Reflections about Patras 2006 by Hatto Fischer

Wall mural in building of Patras 2006

Without doubt, the concept of having a European city act as if a cultural capital has proven to be one of the most successful ones of all projects financed in part by the European Union. But right now the third Greek city after Athens (1985) and Thessalonik (1997), namely Patras 2006 risks breaking this record in a most negative way.

As measure of success can be taken Cork 2005 which just ended after seeing 4000 events financed by a budget of 13,5 million Euros. Even the Arts Council of Ireland was amazed by how many activities and creative energies, indeed learning processes were initiated by this small city of 137,000 inhabitants and therefore one of the smallest to have been bestowed this honor. The poet and assistant artistic director Thomas McCarthey said the city had put in five years of preparatory work and as a reward for going from a chauvinistic, inward and provincial approach to one open to what Europe can give in the field of culture, was that the city’s artists, audiences and administration found themselves tremendously enriched by this one year experience.

By contrast, Patras with a population of nearly 200,000 and a budget of about 18 million Euros has planned a meek 152 events not at all at the beginning of the year secure since contracts have yet to be signed. These events are sub-divided into six themes but at the start of the year 2006 Patras failed to mention this fact that it is the cultural capital for the coming year in its New Year’s celebrations. Not surprisingly a recent poll taken in Greece established that only 16% of the Greeks know that Patras is the Cultural Capital of Europe for 2006.

More so, the official opening planned for the 10th of January has been postponed according to Managing director, Christoph Roilos by four days. The opening supposed to coincide with the opening of a Leonardo da Vinci exhibition but rumors have it that the building which is to house the exhibition is not yet ready.

One of the factories meant to be used, but alas...

Back in December 2005 the Artistic Director for Patras 2006, Thanos Mikroutsikos, said at a press conference “the results we want to achieve is not just to stage wonderful events, but to create, through the institution of the Capital of Culture, institutions that will, in the coming years, become a permanent feature on Europe’s cultural map.” But by the 5th of January 2006, he had resigned out of protest against how the Greek Ministry of Culture was handling the question of money and what seemed impossible to plan with such an organizational committee under control of Christoph Roilos who had been appointed by Prime Minister Karamalis to keep an eye on things and if necessary to ensure the policy guidelines for culture, if existing, of Nea Democratia were being implemented.

Thanos Mikroutsikos was replaced in a night crisis session by film director Alexis Alatsis but only on a temporary basis. Alatsis was already involved in the cultural program realized during the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.

Artistic director Alexis Alatsis

If anything is an indication of current state of affairs in Greece, Prime Minister Karamalis acts also as Minister of Culture since Nea Democratia came to power in March 2004, thereby replacing the PASOK party who had been almost continuously in power since 1981 when Andreas Papandreou gave a new hope to Greece with his slogan of ‘change’. Karamalis took on this double role presumably due to Greece having to face then in 2004 the still incomplete Olympic project in terms of venues, so that the direct power of the prime minister was needed to ensure that the Games would be a success by having everything ready on time. But this state of affairs with him holding both offices has lasted to date despite some rumors in Athens some cabinet reshuffle was planned for 2006. It means not merely Patras, but most of the cultural scene in Greece is in disarray since there is no one present at the Ministry of Culture to take care of a range of tasks needed to be looked after to ensure culture is not merely reduced to the life in night clubs as portrayed in the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games of Athens 2004.

Consequently it was not Karamalis, but deputy Cultural Minister Petros Tatoulis who responded to the criticism of Mikroutsikos that money was not made available to ensure the events planned for Patras. "Nobody can have carte-blanche with state funds," Tatoulis said, noting that Greece had "a tragic experience" in 1997, the last time it hosted the annual European Cultural Capital event.

"There are still payment claims in excess of 40 million euros (47 million dollars), and the whole affair cost over 352 million euros," the minister said, referring to the 1997 event, which was held in the northern port city of Thessalonika. The latter is still deemed today as a success by supporters of PASOK, despite similar experiences as now with Patras were made then with venues not ready and nothing but chaos the best guide for how things were organized. And there remains the money question!

Clearly if the conservative government of Greece installs a man like Christos Roilos who is a geologist expert by profession, as director of the Organisational Committee of Patras 2006, conflict was programmed with first the Socialist mayor of Patras, namely Karavolas and then with Mikroutsikos, who was for a brief spell immediately after the death of Melina Mercouri in 1994 Minister of Culture in the PASOK government. The question is if culture in Greece shall continue to suffer due to this unresolved conflict between these two major parties, and if not resolved by a degree of independence from political influence, whether or not more artists and audiences will be sidelined rather than enriched by participation in an event meant to take everyone beyond the confinements of the past by being less afraid of things lying ahead? Still, it says a lot that Greeks worry for the New Year more about their job security than anything else while hostility towards strangers is on the increase.

