Max Aufischer

Ladies and Gentlemen, at first I would like to thank the organizers and Mr. Mercouris for inviting me here in order to inform you. Before I proceed with the presentation of the Web which was created in Graz, I would like to make three basic observations which are related to the discussions we had yesterday and today.

First observation: Mrs. Belout from Amsterdam told us yesterday that European youth hates European civilization. I would like to give yet another example. There was a concert with black musicians, in Graz. While they were on stage they had no problem whatsoever. When they went down town and no one knew that they were artists they had problems with the police, just like all the other Africans.

That is why I believe that it is very important for everyone to really understand that civilization is directly connected with human respect.

One must respect the other but this cannot be one way only. It has to be on both sides and I believe that human respect is very important for the issue of terrorism.

Second observation: It is about national culture and national art. I must say that it doesn’t intimidate me the fact that there are so many cultural Capitals, as you know, i.e. Berlin, Vienna, Paris, Athens. Yes, we have many capitals and I think that there is a variety. But national art and national culture is not what really interests me. I am not even interested in European, American or African civilization. What interests me is culture and art and since I am interested in culture I can accept the culture of many countries, people and nationalities. I think that this is very important for our society; we have great mobility and people come from different parts of the world. One should see that in our towns and in Graz we have citizens from 150 countries. So this is a very good example.

Third observation: Looking at you I think that you, all of us understand the role of culture which relates human understanding, dialogue and peaceful coexistence. Considering the history of my country, I see that things were quite different seventy years ago and I think that the same is true for many European countries. Art was used in order to outcast people, to accuse them as if they were criminals.

We have to admit that things can change rapidly. I, for my part, I did a lot of things in Bosnia until ’91 and essentially this day and when I was in Bosnia, just before the war started – I think three days earlier – I had a discussion with artists and professors from Sarajevo and they told me that in Bosnia will never happen what happened in Croatia and when I returned to Graz the war started in Bosnia and we all know what was the result, what human tragedy.

I think that we should never be certain that such things will never happen. But this example shows us, very clearly, how important it is to cooperate in the international sector.

We must also cooperate within our cities in the same way, because as I told you there are a lot of citizens from other countries. So, I think that there will be no objects of abuse in art and culture.

Let me go back now to the Web of Cultural Capitals. It was the result of a meeting that took place in Graz, in 1990. This meeting was realized because already then we had very good relations with cities of ex-Yugoslavia, Hungary and of all the southeastern Europe. A lot of letters were sent to these cities concerning the organization of culture in our city, by the Culture Direction. So, many were invited from many cities, mayors and others. We did also receive representatives of other cities, such as Munich, in order to show that there is more than one possibility to organize this Web.

At the end of the meeting Graz was asked to set up an office that would provide information. That was the first step for the creation of the cultural Web. At the discussions, at the end of the meeting we elaborated two basic goals:

First, to intensify the circulation of knowledge and second to work upon specific cultural programs –exhibitions, etc– where more than five cities will always be invited. This means to explain some programs that concern more than one city. At that time I was already the Head of the Direction Office. In our system, as it is, it was not difficult to travel much. The first year, the first years, we provided a lot of information, we organized meetings and discussions. With the progress of technology the access to information is a lot easier, which means that meetings of such a high level are no longer necessary.

So we focused more on these specific programs and also worked on a system of scholarships inviting photographers and artists. In Graz we always had artists from various countries so that they get to know each other. Today we have approximately 30 cities that participate in this cultural Web, mainly belonging to Poland, Albania, Germany, Italy and Ukraine. We don’t collaborate only with Cultural Offices; more and more often we collaborate with non-governmental organizations and with artists. One doesn’t necessary have to go through the Department of Culture.

I will describe you, now, three programs, as examples. One of them was a traveling exhibition. We had asked the cities to send us proposals concerning three to five artists for an exhibition. The representative of Budapest was the one who took the final decision. This exhibition was organized in the partaking cities but in others, as well.

The second example is that of Felner and Helma. They are two very well known architects that have constructed many theaters in Europe. We organized a big exhibition and we asked representatives and artists from other cities as well to send us material and to participate in the exhibition. Then we organized a small traveling exhibition that traveled from Odessa to Fulda, in Germany.

A third program was a workshop, which was organized, in the year 2000, in Mosta. We had asked 13 artists, mainly from Balkan countries, to create objects that we could place near the bridge destroyed by the war. Then we asked 20 European writers and poets –among them Mister Hatto Fischer and Mrs. Klaudia Magris– to offer their work as a kind of present for Mosta, which we hang next to the destroyed bridge.

These are just a few examples. If you want, later we can talk about more but these are examples that show that we are trying to create programs that will bring people together.

Another two basic targets of our Web are: first to show the quality and richness of Central Europe and second –by bringing artists and other people together– to create new programs. The Web is financed by the city of Graz and by the Austrian government, as well. The cooperation had already started in ’93, during a meeting…

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… I was going through my last sentence. Thank you very much for your attention. There is no problem whatsoever: I’ll stop now and if you want you can ask me questions…

Translation from the Greek by Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke

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Max Aufischer