Ποιειν Και Πραττειν - create and do

Panel 3 and 4

Friday 21st October 2011

Panel 3: Culture - a smart investment for European regions?

Carte blanche

Rafal Dutkiewicz, Mayor of Wroclaw

Since his city has just been designated to be European Capital of Culture in 2016, and this parallel to San Sebastian in Spain, he iterated briefly what the word 'Wroclaw' stands for. The city has a long history and in due course the name changed many times. Significantly the second last name was a German one: Breslau. That explains the uniqueness of Wroclaw. For in 1945 the total German population of 1 Million was expelled. They were forced to move out. In moved Polish people who had to evacuated cities and places on the Eastern border of Poland. This is because Stalin insisted on redrawing the borders. Consequently Poland lost territory to the East and had to be compensated towards the West.

Breslau was the last fortress to fall in 1945, even later than Berlin where Hitler committed suicide in the bunker. There are amazing stories linked to this city during the Second World War. For a long time, it had not been attacked and thus many fled to that city. When it did come under attack, the fortress name reflected what efforts were made to hold out. It included even the attempt to build an airstrip inside the city (very much as was the case with West Berlin during the Cold War when the Tegel airport was constructed inside the city). Even Germans were asked to shovel the bricks and rests of their own houses after they had been blown up to make way for the airstrip. The story goes that only one plane tried to depart from the airstrip but never made it. As if to refect a kind of futility, the fact is that Germans had to leave and Polish people moved in, making it in a city with different layers of history and on top of it a very rich cultural heritage.

The mayor emphasized then one thing of great importance to him as it marks the postwar history. The letter of forgiveness issued by the Bishop of Wroclaw to the Bishop of the German church in West Germany was an amazing step towards redemption. Such a forgiveness has to be proceeded by a request to be forgiven if asking this question of being forgiven for what happened at the end of the war. This letter was formulated with the help of the philosopher Krucina who believed then as now in the work of love.

Interestingly enough a nickname of Wroclaw especially for those who experience difficulties to pronounce the name is 'lots of love', and thus the city is well positioned to become European Capital of Culture as the level of redemption is needed in order not to forget what took place before, during and after Second World War and which can and does still affect the Polish-German relationship, but also what constitutes the modern Europe as exemplified by the European Union as peace project which emerged out of the ruins of 1945.

Turning his attention to what he as mayor of a city has to keep in mind, namely the economy, he explained that a lot depends on much money for how long circulates within the local economy. Poland and Wroclaw have done well as of late and comparatively speaking within Europe, that is economically speaking. The city has managed to create about 150 000 new jobs over a short period of time. Here the importance of cultural industries and the creative sector comes into play.

Since the Polish economy and in particular Wroclaw were doing comparatively well, he would like to explain what is important for any local economy, namely to attract money and to let circulate as much as possible within this local space before leaving again. Linked to the discussion about culture and innovation, any economy depends upon the number of jobs it can create along with the productivity (output) of this work force. Once  a certain number of jobs have been created, the local economy reaches a limit. Then it is only possible to increase the wages or else to expand that local economy in a certain way. Again this is only possible by enhancing the cultural factor as it can increase the innovative capacity and the attraction of the city.

Out of this reason he would subscribe to the ideas of Richard Florida who believes each city has to base its economy on this creativity made possible by a certain creative class.

Panel Discussion

 

 

Respondents

Ilona Kish, Secretary General, Culture Action Europe

Rudolf Niessler, Director, Policy Coordination, DG Regional Policy, European Commission

 

Panel 4: Civil Society empowerment in third countries: are cultural actors bringing powerful voices to the support of democratization processes?

Carte blanche

Ahmed El Attar, Director, Independent Theatre and General Manager, Studio Emad Eddin Foundation

Panel discussion

Natalia, Founding General and Co-Artistic Director, Belarus Free Theatre

Borka Pavicevic, Dramaturg, Center for Cultural Decontamination, Belgrade

Marietje Schaake, Member of the European Parliament

Respondent

Hugues Mingarelli, Managing Director, North Africa, Middle East, Arabian Peninsula, Iran and Iraq, European External Action Service

Kristian Schmidt, Director, Human and Society Development, DG Development and Cooperation EuropeAid, European Commission

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