Day 2: Berlin, November 8th
Berlin Conference 2021: Europe Bottom-Up!
On 08.11.2021, the conference officially started with the first plenary session entitled: Europe Bottom-Up: what does Europe need now? One of the main learnings we took from the first plenary session — dedicated to arts and culture in and for Europe — is that arts and culture, especially in times of crisis, have the potential of building bridges and keeping people together. As we experienced during the COVID-19 crisis, decision makers are quick to deem culture as “non-essential”.
It is our duty to make the necessity of culture for the future of Europe visible and understandable because our multiple European identities cannot be seen and valued without cultural practices. Culture is often underestimated as a vector for civic and democratic agency, but it has a great power and it’s capable of mobilizing citizens in the face of shrinking civic spaces and the demise of democracy in many European countries and regions. Thus, the conference once again verified the notion that arts and culture should stay at the centre of our priorities for Europe and that we need to stand up for them. When people rightly speak of the cultural richness of Europe, it is Europeans themselves and their cities and regions that embody this richness and can mobilise it for the European project.
Furthermore, it was shown that Europe needs its citizens, communities and initiatives to take responsibility for Europe. Only a bottom-up approach can ensure that Europeans not only actively shape the future of the continent, but also feel responsible for it and identify with the idea of Europe and its values. Bottom-up approaches are the most effective, direct, and democratic way for Europeans to reclaim a Europe that for too long has unfortunately been perceived as a rather bureaucratic, elitist project. It is important that Europeans and their cities and regions not only formulate demands to their national and European representatives and institutions, but that they become active in their own way to strengthen Europe.
The plenary session was opened by Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth. In her keynote Commissioner Gabriel underlined the importance of the Bottom-Up approach to build a community of European makers of democracy and to address the real needs of European citizens. Strong communities also need support and tools, thus the importance of European programmes and initiatives such as Creative Europe, ECoC, the new European Bauhaus, Horizon Europe and the European Year of Youth.
In the first part of the following plenary session, first the role of culture and the arts for Europe was discussed. Doris Pack (former MEP) pointed out that there was no Commissioner for culture until 2019 and that putting culture on the European agenda wasn´t just a matter of course but a political struggle. Now that the funds are here, the next issue the cultural sector is facing is the access: funding applications can be tedious and most small organizations don’t have the budgets to do so. Serhiy Zhadan, (writer) underlined the pressure that the pandemic has been putting on cultural spaces and cultural actors — and the importance of culture to stay into dialogue with each other. Ása Richardsdóttir, (General Secretary of IETM) pointed out that the European divide is a cultural one that needs to be overcome through the means of culture. We must let go of outdated definitions of centre and periphery and local and global: nowadays even the remotest places are connected, and big cities become more and more homogenous through gentrification. Our work ahead must be to win the hearts and minds for the ownership of Europe. Marion Döring, (Wim Wenders Foundation) put forward that Europe does exist and a has a common ground, which is culture. And we currently need it desperately. Because culture paves the way to empathy, solidarity and education beyond national borders. Noemi Kiss (writer) reminded that the East-West divide in Europe feels very real again and that culture has the potential to build these bridges between centre and the so-called periphery. We need to be critical of the cultural struggles we are facing.
In the next half of the talk, the floor was given to cultural practitioners. Andreas Nachama (House of One, Berlin) underlined the fact that borders have failed Europe in the past. Now, Europe is almost united in a Europe of Europeans, of our cities and regions, without destroying peoples’ personal and regional identity. Unfortunately, we are not over internal divides, visible for instance in the prevalence of Islamophobia. Walter Smerling (Foundation for arts and culture) also underlined that art ensures that a dialogue between different societies is possible but must be embraced by the artists themselves. As Jean Monnet said, Europe is a project that is permanently developing. According to Renate Luksch (Mayor of the City of Goslar, Germany) Europe needs participation, so we need to encourage people to participate. People must meet people and discuss issues together. This is the way you learn the value of Europe. Steve Austen (A Soul for Europe) declared that we should engage individual citizens-personalities in the European processes in order to foster the context with local citizens through access to culture, and all activities which are not commercial and mainly cultural. Being active as a cultural artistic entity comes with a certain responsibility and poses the question: are they ready to use their networks and resources to talk about democracy in Europe?
The second part of the discussion was dedicated to the question: what does Europe need now?
For Hannes Heide (MEP) Europe needs to work closer with its rural areas to foster European integration. As it has shown: Brexit was not decided in urban centres but in the periphery. In her speech Helga Trüpel (former MEP) referred to the need to support cultural actors beyond the borders of the European Union to strengthen democracy also within. Niklas Nienaß (MEP) claims that European politicians need to trust in the abilities of the citizens to access their needs on the spot in their communities. A mutual trust must be established. Elmar Brok (former MEP) states that Europe needs the commitment of its citizens to diversity, especially when populist movements are on the rise. Barbara Gessler (European Commission & Directorate General — EducaPon and Culture) points out that there already exists a trustful and fruitful relationship between the European Parliament and the stakeholders and networks that are working on strengthening a cultural driven Europe bottom-up approach. Hannes Swoboda (former MEP) states that it is important to network and collaborate as NGOs and initiatives to strengthen the bottom-up approach. The Europe Bottom-Up platform is a very valuable project in this regard. From the point of view of Jo Leinen (former MEP) culture has a responsibility for Europe in the form of bringing people together and creating mutual understanding. Nele Hertling (A Soul of Europe) claims that to overcome the difficulties such as climate change and social inequalities which we face in Europe we need to encourage citizens to become active and involve themselves. This can be achieved by bringing them together and creating synergies with the Europe Bottom Up platform.
In his closing statement Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, (Member of Europe Bottom-up Directorate, former President of Goethe Institute) wrapped up the discussion by reminding us that Europe as a cultural project is more than a melting pot or a salad bowl: it is a mosaic held together by joined responsibility. And as such, Europe is only as strong as its citizens are, and thus encounters are the key. Cultural projects in cross-border cooperation provide the decisive motivation to achieve these meetings, because the aim is that one day every European feels at home everywhere in Europe. In order to achieve this, we must make inclusion a priority: inclusion of migrants, but also of the people who do not belong to the cultural elites of the capitals and have thus other priorities. This being said, meetings are not enough: we need culture to formulate meaningful alternatives to the blockades we encounter when we come together, to overcome cultural conflicts. Therefore alliances are so crucial, as well as infrastructure: institutions but also digital infrastructures.
