A Soul for Europe Conference 2019

Towards A European Citizens’ Convention

A Soul for Europe Conference 2019

Towards A European Citizens’ Convention

This year’s conference opened with the awarding of the 2019 Evens Arts Prize to choreographer Eszter Salamon. When asked to describe her way of working, Salamon focused on the dialogic aspect, saying that she felt movement was not enough and that she rather had to create encounters.

In an engaged debate between representatives of the parties campaigning for the European elections and cultural stakeholders – including Yanis Varoufakis, Elmar Brok, Violeta Tomic, Hannah Neumann, Carl Grouwet and Damian Boeselager as well as writers Kathrin Röggla, Noémi Kiss and Tanja Dückers, conceptual artist Mia Florentine Weiss, film director Volker Schlöndorff and activist Katja Sinko –, discussants addressed topics such as the question of centre and the socially dependent periphery in Europe, the responsibility of the arts in promoting political activism or the possibility of integrating the artistic persepctive in political programmes.

The Panel “Strenghtening European Identity through Culture and Education” stressed the fact that it is precisely the task of the institutions in the fields of art, culture and heritage to join with education in exposing the danger of national identity politics (see video above).

Creating and facilitating encounters in an attempt to boost dialogue were also underlying themes of ten workshops hosted by a range of civil-society organisations and individuals. Dealing, among other topics, with the importance of women for European policies, with spaces for assemblies or with culture and well-being, and presenting strategies to foster direct communication between citizens or to activate Europeans for the upcoming elections, the conference’s workshop programme demonstrated the broad spectrum of existing initiatives that invite citizens to become active for Europe and gave those initiatives an opportunity to connect with each other.

Artistic contributions by Musicians of Krzyzowa Music. Music for Europe, performers of the theatre company Image Aigue as well as singer Lena Witkowska were a core element in this years’ conference. Throughout the conference, the façade of Akademie der Künste displayed a collection of posters for the “Vote together” campaign by artist Wolfgang Tillmans, calling to vote in the May elections in all official European languages.

The preceeding online debate on medium.com/asoulforeurope gathered 31 articles by renowned European politicians and artists.

A Soul for Europe would like to thank the following partners for their conceptual and financial support:
European Parliament Akademie der Künste, Allianz Cultural Foundation, Advocate Europe, BOZAR, Das Progressive Zentrum, European Academy Berlin, Evens Foundation, Felix Meritis Foundation, Goethe-Institut, n-ost, Netherlands Business Academy, Polis180, Wir sind Europa! Zeit Online European Commission Representation in Germany, Evens Foundation, Federal Foreign Office, Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb), Erasmus+ Programme, Senate Department for Culture and Europe Under the high patronage of the European Parliament.
Media partners ALEX TV euro|topics, Radio Flux FM.

Watch the stream to follow the conference debates:

We would like to thank the following partners for their support

Special thanks to

Media Partners:

Friends:

“A Soul for Europe” offices:

Project Executing Organisation:

This year’s conference opened with the awarding of the 2019 Evens Arts Prize to choreographer Eszter Salamon. When asked to describe her way of working, Salamon focused on the dialogic aspect, saying that she felt movement was not enough and that she rather had to create encounters.

Creating and facilitating encounters in an attempt to boost dialogue were also underlying themes of ten workshops hosted by a range of civil-society organisations and individuals. Dealing, among other topics, with the importance of women for European policies, with spaces for assemblies or with culture and well-being, and presenting strategies to foster direct communication between citizens or to activate Europeans for the upcoming elections, the conference’s workshop programme demonstrated the broad spectrum of existing initiatives that invite citizens to become active for Europe and gave those initiatives an opportunity to connect with each other.

Artistic contributions by Musicians of Krzyzowa Music. Music for Europe, performers of the theatre company Image Aigue as well as singer Lena Witkowska were a core element in this years’ conference. Throughout the conference, the façade of Akademie der Künste displayed a collection of posters for the “Vote together” campaign by artist Wolfgang Tillmans, calling to vote in the May elections in all official European languages.

The preceeding online debate on medium.com/asoulforeurope gathered 31 articles by renowned European politicians and artists.

A Soul for Europe would like to thank the following partners for their conceptual and financial support:
European Parliament Akademie der Künste, Allianz Cultural Foundation, Advocate Europe, BOZAR, Das Progressive Zentrum, European Academy Berlin, Evens Foundation, Felix Meritis Foundation, Goethe-Institut, n-ost, Netherlands Business Academy, Polis180, Wir sind Europa! Zeit Online European Commission Representation in Germany, Evens Foundation, Federal Foreign Office, Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb), Erasmus+ Programme, Senate Department for Culture and Europe Under the high patronage of the European Parliament.