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Gabrovo
The city of GABROVO attempted in their bid to introduce a bit of humour. The bid contained some lovely drawings. It would be interesting to see what they made out of their failure to get the designation of the title which went to Plodiv, a city well known for its cultural heritage.
They added also philosophy as an important component when describing how best to understand the process they underwent to qualify for the bid:
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OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE PROCESS
Europe is not to be merely perceived as a geographical territory or a set of institutions, but a philosophic attitude
towards value based, responsive and aware citizenship.
Culture in its widest aspects, including cultural governance and policy making, should be enhanced Europe-wide
and assumed as a productive tool which could be instrumental for bringing about democracy and transparency, social and economic benefits, access and participation, respect for identity and diversity, intercultural dialogue and cultural rights.
We believe that culture could bring about changes and this forms our deeper understanding of cultural capital philosophy as a whole.
The idea of being a European Capital of Culture is to bring and experience together the important areas of urban life and the social requirements of the future and to derive from this a variety of measures, creative investments and ideas, which taken together as a whole produce a sustainable output.
For that reason this cultural programme relies on the perception that culture is only demonstrated in its wholeness by focusing on the streamlined energy of the human capital.
The diversity of culture can be fully understood and experienced only when the creative endeavours of people and European citizenship are considered.
Our programme is conceived as a whole process, encompassing a period of 6 years. It will be a starting point
and will concentrate our efforts towards our common goal to achieve sustainable and positive attitudes, to make important decisions for future generations, to create appropriate living conditions for citizens.
Culture in its broader sense is the means and the key for shaping our urban society towards the new dynamics of everyday life.
Furthermore, our focus in not directed to merely me chanical compilation of cultural events when drafting the programme, but mostly takes advantages of the different processes that allow guaranteeing a meaningful understanding of what exactly the status of European Capital of Culture provides.
Going through more than 20 years of identity crisis and self – identification endeavours, Gabrovo is aware that its
European identity should be rediscovered, reshaped and renowned.
We do need more Culture of political dialogue and democracy, Culture of education and care, Culture of infrastructure and investment, Culture of partnership and networking, Culture of management and planning, Culture of living.
For the year 2019 Italy and Bulgaria are the two countries designated to have one of their cities chosen as the Cultural Capital of Europe.
The City of Gabrovo has decided to participate in the run for this title, being aware that we share this ambition with a handful of the major cities of our country.
Source: http://www.ecoc2019bulgaria.eu/images/content/46/ecoc%20gabrovo%202019.pdf |
One possible answer as to why the city was not selected may have been - a blind hypothesis - the use of the term 'whole' about which Adorno said in refutation of Hegel that "the whole is not the truth." Some terms in the bid are not straight forward or forthcoming, but a kind of artificial synthesis, in particular the term 'philosophical cultural capital'. The term suggests a strong and inherent linkage to the economy when everything else speaks about the term 'culture' itself in need of a redefinition as societies and cities in Europe have been undergoing tremendous changes. Naturally of interest is this interplay between identity and identification with many references being made to current EU terminologies such as intercultural dialogue. But then the jury might have been hesitant to agree with this kind of proposal as the gap between lofty ideals and realities may have been too great so as to be convincing all this could be brought about within a relative short time and within the specific context of Bulgaria having joined the European Union in 2004. Moreover ever since Bulgaria has been under tremendous strains not only because of corruption and problems with the justice system, but also what sort of economics have been playing out. While people have low incomes, the privatization of electricity has made prize rises precarious for those who live near or under sub-poverty line. The exclusion of a vast portion of society is also due to the tradition national narrative which seeks a continuity despite of having after feudal like rulership Communism. Consequently a more realistic formulation of the problems might have helped entry into a bid more convincing than being a high level attack like approach on problems of accountability and transparency within the entire European Union. That governance was touched upon, is of interest, for that would have edged the city if successful in the bid much closer to interpreting as well the term 'capital' in the title European Capital of Culture.
It needs to be confirmed but in the bid book of Matera no linkage to Gabrovo was mentioned. Why? Matera signed even a Memorandum of Understanding with Sofia.
HF 1.11.2014
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