Wim Wenders

All of us have just gone through a period of confinement that we couldn’t have imagined in our wildest dreams.

It was an experience full of contradictions: Limits were imposed on us by a virus which itself did not respect any boundaries. “Social distancing” disconnected us more than ever, but also made us feel united in isolation and created a deep longing for a new togetherness.

Will this experience become a footnote, a missed chance, in the memory of mankind? Will we return to “normality”, meaning: to our bad habits as soon as this pandemic is over?
Will we comfortably arrange ourselves with “business as usual” or accept this great opportunity for a complete make-over, for another normality where egoism, growth and greed will be replaced by empathy and awareness of the common good?

We don’t know at this Point the sheer dimension of the damages resulting from the pandemic, but we have all reasons to be worried if we will ever be able to repair it.
However: if there is any chance for us to succeed, we need to build ALLIANCES!

This is the lesson we just learned in the lockdown:
What saved us in our isolation were our personal and social networks.

There has never been a better moment for creating “A European Alliance of Academies”!
An alliance supporting and conveying arts beyond national borders,
an alliance defending the freedom of artistic expression and promoting culture as the ultimate and necessary ambassador for tolerance, equality and peace.

If we don’t stand together now and take responsibility for shaping a sustainable future, we missed a unique and precious chance.
We then deserve, indeed, to become just a footnote in the memory of mankind.