Press Release: Nationalism and language: European Alliance of Academies launches its series of events on the freedom of arts in Budapest

Friday, 29 October 2021, 7 pm
FUGA – Budapest Center of Architecture + live stream

On 29 October 2021 the European Alliance of Academies is launching a series of
events on the freedom of the arts in Budapest with a public discussion involving
authors from all over Europe and with workshops for students.
Under the title “Battle with the Empty Sky: Language, nationalism and freedom of
art in early 21st-century Europe”, Akademie member and writer Robert Menasse,
Hungarian author László Márton and Hungarian literary critic Anna Gács examine
the interaction between language, society and politics: How is language affected
when politics moves in a populist, nationalist or other radical direction? The British
poet Daljit Nagra will host the discussion.

The discussion at the Budapest Center of Architecture will be live-streamed at
www.allianceofacademies.eu. This will be preceded by workshops given by the
writers Luc Devoldere and Sophie Collins for students of Eötvös Loránd University
of Budapest.

The event is an expression of the solidarity of the European Alliance of Academies
with the Society of Hungarian Authors. The latter vehemently opposed anti-Semitic
remarks by Szilárd Demeter, director of Budapest’s Petöfi Literary Museum, in
December 2020. Since then, the situation has deteriorated further, as evidenced
by the tightening of state control over the Budapest University of Theatre and Film
Arts (SZFE).

Akademie President Professor Jeanine Meerapfel: “Shared language unites us.
But there is also a downside: language can also be used to divide. With language
we can exclude and hurt each other. With language we can create fake news –
and realities or also myths that cause harm… We need to recognise these
mechanisms so that we can do something about them.”

An event of the European Alliance of Academies in cooperation with the Akademie
der Künste, Society of Hungarian Authors, Royal Academy of Dutch Language and
Literature, Royal Society of Literature, and Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und
Dichtung. Sponsored by the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb)

You can download this press release here.