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Eurozine Activity Report 2011

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Eurozine Activity Report 2011 Activity Report 2011 Eurozine – Gesellschaft zur Vernetzung von Kulturmedien mbH Dürergasse 14-16/8, 1060 Vienna, Austria phone: +43-1-334 29 80-0 email: [email protected] web: www.eurozine.com Executive Summary Eurozine, the network of European cultural journals and online cultural magazine, looks back at a successful year 2011. Throughout 2011, Eurozine facilitated exchange of ideas, experience and texts among cultural journals and further associated partners all over Europe. By publishing essays and articles on topics of European relevance it provided a platform for intellectuals, authors and cultural journals. Texts otherwise restricted to a small and selected readership – having been published in "small" languages and / or in journals with low print runs – were made widely accessible through translation and presentation on the Eurozine website. Thus they not only reached a large readership but also contributed to an ongoing exchange of ideas and content across Europe. In 2011, 200 articles, essays, interviews and literary texts were published in the netmagazine, along with 130 additional translations. In order to present the 82 partner journals from 34 European countries, several hundred editorials, tables of contents and summaries of their latest issues were published on the Eurozine website. Around topics of special interest, Eurozine has compiled original texts and partner contributions in so-called "Focal Points". In 2011, three new major Focal Points were introduced: "The EU: broken or just broke?", "European histories (2): concord and conflict" and "The future of democracy". One further Focal Point, provisionably established in late 2010, has been established in 2011: "Changing Media – Media in Change" was also the basis for the Eurozine Network meeting in Linz (Austria) in May 2011. Other Focal Points like "The bonfire of the universities" and "Climate of change" were further expanded. The series "Europe talks to Europe", initiated in autumn 2009, was continued with two public events: in Lviv, the Ukrainian journalist and politician Andriy Shevchenko and the Belgian author David Van Reybrouck under the title "Splitting up?" discussed the re-nationalization of Europe. On a panel entitled "The EU: the real sick man of Europe", taking place in Vienna in April, prominent intellectuals and opinion makers from western and eastern Europe diagnosed the malaise of the EU: speakers included Sonja Puntscher-Riekmann (Austria), Claus Offe (Germany), Ivan Krastev (Bulgaria) and Martin M. Simecka (Slovakia). At the event, the second volume in the Eurozine im:print series was presented to the public. Entitled "Europe talks to Europe. A polylogue on culture and politics", it contains texts based on the public debates as well as further articles and interviews on the topics dealt with in the debate series. The 23rd European Meeting of Cultural Journals took place in Linz, Austria, from 13 to 16 May 2011. It was organised by Eurozine in cooperation with 'Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz'. More than 100 editors and intellectuals from Europe's leading cultural journals participated in the conference entitled "Changing Media – Media in Change", the programme included seminars, speeches and debates as well as an exhibition open to the public, displaying journals from more than 30 countries. The results of the meeting/conference were published in Eurozinein a special Focal Point. Four magazines from different European regions became partner journals of the Eurozine network in 2011: GAM (Austria), Beton (Serbia), La Revue nouvelle (Belgium) and Letras Libres (Spain). By the end of 2011 the network counts 82 fully-fledged members from 34 countries. Eurozine continues to be a widely accepted and valued source of information and first-rate texts, averaging 200 000 individual readers per month. Eurozine continuously informs its readers via public relations measures such as the Eurozine Newsletter and the Eurozine Review, which were regularly disseminated to around 20 000 email addresses. After the financially very unstable year 2010, in 2011 Eurozine was able to consolidate again, albeit on a rather low level and with little possibility to plan middle- or long-term. Still, around fifty per cent of the funds necessary have to be raised on a short- to medium-term project basis. Throughout 2011 Eurozine has managed – not least due to its strong international partners and extraordinarily competent and committed staff – to keep up the exceptionally high quality of published articles as well as the considerable quantity of its publishing activities. The network was further expanded, integrating more cultural journals into a pan-European debate. In a unique way Eurozine continues to contribute to the establishment of Eurozine – Activity report 2011 2/14 a European public sphere for transnational discussion, debate and exchange of cultural, aesthetic, philosophical and political issues. It remains an invaluable basis for continuous cross-border debate and co- operations with profound impact in all parts of Europe. Eurozine – Activity report 2011 3/14 Eurozine – the netmagazine A contribution to a European public sphere By the end of 2011, 82 fully-fledged partner publications from all over Europe – all outstanding cultural journals – have been presented to a broad international audience on the Internet platform and netmagazine. Publications from 34 countries published in 32 languages have been involved in this work. In 2011, all in all 300 essay-length articles and translations were published in the netmagazine: original texts (10), contributions from the partner journals (155), translations commissioned by Eurozine (34) and translations contributed by partners (93). The editorial management of the netmagazine has focussed on the acquisition and selection of articles and essays from the partner magazines that truly reflect debates on social and intellectual issues in different parts of Europe. Thus, the project has achieved to both reflect diverse perspectives and discussions and create a context in which this diversity does not result in confusion and fragmentation but where different discourses are brought to communicate with each other. In order to present content of the highest possible intellectual and textual quality, intense editing and copy-editing of articles and essays is necessary. The high standards set by Eurozine as well as the time-intensive and intellectually demanding editorial work has been highly appreciated by contributing authors and journals as well as readers and has turned out to be one of the features that distinguishes this project from most other endeavours in the field. Part of the strategy for establishing a space for a common but multifarious European debate has been to address controversial issues and discuss them in a setting that gives equal space and opportunity to views originating in different cultural, ethnic, religious and linguistic contexts. Some of the main qualities of the Eurozine network became evident with the text "Algeria: A country in search of itself" by Ghania Mouffok and Swedish writer Steve Sem-Sandberg's essay "Even nameless horrors must be named". Ghania Mouffok's text was originally published in the Algerian journal NAQD, a Eurozine associate (as the magazine is not published in Europe). Thanks to the timely translation of the originally French text into English, Eurozine was able to provide its partners with a text on some widely ignored aspects of the Arab Spring – the situation in Algeria and an explicitly feminist perspective – already at a very early stage. The controversial Essay "Even nameless horrors must be named" by Steve Sem-Sandberg was published exclusively in Eurozine in autumn 2011, in time for the publication of various translations of Sem-Sandberg's acclaimed novel "The emperor of lies" on the Jewish ghetto in Lodz. It is high time to lift the aesthetic state of emergency that has surrounded witness literature for so long, writes Steve Sem-Sandberg. It is not important who writes, nor even what their motives are. What counts is the "literary efficiency". In cooperation with other organisations Eurozine organized a presentation of the novel in Vienna; the essay was re-published, among others, in translations into Czech and German. The Translation Programme One of the guiding principles of Eurozine is the conviction that the mere publication of an article in the original language – even if it is done in an international forum – does not mean that this article will automatically be read, understood and appreciated outside of its original context. Translations into intermediary languages such as English, French and German have proved to be the best way of solving the question of accessibility to a wide readership, as well as the "internal" question of communication and exchange between journals. Via the intermediary translations, the editors of journals from different regions have been given the possibility to get an overview of what is being published in languages they do not master, judge the quality and relevance of the texts, and then decide to translate and publish them in their journals’ respective national contexts. All different language versions of the articles have been published in Eurozine, which have contributed to the publications' multilingual character; consequently, the texts will remain available for the public long after they have been printed in journals or newspapers. Eurozine – Activity report 2011 4/14 In 2011, 200 essay-length articles – e.g. in Swedish, Serbian,
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