Thursday, 23 November, 6.45pm
Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz 4

The Café Climate aims to engage in a dialogue at equal level with civil society, experts and political actors on the topics of climate, energy, democracy, arts and culture. In an informal atmosphere, at small tables, like in a café. It is organised by a working group of the European Alliance of Academies, which is made up of various artistic and cultural actors from all over Europe.

Three questions move us:

– How the climate crisis affects our daily lives.
– How the climate crisis threatens democracy.
– How the climate crisis affects art and culture.

The Café Climate event series is taking place for the third time – always in different contexts and settings such as playgrounds, university campus etc. On 23 November, Café Climate would like to discuss the following questions in particular:

– Energy and democracy
– Energy and War
– Energy, Narratives and Identities

With Benjamin Beuerle (Historian), Petja Ivanova (Visual artist), Jovana Popić (Visual artist), Eckhard Roelcke (Journalist and Activist Die letzte Generation, Willem de Rooij (Artist), Matthias Schuler (Clima Engineering), Iris ter Schiphorst (Composer), Ingo Uhlig (Media and literary scientist), Cécile Wajsbrot (writer).

An event of the European Alliance of Academies as part of the Literature Days „What drives us: Energy and energeia between politics and poetics“.

More information: What drives us: Energy and energeia between politics and poetics | Akademie der Künste, Berlin (adk.de)

European Alliance authors discussed the freedom of artistic expression in literature with UK students at Cambridge on 26 and 27 August. Censorship has many forms. Who has the power to raise their voice? And who can silence other voices? Four writing workshops and two public discussions on this year’s topic “Building a Sustainable and Healthy World” were part of the annual student conference at the Homerton College campus.

After events in Budapest, Madrid, Amsterdam and Berlin, members of the European Alliance of Academies debated the necessity of artistic freedom for a functioning democracy for the first time in the UK. Together with the Royal Society of Literature, the transnational network which has been committed to the freedom of the arts in Europe since 2020 is organising the programme aimed at the younger generation.

Shortly before the elections in Poland, the Polish Alliance partner Villa Decius invited the European Alliance of Academies to a study trip to Krakow from 21-22 September. In discussions with prominent representatives of independent museums, theatres and houses of culture, it became clear how the Polish government is pushing for the renationalisation of art and culture and increasingly influences artistic decisions.  

The cultural workers painted a picture of political and financial pressure. The targeted spread of misinformation about artworks, personal hostility and accusations, and even physical attacks are the conditions under which Polish artists and cultural workers are increasingly working.

In her keynote speech at the public roundtable „Rights and Freedom of Culture in Times of Political Change“, UN Special Rapporteur for Cultural Rights Alexandra Xanthaki pointed out how these methods can lead to artistic self-censorship and that the right to artistic freedom is a state obligation that must be legally enforced if necessary.

The most recent example is the personal hostility of the Polish Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro against the Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland and her film Zielona Granica (Green Border), which was awarded at the 80th Venice International Film Festival with the Special Jury Prize.

Jeanine Meerapfel, President of the Academy of Arts and initiator of the European Alliance of Academies, commented: „To compare Agnieszka Holland with the propagandists of the Third Reich is an attack on the dignity of a highly acclaimed filmmaker and colleague and a violation of the right to artistic freedom“.

In an official statement the members of the European Alliance of Academies expressed their solidarity with Agnieszka Holland.

Sat, 2 September, 4-5pm
OTTO-Spielplatz / Ottopark
Alt-Moabit 34, 10555 Berlin

Iris ter Schiphorst, Cécile Wajsbrot, Leon Erhorn and Jovana Popic of the European Alliance of Academies: Climate Café

How do we experience the climate crisis? And how can society be successfully transformed? We have had over 30 years to take careful steps to address the urgent task of transforming society. Nothing has happened – despite us knowing better! We are now being asked to make major changes in all areas of society.

Because the “habits” we have grown to love are now destroying the very basis of our existence: habitable regions are vanishing, species are becoming extinct, and clean water and food are growing scarce – even in Europe, which is now one of the global warming hotspots. We want to discuss this with you at the Café Climate and put our heads together to consider how we might succeed in transforming society.

Café Climate offers an open space to discussion. Sitting pleasantly around small tables as in a café, we can discuss in small groups about emergencies and solutions.

• How the climate crisis affects our everyday life.
• How the climate crisis endangers democracy.
• How the climate crisis affects art and culture.

The ecological crisis is mostly spoken of in economical terms. We offer another approach – concrete, cultural, political in a broader sense. Let us speak together about it.

The Café Climate takes place in the context of the Time to Listen festival.
The full programme of the Sustainability Hut can be found here.

