European Capitals of CultureΠοιειν Και Πραττειν - create and do

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

As to European Capitals of Culture themselves, there is a lovely story told to me by Spyros Mercouris as to how it all started. It was his sister Melina Mercouri who had initiated not only the idea of European Capitals of Culture, but she solicited support from other member states once it was decided that Athens should be the first European Capital of Culture in 1985. They had then only six months to prepare. So she went among others to Genscher who was then West Germany's foreign minister. She asked to have operas, theatre productions, orchestras, exhibitions etc., and naturally all to be paid by the West German state. So when Genscher said 'yes' to all her demands, she went over to him and gave him a kiss on his cheek. Genscher smiled and then turned to the others in the room to say: “all of you have just witnessed now the most expensive kiss!”

Melina Mercouri stated Europe should not be connected only by the economy but through culture. It could be done best by heeding its culture diversity and cultural heritage. These concepts have become since then prime orientations for EU cultural policy. Since 1985 they are used as well as prime justification for continuing the ECoC project. In the eyes of not only the European Commission but of the many cities which had received this designation since then, it is considered to be one of most successful projects of the European Union. The question is only according to what criteria is this 'success' being claimed? Most methods of evaluation tend to go in the direction of number of visitors rather than looking at the cultural content. Admittedly evaluation of ECoC programmes realized over one year is not easy. Eric Antonis, artistic director of Antwerp '93 stated at the Fifth Seminar held in Athens 1995, “the most difficult thing to evaluate is culture.” 1 For culture needs cultural criteria, while differences in aesthetical appraisals of, for example, a dance performance can diverge considerable. It seems judging art works is a subjective matter. Yet aesthetics means really that 'culture is theory'. That becomes apparent once it is realized that there is nothing arbitrary about the arts. Any critical judgement follows a lawfulness and has to correspond to the artistic statements being made to set the reference framework for purpose of both understanding and appraisal.

Right now most ECoC cities evaluate the success of the one year merely in terms of what legend they leave behind. Bob Palmer recommended that cities should prove sustainability by having attained such a legend. Yet most offices and foundations set up to implement a year's programme close doors immediately once that decisive year is over. There are only a few exceptions like Lille 2004, or what Eric Antonis did for he stayed around in Antwerp to develop still more cultural resources. 2

Yet rarely, if ever, are ECoC cities evaluated in terms of the stories people tell one another as to what happened during that one year when the city was the ECoC, and if yes, then certainly not because they were an integral part of the official programme. There is this lovely story about a theatre in Liverpool where the audience sang with the actors while the director had to put the house of his mother on mortgage, in order to finance the entire thing. 3

Bob Palmer recommended as well that a successful artistic programme for one year needs to build audiences. However, the real meaning of culture would still neglected, if creation of special audiences for dance compared to film or paintings does not go hand in hand with clearly directed efforts to strengthen receptivity of these specific artistic expressions. And here the small becomes significant in terms of having the strength to carry on in future. As we know from Van Gogh and others, great art can go for a long time un-recognized, while audiences need critics and forums where people can discuss in order to become more sophisticated in appreciation but also critical judgement. As culture flourishes in urban hubs, they can transform entire neighbourhoods. Once receptivity is strengthened in that way, an audience listening becomes suddenly for the artist an active source of inspiration. Over time it will lead to quite another cultural development connecting people, places, different time zones and also tastes. So while preparing for the decisive year, the artistic director of any ECoC must know how to steer the creative process. It is done by setting the right premises at the start while being attentive to the constant feedback given by all kinds of people. For that allows a refinement of the ideas while true reflections of aesthetics will slowly start showing results in what is work in progress, namely the art of making things possible out of small things but which grow if given space and time to develop.

If the world needs artists, but artists people who can listen, then culture is there to give recognition as to what artists articulate. Kant said the best way to let a person unfold his or her creative potentials, is to ask good questions; likewise culture needs to build on a set of questions which can substantiate the creative energies at work. Moreover critical patience is needed for things to work out. What seems in repeated rehearsals not working, suddenly all pieces can fall together once something decisive happens. It may be just a remark or an observation linked to a seeming innocent question, why not try it this way and not the way you have been doing it all along. Art is work in progress in search of alternatives of how to look at things. Much depends on inspiration and in being challenged all the time by good criticism. At the same time, artists learn to work with the materials given to them, including the energies they discover in themselves while preparing a special dance performance or a theatrical play. Most critical is not to be satisfied easily with quick solutions, otherwise people will glance at the painting but only briefly and then continue on their way. The painting has to hold onto the person's arm so to make him stop and pause while taking a second look. Surely such receptivity is inconceivable without observing eyes. At the level of the city, receptivity would be reflected by having a certain atmosphere in the air. People shall come in the expectation that they shall experience something. It is substantial when everything seems to come alive. It is best indicated by a constant humming in the air. Once actions going on make possible a kind of self-forgetting, then experiences are made out of which the arts take their forms to bring something into existence. Such reflections shall be remembered in the stories told.

