borderless
by Christian Schneegass
The “Europe Bottom-Up” Online Platform: Culture/Art for a Europe Worth Living
What are the crucial binding forces for people to co-exist and how can they be strengthened? Do they not consist of characteristics that give daily life, beyond all hurdles and crises, a promising common perspective or, better yet, a truly ‘inspiring’ direction? They create identity by way of integrated individual forms of participation and co-responsibility; they make people proud of what they have achieved together (historically and in the present); over and over again, they promote new adventures and experiences by way of exciting, attractive joint initiatives, which are also to be translated into practice in other venues, as an infinite “heterogeneity cutting across borders”.
Coexistence of this sort has become considerably more difficult during the pandemic and presents us with special challenges; but, in essence, it requires, in addition to direct interpersonal encounter, the entire palette of culturally based or directly culturally organised pleasure in doing, eating, drinking and celebrating together. In summer, as we were forced to learn anew of late, it is outdoors that we enjoy the best possibility of developing, implementing and advancing these binding forces locally, between neighbours and between people from different regions, countries and cultures.
From our perspective what is constituted for the community from its own initiative is thus to be promoted and preserved — internally in a reciprocal manner, as well as by growing circles of the public that profits from it and experiences related recognition — what can be communicated Europe-wide and also, if possible, given greater dynamism by the “Europe Bottom-Up” platform, cultural initiatives/art and artistic processes: curiosity, creative committed co-thinking and motivated participation deriving from free choice and one’s own cheerfully contributed drive. This individually determined engagement is of inestimable value, because, besides exchange that takes interest in what is beyond borders, it also promotes borderless diversity in a cooperative fashion. Voluntariness and an appreciative culture of gratitude are decisive basic values in this connection, without which the quality of voluntary engagement cannot emerge, which actually can only be given in lasting way on the basis of a trust that has to prove itself again and again, but is never, in the same way, to be expected, routinely consumed or equally effectively demanded without incurring serious loss. This is why, on all levels, we urgently need a culture of motivating and appreciative incentives for viable creations of meaning and modes of behaviour — which have always to be corrected — and a “culture or coexistence” that is worthy of living! All over the world, we are dependent more than ever on a glocally, peacefully oriented revivifying of self-determined civic engagement on behalf of a vital and, above all, “well-intentioned” community.
The first inter-municipal open-air gallery, the Sculpture Boulevard in Oberhavel in Brandenburg, tries to promote this culture of coexistence in the region at the grassroots level via the pilot project by and for residents on an art road running between the town of Birkenwerder and the city of Hohen Neuendorf to the north of Berlin. The boulevard is meant to encourage imitation and make people want more. This public space amidst green surroundings is attractively demarcated by numerous contributions by regionally and internationally known artists and the programmatic multilingualism of highly different conceptions of sculpture. It creates manifold connections cutting across borders and, in a similarly borderless way, provokes alternative and possibly still undiscovered encounters, forms of exchange, and mutually enriching cooperation as a function of the individual resources of the actors interested and/or involved. The boulevard, which has been deliberately placed away from major traffic axes, thus potentially makes possible substantial cultural and democracy promotion — decentrally and “bottom up” — of open societies organised according to liberal principles.
We understand “resources” in a comprehensive sense, thus going well beyond the purely material. For “resources” recalls everything that the individual has to contribute: the concrete impulses, experiences and initiatives that individually constitute her or his capabilities. They recall what one has to share with others and what makes others interested in opening themselves up to these impulses or in enthusiastically devoting themselves to them, in order themselves to take part with their own ideas and talents. Moreover, in most cases, this allows everyone participating in this both communicative and creative process to grow beyond themselves in their own personal development, and it gives rise to a universally practised general climate of mutually encouraging, complementary and enriching and, above all, empowering trust. We regard this as the basis for knowledgeable cohesion and lively, innovatively developing cultural societies that go from the bottom up.