How things will evolve in Patras remains to be seen. Alexis Alatsis does not wish to hide the fact that things are being started too late, but he considers it not to be something unusual for Greece – see Thessaloniki 1997, see the Olympic Games in 2004. According to such ‘reality’, something the sociologist Agrafiotis characterized as ‘the continuity of discontinuity’, he tries to invoke an appropriate metaphor to link the state of affairs in Patras with the tasks that lie ahead as being Cultural Capital of Europe. Departing from not only venues being hardly ready but also how architectural heritage in Patras remains more hidden than evident due to a mixture of poor planning and illegal speculations especially along the coast line, he wishes to link culture to the metaphor of a ‘construction site’ as used by Walter Benjamin. It can be expected of Alatsis to know what meaning Benjamin gave to culture as a construction site, since born in Egypt, he studied in France prior to doing theatrical work in both Hamburg and Berlin. So with nothing ready, the contracts for those meant to realise one of the 152 events yet to be signed, and the money anything but certain, the metaphorical spin by Alatsis goes on as follows:

“In the meantime it is not at all clear….what this Cultural Capital of Europe should do. If you want to put this European perspective a bit into perspective, then we have to use this year as year of dialogue to talk about all topics, not only those having to do with culture, but culture as part of the social life in Europe, culture as part of daily life in Europe.”

He says that he wants a forum of controversial discussions in which not politicians but those creating culture have the say and that the key aim is to revise the idea of the Cultural Capital City of Europe. Yet, if such theatrical sophistication is needed to put Patras into the proper light as a city able to contribute in the end by enriching through such dialogue the European dimension, then such a kind of rationalization needs to be questioned. For it is not only unjust to what Cork has just accomplished, but this kind of dialogue envisioned about everything but culture misses the point as to the needs of Europe. After the failure to ratify the EU Constitutional Treaty, Europe needs not more cynical sophistication, but authentic cultural events to give governance through culture a positive, therefore realistic meaning.

So what is to become of this ‘construction site’ of Patras 2006?

First of all, it wishes to capitalise on this idea of being a Cultural Capital by promoting tourism in a way that people pass no longer through Patras, but stay for a few more days in order to discover the city and thereby spend more money while being there. The public relation exercise begins with having picked as logos the near by newly opened Rion-Antirion bridge connecting Peloponnesus with the main land.

Then the program for 2006 foresees six units not mend to blend into one another, but are feature at separate times: Carnival (January 21 – March 5), Poetry and Music (April 27 – May 13), New Scene of Ancient Drama (May 19 – June 4), Traveling (June 5 – September 30), Religion and Art (November) and Children’s Art (December). Adding to these are the Opening Days (January 10 – 19) and Closing Days (December 12 – 30). Still, there are many gaps to fill and the program yet to be confirmed in detail. It could stand being enriched by following the model of Cork.

As to start with the carnival, the crucial question here is what anyone knowing European project and corresponding financial regulations would pose, namely how is it possible to finance something which would take place anyway? The carnival of Patras is said to be a 160 year old institution and therefore would happen regardless of being the Cultural Capital City or not. It seems that the carnival is used to hide a lack of program and failure of commitment to culture of another kind. The latter would become only explicit if Patras meant to go beyond what Adorno called the fascination of a tamed society for the ‘wild’ as displayed by forms such as a circus or a carnival. The latter institutionalizes an unusual ‘fun’ as a release from daily pressures but it makes sense only as long as people need not real solutions like a concrete job, but just distraction from daily worries. Surely carnival as excuse for many other things, including a way to make more money, has a questionable cultural value especially if the lasting effect is only the certainty that next year around the same time a similar situation shall be created. This means the question to be discussed with Alatsis is whether he still wishes to stick to a dialogue about daily life in Europe or if it would not be better to focus on the exploitive nature of carnival once daily life has become a dread? And if such a topic is not suitable, at the very least it could be discussed whether or not carnival as an institution reproducing mere ritualized forms of behavior falls short of expressions of spontaneous fun and of more pronounced and serious signs of happiness to be experienced when people come truly together and enjoy each other’s forms of humor. The fact that Patras has a lot of Latin American elements incorporated into this year’s program with Brasilia figuring greatly suggests also that the European dimension of fun is replaced by imported figures of speech from Latin American carnival cities known for their more pagan rituals and wild dances in the streets than perhaps practiced elsewhere in the world.