Crucial is the art of criticism which can only bring about a lively programme. This is what the arts need most of all, and not after the year is over, but while preparing and throughout that one year. It is a general failure in all ECoC cities that they fail to support and to sustain criticism of the arts. Often it is being treated as a nuisance since perceived by the organizers as complaints coming from the free artistic sector which protests for not being involved enough in the official programme. That is true since ECoC official programmes favour merely the big projects having big sponsors. But if artistic expressions are to stay alive and improve over time, there is always this need for more criticism. According to Tanja Brandmayr, Linz 2009 failed to sustain this needed criticism of the arts, and as a result no one remembers today what happened in 2009. 4

Judging by what stories are being told about those cities which had the title, it seems that they failed to uphold the cultural dimension of freedom of expression. Rather they succumbed to using culture for other things e.g. urban regeneration. What then usually happens is that spectacular buildings end up having trite artistic activities just to fill the space. It means the small and the large do not go together while culture is used to fill some gaps. Pecs 2010 took place in the well preserved, equally restored historical centre retaining a lot of cultural heritage, but the people living in monotone suburbs circulating the city were completely forgotten. Likewise in Marseille 2013 everything took place in the southern part, along the harbour, while the northern part was left out. In view of what is to be expected of future EcoCs, even worse may become true. Aarhus 2017 indicates that it shall treat the title as if only one of many development projects the city has on its plate. Aarhus sole aim is to solicit culture to attract highly qualified people who shall come to work Aarhus not only due to high salaries and good schools for their children, but because there is some cultural ambience as well. No wonder then that the legacies which most ECoC cities leave behind are but trite stories. Liverpool 2008 is remembered, for instance, by a mechanical spider clamping its way through the streets and yet it is claimed to have been a resounding success. The fact that this odd discrepancy exists between real facts of life and what is being claimed, can be explained. Bob Palmer expressed rightly so his fear that instead of true stories coming out of most ECoC cities, they are 'spin doctor' like reports which make everything look successful while the shortcomings are left aside. 5

Critical evaluators would suggest this is due to a failure to fulfil the European dimension! Yet that does not go far enough, for how can people identify themselves with Europe through culture when the synthesis in the making of a new cultural identity is still locked into the local-national space and does not incorporate that extra value of Europe? This failure becomes even more explicit due to one single factor: the ECoC cities do not acknowledge one key term in the title, namely that of being the 'capital' of culture for one year. By not assuming responsibility for what is happening to culture in Europe, the critical question becomes but what concept of culture do cities use instead when they set out to implement a programme for one year? At best, it seems ambivalence is at work for the difference between a cultural and an artistic programme goes regularly unnoticed till challenged. An epistemological critique of the term 'culture' is needed to show the consequence of ignoring the very fact that culture is more than just events, festivals, but a 'theory'. If the ECoC is to connect Europe through culture, then it must give the arts the freedom to express a political message Europe needs to receive, if the connections are to be of truly viable nature.

Since values are embedded in a self understanding which is rarely reflected, there is a need to emancipate a self critical 'theory of culture' out of the conventional understanding of culture. For instance, politicians and managers like to say very quickly they do not like elitist culture and thus they block any sophisticated reflection. However, they mistake elitism with the demand for quality. The latter requires hard work before it can be realized. For instance, any good publication goes through a countless process of reviews, criticism, editing and re-writing before something of quality can go into print. That demand for quality is what the arts are all about. It makes artists at times so uncompromising even when they can be just as well flexible, spontaneous and happy with less.

Culture as a reflected theory is the acknowledgement that aesthetics matter, insofar as the only cultural self understanding which counts is that there is no such self understanding. The latter would mean something self assumed but which does not allow any further questioning, so that it would be impossible to draw out any further creativity even if the best questions were posed. That is only possible if the arts can alter the prevailing definition of culture, in order to let the ongoing present be heard, seen, tasted, smelled and touched.

Through stories we learn to see that sense perception matters as to how concepts are used. This is crucial especially given a philosophical trend all too ready to claim the senses like poetry cannot be a source of truth (Hegel). He overlooked that through culture we learn to use our senses. It means becoming sensitive how concepts are used to bring something into existence and how this can be sustained over time. The lasting beauty of a Rembrandt painting is such an example. It adds to the various layers of experience made by the senses and is 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 .

1Eric Antonis, Workshop 10 of the Fifth Seminar, Cultural Actions for Europe, Athens 1994: http://poieinkaiprattein.org/conferences-symposiums-workshops/cultural-actions-for-europe/the-workshops/workshop-10-cultural-evaluation-and-cultural-exchange/final-report-of-workshop-10-by-eric-antonis/

2This recommendation was made by Bob Palmer. See http://ecoc.poieinkaiprattein.org/european-capital-of-culture/Institution-of-European-Capital-of-Culture/the-palmer-reports/

3 John Bennett „Answering to the audience: Opportunities and tensions in popular theatre programming with particular reference to the Royal Court Liverpool and the European Capital of Culture“, at „Whose culture(s)?“. Conference of the University Network of European Capitals of Culture, Liverpool 2008. http://uneecc.org/userfiles/LiverpoolProceedings.PDF............................................................

4 Tanja Branmayr, „Thoughts about ECoC afer Linz '09“. http://ecoc.poieinkaiprattein.org/european-capital-of-culture/linz-2009/thoughts-about-ecoc-after-linz-09-by-tanja-brandmayr/

5Bob Palmer spoke at the 25 year celebration of ECoC cities held in Brussels in 2010. See http://ecoc.poieinkaiprattein.org/european-capital-of-culture/Institution-of-European-Capital-of-Culture/25-years-of-success-presentation-of-ecoc-in-brussels-march-23-24-2010/

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