FORUM ON EUROPEAN CULTURE
17 - 20 September 2020 | Amsterdam
With Russian thinkers and artists we reflect on the future of Europe.
Contributors: Sergey Ponomarev / Vanja Rukavina / Alisa Prudnikova / Thomas Dudkiewicz / Kysia Hekster
Eurolab photographer Wolfgang Tillmans and architects Rem Koolhaas & Stephan Petermann, together with a group of artists and creatives from all over Europe will share their outcomes on how to re-brand the EU.
Contributors: Wolfgang Tillmans / Rem Koolhaas / Stephan Petermann
As final programme of the Forum, the famous Italian writer Alessandro Baricco will share his ideas about the importance of arts and culture for Europe.
Contributors: Alessandro Baricco / George van Houts
With artist and filmmaker Barbara Visser we watch her fascinating documentary The End of Fear.
Contributors: Barbara Visser
The European International, curated by Vasyl Cherepanyn in collaboration with the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, explores through visual art the potential of the Political International that emerged in Europe
Contributors: Vasyl Cherepanyn
The end of Europe
This Pop-up Museum by The Iron Curtain Project is a travelling exhibition that explores what has become of the ideals of 1968.
Contributors: The Iron Curtain Project
We watch the brilliant and innovative film Manifesto with film director Julian Rosefeldt himself.
Contributors: Julian Rosefeldt
In collaboration with Nederlands Kamerkoor we dive into Europe’s history in search of its Christian, pan-religious or Enlightenment roots. With music from Nederlands Kamerkoor’s spectacular project 150 Psalms.
Contributors: Kader Abdolah / Nederlands Kamerkoor
Artist, DJ and producer Shantel, famous for his Balkan Beats, takes the audience on a musical journey through Europe.
Contributors: Shantel
Populism, an East-West divide?
How should we understand the surge of support for populist leaders and the growing dissatisfaction with the political establishment both in Western and Eastern Europe? Together with leading thinkers Jan-Werner Müller, Ulrike Guerot and Slawomir Sierakowski we will analyse Europe’s populist turn.
Contributors: Jan-Werner Müller / Ulrike Guérot / Slawomir Sierakowski
World-famous director Ivo van Hove presents a unique theatre performance on the most important socio-political issue in today’s society: identity. With a lecture from political scientist Mark Lilla.
Contributors: Ivo van Hove / Mark Lilla / Toneelgroep Amsterdam / Ingrid van Engelshoven / Lange Frans
10 Lessons on Populism
With inspiring European thinkers who, each in their own way, stood up against populism in Europe, we will take a close look at different populist movements. What should be our answers to populism to counter the populist tide?
Contributors: Jan-Werner Müller / Paul Scheffer / Flavia Kleiner / Márton Gulyás / Claudia Chwalisz
The exiled artistic directors of the courageous Belarus Free Theatre, an underground theatre that operates under the last dictatorship in Europe, will give the 23rd Freedom Lecture. Together with the Hungarian artistic activist Márton Gulyás we will discuss the importance of artistic and democratic freedom in Europe.
Contributors: Natalia Kaliada / Nicolai Khalezin / Márton Gulyás
Fifty years after the pivotal year of 1968 we will go back to the ’68 protests with Alain Geismar, one of the main leaders of the ’68 movement in France, and discuss its legacy with young thinkers and activists of today.
Contributors: Alain Geismar / Flavia Kleiner / Alicja Gescinska / Thomas Decreus
Germany has always played a central role in Europe: for Europe, there is no way around Germany. As Angela Merkel just started her fourth term, leading political thinkers, creatives and politicians will join us and explore the cultural and political role of Germany in Europe. With music from WENDE.
Contributors: Seyran Ates / Wende / Lars Eidinger / Chris Dercon / Simon Strauß
With the controversial artist Santiago Sierra and some of Spain’s ‘political prisoners’ we speak about freedom and democracy in today’s Spain.
