Supplement: The Portrait of the European Artist at the end of the Twentieth Century by Vangelis Kassos

Proposal to consider the following points:

1. Is it possible to delineate the portrait of the European Artist?

The insertion of the article 128 in the Treaty does not only indicate the ambition to facilitate the flowering of culture in the developing Community space without borders or the necessity to protect above all the cultural diversity, but also indicates the necessity to give Europe its soul.

This opens up new prospects for the artistic and the literary creation. The artist, creating in this Community space without borders, will necessarily obtain more European than national characteristics.

Is the national artist of our days prepared for this transformation or does he feel still to be completely a stranger to the fact of European unification and therefore finds himself excluded from the European >public debate<.

2. Towards a >collective artist<?

It has recently been proposed that the best way for the artists to claim their right to participate in the >public debate< would be to act collectively, to set up a sort of parliament, which would exercise the power of criticism towards the technocrats. Such a collective institution would improve the position of artists.

3. The artist in the land of technocrats

The Ministers of Culture of the Member States invited the European Commission to undertake

- an evaluation of the economic impact of the activity by artists within the Member States and the Union;

- an approach to the definition of the artist and the specificity of the nature of their work;

- an analysis of the difficulties which artists may encounter in their exchanges within the European Union.

This invitation does not only indicate the will to improve the situaiton of the artists, but also acknowledges that the European technocrats have a need to collaborate with the artists, in order to cultivate in the in the mind of the European Union citizens a commen >European conscience<.

Through this collaboration, the European artists may negotiate about the improvement of their situation and for a better role in the >social game<.

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Supplement: The Portrait of the European Artist at the end of the Twentieth Century by Vangelis Kassos