Then, with regards to the seeming highlight of the exhibition “Leonardo da Vinci: Inventor, Scientist” the question here is not why Bill Gates has linked himself to this scientist and artist who invented in the end war machines to make a living, but whether such a figure can give today Europe standing at the verge of some critical questions with regards to the Iraq war, one using quite sophisticated data processing capacities to strengthen the perceptions of American and other troops on the ground to fight insurgency, a critical inspiration to do away with what Michel Foucault has called the ‘pathology of perception’ based on the reconstruction of the living after death in order to allow for a direct glance. Not war but culture needs to be enhanced and for that Leonardo da Vinci is not a suitable departure point despite his genius being much admired by people like Bill Gates.

No doubt many more doubts will come to mind about the program of Patras because what it offers so far has little or nothing to do with Europe. For example an announced exhibition of young artists shall remain a local affair if the curator will stick to his intention and pick only works from young Greek artists. The same goes with poetry if linked only to Greek poet Ritsos or religion to Byzantine tradition as followed by the Greek Orthodox Church.

As Hassemer, Senator for Culture when Berlin West was Cultural Capital City said to the mayor at the symposium held by the ECCM network in mid October 2005 in Athens, the Cultural Capital City should make sure not to be only there for Patras or for Greece, but for the whole of Europe. This demand needs a follow-up.

In comparison to what Melina Mercouri managed when she realized her idea, namely to have the spontaneous and innovative contributions of artists, actors, musicians, cultural actors of all kinds enrich not only Athens, but bring people of Europe through culture closer together, Patras has become such an affront to many artists that serious doubt exists if the city will manage to bring people together. Certainly many artists spoken to wish only that they have nothing to do with Patras.

The fact that so far many contracts have not been signed, shows how little cultural planning is being practiced and this, in turn, is a sign of deep inconsideration of the very fact that culture needs more, not less time. The creative process requires quite another level of commitment, not certainty, but the ethics of uncertainty as freedom of expression.

But this does not concern only artists. For instance, even the Network of Cultural Capital Cities (ECCM) under the honorary chairperson Spyros Mercouris and therefore brother of Melina have still at the beginning of January not the contract signed although the exhibition depicting twenty years of history of the Cultural Capital Cities is to open on March 27th. On top of it the date was fixed only on the 5th of December 2005 when Spyros Mercouris travelled to Patras to sign the contract but told instead that the technicians for the exhibition will not be available due to their involvement in the carnival, and if he would agree to a later date, that is March 27th?

Indeed, with time passing, all sorts of people are forced to make their bookings for travel to Patras since, for example, airlines don’t wait until Patras is ready. It means commitments are made without certainty about payment, accommodation and what program shall finally be place when travelling to Patras. But those artists who do not wish to face that risk are threatening to sue the organisation Patras 2006 for loss of income incurred by keeping themselves free for Patras.

As if culture needs no time to prepare, this lack of consideration by the organisers of Patras 2006 underlines a deeply cynical attitude as if intended to incapacitate culture from having a voice in Patras. To that belongs the method of organisation which never acknowledges to an artist that his or her proposal has arrived at the office of Patras 2006 and that he or she can expect an answer whether or not the proposal has been accepted. The Polish writer Kapuscinski in his description of the style of governance by Haile Selassie underlines that such method never reveals what commitment shall prevail and rather than providing orientation culture will be devastated. It risks such outcomes as the case of Ethiopia never coming to terms with its past, present and future challenges. If such is the nature of cultural governance as exemplified by Patras to the fullest, then whatever shall happen throughout 2006, the stories to be told thereafter will but strengthen the fear that culture has nothing to offer to alleviate the fears people have about the future of Europe.

Indeed, Patras 2006 prompts the question if the recognition of being the Cultural Capital City of Europe for 2006 should not be withdrawn? Certainly the artists have done this already, and also any sponsor sensitive to any negative connotation is unwilling to be connected with Patras, so that any artistic or cultural event must be financed completely by the government and the organisation of Patras 2006. The withdrawal would affirm what Bob Palmer had advised the European Commission already two years ago. It would be a move meant to protect the previous and future records of all other Cultural Capital Cities by showing not everything goes under this concept and not all practices can be justified by mere reference to culture.

Note: This version was written first for heritageradio unter following title:

Patras 2006 – the Cultural Capital of Europe for this year

Category: Reflections

10.1.2006

By: Hatto Fischer, Athens

www.heritageradio.net

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Reflections about Patras 2006 by Hatto Fischer