Contributors: Santiago Sierra / Txell Bonet / César Strawberry / Begoña Lalana
Writer Arnon Grunberg and artists and designers from Makers Unite who recently fled to Europe present the refugee crisis in a radical new light during a Friday Night @Stedelijk.
Contributors: Arnon Grunberg / Makers Unite
Together with development and inequality specialist and economist Branko Milanović and Italian journalist and economist Federico Fubini, we dive into the economic and political logic of the Eurozone, and search for alternatives.
Contributors: Branko Milanović / Federico Fubini / Sandra Phlippen
A debate within The European International exposition
Contributors: Vasyl Cherepanyn / And many more.
Human rights activist Yoonis Osman Nuur and political curator Lara Staal are putting Europe on trial. Is the EU guilty of neglecting its hospitality and violating human rights in light of the refugee crisis?
Contributors: Lara Staal / Yoonis Osman Nuur
At a crucial point in European history we open the second edition of the Forum on European Culture “Act for Democracy!” with Croatian philosopher Srecko Horvat and Spain’s most famous and controversial artist, Santiago Sierra.
Contributors: Srećko Horvat / Aslı Erdoğan / Santiago Sierra / Laura van Dolron / Julian Schneemann
A special European edition of Jeannine Valeriano’s Spoken Beat Night, with drummer Onno Govaert and two talented international spoken word artists from across the Channel: Madi Maxwell-Libby & Jacob Sam-La Rose.
Contributors: Madi Maxwell-Libby / Jacob Sam-La Rose / Jeannine Valeriano / Onno Govaert
How can museums build bridges both within and beyond societies?
Contributors: Reem Fadda / Wim Pijbes / Achim Borchardt-Hume / Salama al Shamsi / Juliette Singer
De Balie Cinema, together with philosopher Srećko Horvat and director Alfonso Cuarón, discusses the film Children of Men. How does it reflect our contemporary European society?
Contributors: Srećko Horvat / Alfonso Cuarón
The artist collective Building Conversation challenges you to start a conversation with your European fellow citizens.
Contributors: Building Conversation
All over Europe we see regions that proudly distinguish themselves from national culture, thereby rejecting the nation-state as a whole. In cooperation with Leeuwarden 2018 (European Capital of Culture 2018) we discuss the strength of regional identity and culture in Europe.
Interrupting everyday life
For the Forum the censored work “Political Prisoners in Contemporary Spain” by the Spanish artist Santiago Sierra has been plastered all over Amsterdam in poster-form.
On the last day of the Forum we will make a start on outlining European future scenarios during live podcast interview sessions.
Contributors: Santiago Sierra / Ulrike Guérot / Luuk van Middelaar / Lara Staal / Lars Eidinger / Marek Šindelka
In light of the election of the new Youth Representative European Affairs for the National Youth Council, we organise a debate on the current state of Europe with 50 young people from all backgrounds and corners of The Netherlands.
Wolfgang Tillmans, Rem Koolhaas & Stephan Petermann, together with a group of artists, creatives and communication experts from all over Europe, will go on a 4-day fact-finding mission: What has gone wrong in the last 25 years of communicating Europe? How to re-brand the EU?
Contributors: Rem Koolhaas / Wolfgang Tillmans / Stephan Petermann
Presentation of, and panel discussion on, the IETM toolkit for international artistic and intercultural engagement.
Film and talk with artist Metahaven about their stunning visual essay Possessed.
Contributors: Metahaven
With award-winning film director Ida Does & dr. Dienke Hondius we watch Three Women, a film addressing the denied colonial history of The Netherlands.
Contributors: Ida Does
Can art make a change?
The witty documentary 11 Fountains exposes the clash between European ambitions, international artists and local Frisian citizens.
The awarded film The Bastard tells the complex histories of Europe’s colonial and post-colonial enterprises.
We screen the documentary Sonsbeek ’71, a humorous portrait of the modern art world in ’70s that are all too familiar in the 21st century.
Screening of Western, a film by director Valeska Grisebach.