Many initiatives, however, encounter unexpected difficulties and resistance on the local level. Thus, for instance, limited skill and imagination often prevents decision-makers from being able to perceive more promising alternatives early on and to promote them sustainably already in their highly motivated initial phases. This ability, which is tied to genuine lasting cultural interest or unprejudiced basic knowledge, constructive pilot experiences or the illustrative possibility of pointing to related and successful reference projects (such as will be available in the future thanks to the “Europe Bottom-Up” platform), makes clear how complex the advantages of such “residents-for-residents projects” with reliable, both local and national, support can (or could) be, in particular, for the local public administration, in order to guarantee longer-term planning security and related appeal.
Thanks to the “Europe Bottom-Up” platform, we see new chances and opportunities for achieving greater visibility, consolidation and dynamisation of the aforementioned, individual local efforts of civic initiatives by way of Europe-wide publication and media coverage of international solidarity actions. Furthermore, it makes it allows us to present a European overview and the possibility of comparing promising examples in a suitable form to doubtful decision-makers and funders in governmental and administrative institutions, thus providing them encouragement to promote such local residents-for-residents initiatives early on and to fund them adequately. In addition, prevention of extremist violence by way of plural, heterogeneous coexistence on equal terms pays off and is far more effective and also economical (in terms of resources) in the long run. The platform promotes synergies in irreplaceable solidarity networks that can (or could) help not only in urgent situations when (climate) catastrophes strike whole regions ad hoc and utterly overwhelm people on account of manmade extreme weather events, earthquakes, tidal waves, mudslides, volcanic eruptions, fires, etc. destroying the very foundations of their lives. Spontaneous aid from the neighbourhood going all the way to comprehensive rescue operations undertaken by people who are not directly affected in bordering regions are indispensably vital for mutually beneficial coexistence at all times and in and between all the cultures / continents of the planet.
To sum up, in connection with “borderless: Europe Bottom-Up”, we could potentially see the Sculpture Boulevard in Birkenwerder/Hohen Neuendorf as a first among hopefully soon infinitely many further “mosaic pieces of local cultural reality in the EU, in which an action for Europe is apparent with the energy and fundamental attitude inherent to a cultural project and that stands with both feet on local ground, thus acquiring stability in its impact” (Volker Hassemer): “mosaic pieces” that encourage by way of example, stimulate further initiatives and are presented on the platform. But the engagement of residents is required to constitute more borderless, multiform mosaic pieces (the stars on the EU flag = ingeniously flashing circle of sparks in the blue universe of unifying possibilities, which can also be read as a “culture of coexistence” in which we are continuously concerned about one another). This reminds us of John F. Kennedy’s saying, which we have varied for the context of this paper: “Don’t ask what Europe can do for you, but above all what you can do for Europe.”
Christian Schneegass born 1954. Art historian, art educator and author. Many years working in leading positions at the Akademie der Künste (AdK — Academy of Arts): 1985–2007 Secretary of the Visual Arts section, 2007–2012 Director of the Art + Society department, 2012–2018 Director of the AdK’s Junge Akademie (Young Academy). 30 years of committee work in the Advisory Committee for Art in Construction Projects/Art in the Public Space of the Berlin Department of Culture and in the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (New Berlin Art Association). Initiator of transdisciplinary projects: among others, experimental-studio (AdK), the exhibition series “Seeing and Thinking”, city-culture actions on sustainability/art + science. Since 2016, co-initiator of the first inter-municipal Sculpture Boulevard in Brandenburg, including the Street-art-Gallery for murals (2019 on). Since 2020, member of the Birkenwerder Kulturbeirat (Cultural Advisory Board); freelance curator / member of the Förderverein Kulturpark Birkenwerder e.V / KULTURPUMPE (development of a transdisciplinary socio-cultural centre in the old waterworks). 2021 Initiator of the “New Cultural Beginnings in Birkenwerder” tour that takes visitors to three residents-for-residents initiatives on the occasion of the season opening of the Stiftung Zukunft Berlin (SZB) event series “Neighbours at Neighbours: Berlin Artists Reading in Brandenburg’s (Village) Churches” and founding member of the “Cultural Organisations and Artists for Europe” Project Group of the SZB’s “Europe Bottom-Up” platform.
