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Initial ideas about a candidancy
Ioannina: Upcoming
...shall apply for European Capital of Culture 2021
A first announcement of this city by the lake Pamvotis was made on the 7th of October 2014
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Since the announcement in October 2014, a lot of quiet work has started in order to bring about the bid.
A key assumption is that culture means both
an invitation and a challenge
due to being a complex.
Since all cities biding for the title have face the context in which Greece finds itself in, the crisis itself more than merely financial uncertainty, a dismal even pessimistic outlook can be explained by an absence of an inspirational culture capable to take things forward.
Repeatedly persons confess to suffer due to being forced to relate only to the past due to a cultural policy putting emphasis primarily on cultural heritage and proclaiming a continuity from the Ancient Past by pointing out still today, more than 2000 years later, Greek as language is still being spoken. Melina Mercouri underlined this continuity with her slogan 'now as then'!
In looking back to Ancient Greece, many questions can be raises as to what culture then has been able to achieve. One outstanding feature was an open horizon which allowed for an innovation of ideas.
However, many Greeks feel trapped in a kind of inferiority complex as if they cannot achieve what their ancestors have been able to bring about. For can compare him- or herself with Aristotle and when looking up to the Acropolis, alone that edifice is testamony of an achievement hardly to be surpassed even some claims are made in this direction when citing the example of the Niarchos Cultural Centre being constructed in Athens. It will contain an opera, a library, theatrical space and a park. A huge amount of money is spend once again but by a foundation deriving its wealth from a former shipowner who died in 1996 so that this is done to preserve his legacy and not that of the people themselves making up society.
Repeatedly the lack of recognition leads to an unnatural urge to show off, to appear to be superior to all others, to be exceptional. Such comparison with nothing to compare leads to the construction of a mental, equally artificial hierarchy. For superiority and inferiortiy match each other when no recognition is given to the other. In the end, the culture shall lack a sense of appreciation what others can and do give.
It leads to and explains why innovative ideas are not recognized or dissiminated in such a way that it does become common knowledge.
On top of it all, a mayor has not really the freedom to decide upon cultural policy related matters. Most of the things are decided at national level and by the central government. Only recently some shift in power has taken place with regional authorities being now elected rather than being mere political appointees. It matters to see what the local politicians of a municipality like Ioannina can achieve within a given time since the bid book has to be ready by September with a first presentation to the jury being planned for Oct. 23.
Also a new dimension has entered Greek political life ever since Prime Minister Samaras and his government failed to have their candidate for President of the Republic be elected despite three attempts. The last vote took place on December 29, 2014 when the government failed to secure the necessary 180 votes. As a result, Greece headed towards elections on January 25th 2015 which was won by the Left wing Syriza party, but due to a failure to win an outright majority (they gained 149 in a 300 seats parliament), they entered a coalition with the Greek Independent Party of Kammenos.
Already before the elections the international press has begun to speak about a new phase of uncertainty making it hard to know if Greece shall stay within the European Union. By the end of February 2015, the newly elected government faces a series of crucial challenges on how to discontinue the impositions made by the Troika and yet continue staying in Europe and in the Eurozone. Other EU members, in particular Germany, fear generally that the reform course followed so far by the Samaras government will not be continued and therefore Greece risks to derail all efforts aimed to salvage the Greek state from defaulting.
How a municipality like Ioannina can contribute to political stability and thereby help to find a way out of the crisis, it depends on whether or not it can muster all its potentialities. Ioannina has been known to make substantial contributions to the whole of Greece and to Europe. It went through a phase of Enlightenment and has been experiencing a tolerance of different cultures throughout its history.
Definitely is needed a consistent approach so as to be able to link development plans with a cultural programme for 2021. It remains to be seen what shall be worked out in the coming nine months and this in competition with other Greek cities which have declared as well their candidacy for the title European Capital of Culture.
Hatto Fischer
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