Warsaw – Royal Łazienki Museum
03 July (Monday) and 04 July (Tuesday) 2023

Our partner, the Committee on Architecture and Urban Planning of the Polish Academy of Sciences, cordially invites interested audience to participate in a conference on the broad topic of post-war reconstruction in Ukraine. This post-war reconstruction will encompass all aspects of the living environment: architecture and infrastructure at the scale of cities, towns, and villages. It will require preparation, cooperation and human solidarity on an international scale.

The Conference aims to bring together the academic community and cultural, scientific, technical, economic elites in the context of the war crisis in Ukraine and to discuss together the following challenges:

Challenge 1: Directions for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
Challenge 2: Architectural heritage and its protection in the context of the
reconstruction of Ukraine.
Challenge 3: Principles of sustainable development in relation to the
reconstruction process in Ukraine.
Challenge 4: Architecture in response to the refugee crisis in Ukraine.
Challenge 5: Urban planning for the revitalisation of war-damaged areas.

Programme can be found here

The conference will be held in English, Polish and Ukrainian.
Participation in the event is free of charge.

Conference correspondence address: konferencja.wapw2023@pw.edu.pl
Please direct any questions to the conference secretary Mrs Maria Arno.

09 June 19:00 – 20:15h
Place: CaixaBank Pavilion

In recent years, many European countries have experienced episodes in which the creative freedom of artists, musicians or writers has been restricted, and it has become commonplace for some cultural institutions to censor themselves in order to avoid offending political sensitivities. In response to the need to defend the freedom of artistic expression and creation, the Europan Alliance of Academies, a transnational network of 70 cultural institutions from all over Europe, was created in 2020. Four members of this network will discuss the current state of artistic freedom in Europe.

Moderated by: Valerio Rocco, Director of the Círculo de Bellas Artes – Casa Europa
Participants: Dominika Kasprowicz, Director of Villa Decius, Cracow, Ferenc Czinki, President of the Hungarian Writers‘ Association, Geertjan De Vugt, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences

On 30‒31 May 2023, the European Alliance of Academies held a conference of solidarity with the Society of Hungarian Authors Szépírók Társasága in Budapest. 

Eleven European countries were represented. Both internal and public podium discussions focused on the increasingly restricted freedom of art and artistic platforms in Hungary and other European countries. In internal discussions, representatives from non-government-run cultural organisations drew attention to a lack of funding, production and distribution for alternative artistic work. During a public discussion with the writer György Dalos, filmmaker Béla Tarr, poet and novelist Katharina Schultens, director Bartosz Szydłowski and others, it became apparent that, unlike individual freedoms, institutional independence is mainly endangered.

Friday, 28 April 2023,12.30 – 1.15 pm
Leipzig Book Fair, Hall 4 E101

Within the programme of the Leipzig Book Fair, members of the European Alliance of Academies will address the question of what alliances of cultural institutions can do to counter the threats to democracy. The following questions will be discussed:

How can the alliance react in solidarity to political restrictions? Address narratives of the past? What about the potential of artistic cooperation and different approaches to cultural policy in Europe, their influence on cultural institutions and thus on artistic freedom. The idea of European understanding shared with the Leipzig Book Fair takes on a new poignancy against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine.

„The Russian invasion of Ukraine has triggered the question of how effective the European idea can still be as a response to the nightmare of war, destruction and crimes against humanity. After all, what effect can appeals still have in view of the fact that the world’s doomsday clock is already running at 90 seconds to midnight? The missiles on Ukraine have also brought the security question back into focus for the first time since the end of the Cold War. Didn’t we allow ourselves to be distracted from real dangers for years with the idea of peace and become comfortable in a security that never existed? And what can the arts do in this situation, what can a network of cultural institutions, what can a book fair do today?“ (Holk Freytag)

This will be discussed by former managing director of the European Film Academy and board member of the Wim Wenders Foundation, Marion Döring, French writer and member of the Akademie der Künste Cécile Wajsbrot and the director of the Czech Literary Centre, Martin Krafl. Moderated by: Director and dramaturge Holk Freytag Member of the Saxon Academy of Arts

www.leipziger-buchmesse.de/en/
www.sadk.de

Presentation and discussion Ignorance is Strength? Artistic Expression and Biopower in the Post/Pandemic Age
Friday – Saturday, 7 – 8 October 2022
Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb (Coratia)

Pop-up exhibition Truth is a Forgotten Memory (Željko Beljan and Rebecca Merlić)
Saturday, 8 October 2022
Ethnographic Museum, Zagreb (Croatia)