowadays “trauma,” out of what has become silence: the silence of abused women all over the world, the silence of abused children, the silence of those abused 'People of The Abyss.'" ²⁷

 

Conclusion:

In consideration of what stories have not been told so far about Europe, an understanding of culture by Valletta 2018 and other ECoCs face can include following tasks and measures:

• Give a voice to those not heard by society and to citizens a true sense of equality in their relationship to EU institutions which are right now determined solely by member states.

• Tackle the huge problem of moral legitimacy that EU Institutions lack by seeking ways for citizens to start imagining a novel EU constitutional treaty based on democratic discourse.

• Bring culture to bear on the problems of the youth and in particular the impact of the social media culture with V18 already recognizing the wish of the youth for a freedom to make mistakes in order to be able to learn, and not to be pressurized into fake success stories too often transformed into subtle and not so subtle forms of required obediences.

• Resolve the migrant issue and therefore the constant displacement of people by ensuring cultural integration into the European space as a whole and in following a peace agenda

• Substantiate policy knowledge best done by giving shape to the EU Agenda on Culture in bottom-up processes with validation possibilities enhanced by promoting policy research so that ECoCs signal that they take serious the term 'capital' in the title.

One further point needs stressing, the need for an Archive of European Capitals of Culture. Bob Palmer stresses the need for any ECoC to leave behind a 'legend', and which means literally what enters the archive to show what traces a Cultural Capital of Culture has left behind. By traces are meant the stories people tell one another as to what happened during that decisive year. Moreover if culture is work with memory, then consistency over time can only be gained by remembering things which have been done. The archive supports what culture is all about, namely recognition of what makes a creative contribution to keeping the sense of community alive.

As long as the ECCM network existed until 2010, there was an effort to link former, current and future ECoCs, in order to facilitate a learning process now better understood as retelling the story while continuing. The exhibition "20 years of ECoC history" shown first in Patras 2006 and curated by Spyros Mercouris formed the core of the exhibition "25 years" when this European project was celebrated in Brussels in 2010. While this took shape in Patras 2006, an online exhibition was created by "heritageradio" of the Interreg III B - Cadses HERMES project. It gave birth to the idea of creating an archive for all ECoCs. That led to the Documentation Centre in Athens but which existed only from 2007 until 2009. But all along the NGO Poiein kai Prattein in Athens has maintained such an archive. ²⁸ There are now plans under way to re-locate this archive at the Library of Alexandria.

All this could be the start of quite another vantage point for evaluation with regards to EcoCs. Important would then become what they do not only for their own city, but whether or not they have contributed to such cultural development within Europe that this continent becomes sensitive to the needs of other, non European cultures? It could foster a new form of communication and a better mutual understanding between European and Non European cultures. It would end downgrading the Orient or the others as if 'Barbarians', and connect Europe especially with all those countries having the Mediterranean Sea as their common border. Borges said this sea is a source of culture about humanity into which then future ECoCs could tap into for further going inspirations.

Hatto Fischer

Athens 27.10.2014

References

Castoriadis, Cornelius (1997) The Imaginary Institution of Society (trans. Kathleen Blamey), MIT Press, Cambridge 1997 [1987]. 432 pp

Foucault, Michel (1970) The order of things. Pantheon (original title: Les mots et les choses. Paris: Gallimard, 1966.

Immerle, Nicole and Hans Sakkers, (2014) „(Re)-Programming Europe: European Capitals of Culture: Re-thinking the role of culture. Journal of European Studies, Vol. 44, March 2014

 

Jay, Martin (2006) „The ambivalent Virtures of Mendacity“ Paper given at conference, 'The philosophical challenges of ethics and politics' in Iraklion, Crete. http://poieinkaiprattein.org/philosophy/martin-jay/the-ambivalent-virtures-of-mendacity-by-martin-jay/

 

Kern, Philippe (2014)“Creative spill-over supporting economic and social innovation” (Issue 4) European Policies to Generate Culture and Creative Spill-overs. http://bit.ly/1vUrLvD

Sakelliou Schulz, Liana (1994) „The effect of increasing internationalisation: the separation of culture from the state“. Fifth Seminar: Cultural Actions for Europe, Athens. http://poieinkaiprattein.org/conferences-symposiums-workshops/cultural-actions-for-europe/second-plenary-session/the-effect-of-increasing-internationalisation/

 

Vanerbeeken, Robrecht (2014) “The EU cultural policy is the problem, not the solution”. Generalwe, April 2, 2014 http://www.stateofthearts.be/?author=1

van Graan, Mike, (2014) „Youth Empowerment through Creative and Cultural Industries“. EU conference on youth empowerment through the Creative Industries. http://www.afai.org.za/eu-conference-youth-empowerment-creative-industries/

 

Verschaffel, Bart„Architecture is as a gesture – on authenticity as an architectural criterion“. http://www.poieinkaiprattein.org/beyond-images/architecture/position-papers-3/architecture-is-as-a-gesture---on-authenticity-as-an-architectural-criterion-by-bart-verschaffel/

 

 
Footnotes:

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