19.12.2022
Press Release: 4th Conference of the European Alliance of Academies, Admission of the Ukrainian National Academy of Arts
From 15 to 16 December 2022, 42 members of the European Alliance of
Academies from 19 different countries came together at the Akademie der Künste
at Pariser Platz in Berlin to discuss the restrictions that war and crisis have placed
on artistic freedom. Numerous actors from the realms of art and culture
commented on their experiences. In his online message of greeting, Victor
Sydorenko, President of the Ukrainian National Academy of the Arts, appealed for
solidarity between arts and cultural institutions in Europe and invoked the
possibilities of cooperation. The Ukrainian Academy was recently admitted to the
European Alliance of Academies, with a large majority voting in favour.
Following his expulsion from the Ukrainian Film Academy, filmmaker Sergei
Loznitsa, a member of the Akademie der Künste, warned against “replacing one
form of propaganda with another”. Hanna Bilobrova, co-director of the
documentary Mariupolis 2 and fiancée of the murdered documentary filmmaker
Mantas Kvedaravičius, showed film clips illustrating the absurdity of the war, the
destruction and anguish it brings and the lives lived behind the headlines.
Bilobrova took the film footage from Mariupol to Lithuania so she could finish the
film after the death of her partner.
The internal working sessions included reports from artists and cultural workers
from Poland and Hungary who have to contend with financial constraints and
restrictions imposed by the government on the content of their work.
Jeanine Meerapfel, president of the Akademie der Künste: “Art will not bring
the war to an end or change the political situation. Yet we have a responsibility to
read the books, present the music and show the films that bear witness to it. That
is what we are attempting to do with the European Alliance of Academies, which
rises above national borders: we have soft boundaries, but clear goals.”
The conference came to a unanimous decision to support the institutions
concerned, be it through projects involving transnational cooperation or through
local actions that generate positive publicity.
Responding to the question of what politically engaged art means, filmmaker
Andres Veiel made the case in the closing discussion that doubts, contradictions
and ambiguities should be tolerated in the process of artistic creation. Composer
Iris ter Schiphorst called on the art academies represented at the conference to
create space for debate between artists and members of civil society as a means to address inequalities and set in motion the much-needed transformation of
society.
The writers Cécile Wajsbrot and A. L. Kennedy used the power of their art to
describe the global situation: their words had a profound effect on the audience.
The video messages from Minister of State for Culture and the Media Claudia Roth
and UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights Alexandra Xanthaki
highlighted the importance of the European alliance and pledged their continued
support for it.
The newly developed digital platform LOOM – Interweaving the Arts in Europe will
allow artistic interventions to take a stance on socio-political issues and facilitate
artistic cooperation between members of the European Alliance of Academies.
The first call for artistic projects has already gone out under the title Ignorance Is
Strength? Artistic Expression and Biopower in the (Post)Pandemic Age: artists
reflected on their own practice in the wake of the pandemic and addressed current
social and political changes.
Further information:
www.allianceofacademies.eu
www.loom.allianceofacademies.eu