[spectre] Conf. Eurovisions - From Cultural Network to Politics

[Andreas Broeckmann]

European Culture Conference
"Eurovisions - From Cultural Network to Politics"

Berlin April 29/30, 2004, Kronprinzenpalais, Unter den Linden 3

In the year 2004, the "European project" will be steering towards the 
realisation of two historical steps: the enlargement of EU by ten new 
member-states hopefully accompanied by the passing of a common 
European constitution, which will contribute largely to the new 
(EU)-Europe's democratic abilitiy to act and to its internal and 
external legitimacy.

The European development process is marked by many obstacles of 
political routine and bureaucracy, yet it is advanced by a lot of 
idealism and visions. The yardstick for the success of a new Europe 
capable of acting finally will be the commitment of a still partly 
disparate European civil society. This civil society is still in  
process of forming itself:  Will it be able to give its  objectives a 
political realist voice and assertiveness at the Brussels 
Institutions?

The European Culture Conference "Eurovisions - From Cultural Network 
to Politics" held on two days will examine most of all how, in which 
places and through which players art and culture can influence the 
European unifying process and reinforce the civil society's 
commitment to Europe. Art and culture form the creative space for 
processes of collective self-examination and self-affirmation. 
Cultural networks represent the modern form of organisation and 
communication which makes art and culture transnational and able to 
act without being dependent on fixed structures. Networks create a 
Europe of projects and thus a future-compliant agora where a European 
public can generate and the civil society's commitment can be 
expressed.

The conference will examine the current and future roles of civil 
society's culturally oriented players and the many young networks 
still locally or regionally bound in a (EU)-Europe newly organising 
itself: what are their impulses and effects on the consolidation and 
'professionalisation' of a European civil society and thus finally 
for the functioning of a self-assured European public? Which 
competence and know-how are required of the networks still mostly 
unorganised? What is the cultural added value they contribute to the 
(EU)-European integration process and how can they reach political 
institutions, or rather decision-makers, more specifically?

The "Eurovisions" conference will bring together more than 150 
representatives of cultural networks and NGOs, artists, 
intellectuals, cultural mediators and politicians from the 25 
EU-countries and the Balkans. Besides new contacts, the aim is to 
create an interactive forum which brings up the achievements, 
possibilities and limits of cultural players, but also their demands 
on politics in order to make (EU)-Europe flourish. To this end, a 
reference paper will be worked out during the conference.

The conference is organised by leading institutions of cultural and 
political education: the Federal Agency for Civic Education, the 
Robert Bosch Foundation, and the Goethe-Institute (Berlin liason 
office). The German Culture Council  is the conference's cooperation 
partner.

EU commissioner Viviane Reding has been invited to function as the 
conference's patron. The conference will be held in German with 
English translation.

  Information

Ulrike Hofmann-Steinmetz
Goethe-Institute, Berlin office
Phone: +49-30 259 06 470
Fax: +49-30 259 06 565
hofmann-steinmetz at goethe.de


Conference Management

Apex - Kultur- und Bildungsmanagement		Goerres Kulturbetrieb
Anja Ostermann					Christiane Goerres
Reiderweg 18						Gleimstr. 20a
58285 Gevelsberg					10437 Berlin
Phone: +49-2332 4199				Phone: +49-30 44 35 60 60
Fax: +49-2332 757056				Fax: +49-30 44 35 60 62
ostermann at apex-management.de			goerres at kulturbetrieb.com


You will soon find updated information and the programme on
www.goethe.de/hauptstadtbuero and www.bpb.de