Productivity of Culture

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"Projects and Impact of Culture in Central Europe" by Max Aufischer


Max Aufischer - Coordinator of the Network of Cities of Central Europe

CV

Abstract

We are now in the situation that our technical achievements allow us to create more, bigger and faster then ever before. And these technologies are easier available for more people. So we have a tremendous output of creative products which can be immediately displayed and consumed all over the world. At the same time we can observe a feeling of degeneration and devaluation of culture – a loss of quality within culture - when that quantity is being consumed unfiltered.That leads to the next problem: What means "culture"? How is it defined by which lobby.

The term 'culture' became blurred through unreflecting use for a big variety of unspecific meanings, and often mixed up with other terms like "art", "civilisation" etc. The same happened for example with "Europe" and "European Union".

We very often talk about culture in an art context. But we forget that "culture" is a collective term or melting pot for everything that a human being or mankind is able to achieve. And we forget that also war and aggression are important elements of culture. A generation that has never been affected by war might think that peace and constructive dialog is an ordinary conditionFor that reasons it will be necessary to intensify the dialog between people in general but specifically between artists, intellectuals and the like. We should bring together people from different regions and cultures and establish conditions that allow co-operations free from any predestination.

In that sense the Cultural City Network Graz is offering a scholarship-program for artists and writers, that is bringing approximately 10 international guests to Graz per year. Or we have organised exhibition projects with artists from 12 nations ore more, where dialog not only happened on a creative level but also in personal way. And we support these personal contacts beyond national and cultural borders over years.

 

Presentation at ECCM Symposium

Chair person: Ingo Weber

Thank you, Gleb, for these may I say radiant ideas and we will come back indeed to them in another part of our conference.

The next one I want to ask to speak to us is Max, the old friend Max Aufischer from Graz who had been senior coordinator of the Cultural Month in Graz 1993 and who is actively working in this cultural cooperation field with the organisation and functioning of a network which deals with cooperation in Eastern Europe, a part of Europe which deserves our special attention, and the work is of high value if I dare say and I am looking forward to what you can tell us about the actual situation.

Max Aufischer

Ladies and Gentlemen, I first of all want to thank Spyros Mercouris and the organisers for inviting me so that I can say some words.

First of all, I want to inform you about the Cultural City Network. The organisational office is located in Graz and it was founded in 1989-90. From the beginning on the main aim was to extend the bilateral exchange in the field of the arts but also to create a new form of cooperation on a multi-lateral basis. It means that several cities should cooperate on one theme, to work it out directly with artists, with the departments of the municipalities or with museums. We did a lot of projects in this sense and worked out a system of scholarships so that artists from different cities can go to another one. So we did host because of that more than 100 artists in only Graz.

But what I want to underline is the need of exchange and cooperation between artists at all levels. We are focusing mainly on literature, photography and fine arts; we are not focusing on music or theatre for budgetary reasons. Since 1996 it is connected to the International House of Writers, also located in Graz and we have through this link established three systems: one system is city writers, a second one is writer in asylum and the third one is to have writers or poets for one to three months in Graz.

But what I want to say, is the following: for me it is more important because I am coming from a city of 250 000 inhabitants and the multi-lateral cooperation is not only necessary in the region of the Balkan and of Eastern European, but it becomes also more and more necessary in the cities themselves. We have heard yesterday several words about this but the situation is changing very fast. As I told you already we have 250 000 inhabitants in Graz, we have about 154 nationalities living in Graz and there are people speaking 179 languages. So this is a very big number of differences. And this multilateral conversation, this cooperation, communication and partnership becomes more and more necessary. I think that the intercultural dialogue, that definition is not valid anymore. In our societies we have to find systems, systems of cooperation, systems of communications, because it becomes more and more a crowded situation. This I can say because I am not only responsible for the Cultural City Network and the International House of Writers, but I am also responsible in the city to create projects with these new ethnic groups or to create projects with the so-called outsiders of our society.

But besides we have a development which is very important. I think the development beside it is that we are in a very lucky position. The lucky position is that we have tools to create more and more in shorter times, more colourful, bigger and larger than before. And all the results are available for more people than years ago. At the same time we have a big and increasing lack of interest in high culture, in art and science, science which cannot be used for technical and industrial production and the feeling of loosing a quality in this field. And this gap, I think, is very dangerous and I ask myself if it is possible to speak about it? Do we have the right words? Do we have the right development to speak about it? And I think that it is necessary to speak about these facts because if mankind is not able to grasp material things or is not able to describe things, verbally, then it is not seen or it does not exist, but it can explode.

So mainly we are speaking – unfortunately my English is not good enough - very sloppy and careless. I can read a lot of papers and I have heard a lot of speeches about culture. Nobody tells me what is his understanding of culture e.g. high culture, basic things or science or so on. We are speaking about Europe but nobody says does he mean the geographical one, does he mean the EU, does he mean the intellectual one, what does it mean? So we are speaking very sloppy and careless and we don’t think about what it means to the other side.

But I think I want to make some points. One of the points is the development since the sixties. We started a discussion about terms, on the content and the context in relationship to other fields and other terms. So it is ironically to say we are more and more discussing the periphery, and we are loosing the original sense in a black hole. But all the people cannot follow this, so the gap is getting bigger and bigger. We reacted a little bit meanwhile because we are speaking about networks like conceptual areas, but we are forgetting that network is very important and very useful, but at the same time, seen from another perspective, it is a sieve and we are loosing fine nuances and difference in this sieve, and this is a quality loss in our discussion and we cannot express ourselves in a qualitative way.

The next is that the new technologies are creating a lot of terms, new terms mainly for specialists and if we are speaking about culture and we want to involve people from elsewhere, then we have to explain them these terms and these words since if they stay only in this ghetto of specialists then no one can understand them. Many words have changed also in meaning due to globalisation and translation. We have a situation that all things must become faster and faster. Everybody wants to have a result before it has started to work. So a lot of mistakes have been made. Only a simple word like culture has a very different meaning in the English language compared to the German language, but if you read a lot of translations, it is only used in nearly the same way. So that creates a big gap as well. And then there are political new terms – superficially used terms created for new political views. For example, intercultural, what does it mean? If we are to speak about it, I think we should look a little bit to find a picture. If I go from Vienna to Graz I take the Intercity. The Intercity is very important because it is very fast, but if I use the Intercity I see mountains, I see tracks, I see villages, but I am not in the city, and if I am in the city, in Vienna or Graz, I am not interested in the Intercity because I wanted to visit the city. So I think this is a wrong term for a situation we created due to our poverty of language, and thus we use a wrong word for a situation which we cannot handle like this. And I think the next one is that everyone is speaking about culture, or most of them, but I was surprised and thankful that several speakers have also seen this fact. We are mainly speaking that art and culture is understandable, helpful, peaceful, and can let people come together, but we are forgetting that in our history we had long, long periods during which art stands for exclusion, indoctrination and manipulation. We should not forget this.

Last but not least, it is also the misuse of our creativity for the tourist industry and for big events, and one event should be bigger and greater and more colourful than the one before, it costs more money and we are loosing the money for the real creativity, for artists and scientists. And I think that is very important, and that is the only reason to come out is to bring artists and scientists together. Give them no aim but they should create a product and they should have the possibility to work in a small, but very useful sphere.

Thank you very much!

A resume of the position of Max Aufischer with regards to what networking should entail and has to look out for:

 

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