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STORIES OF EUROPE 65 YEARS OF THE EUROPEAN CULTURAL FOUNDATION STORIES OF EUROPE 65 YEARS OF THE EUROPEAN CULTURAL FOUNDATION In 2019, the European Cultural Foundation celebrates 65 years since its launch. The celebrations coincide with the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and marks 80 years since the outbreak of World War II; it is also the 40th anniversary of the first European Parliament and the half centenary of Apollo 11’s expedition to the moon. These events have marked the history of Europe and the world, shaping its grand narrative. There are far more stories to be told, though, and these stories unfold in the anecdotal, the fleet- ing, the places, texts and artefacts that are often overlooked: in the chipped off pieces of the Berlin Wall, collected by the so-called Mauerspechte (of which I was one) in the days and nights following 9 November 1989. In the determined speech of Simone Veil, survivor of the horrors of Auschwitz-Birkenau, on the day she was elected as the first ever President of the European Parliament in 1979. In the 4/4 time signature of Frank Sinatra’s Fly Me To The Moon, the first song ever to be played on the moon, while the Apollo 11 astronauts took their first steps on the cratered landscape. Similarly, we could be telling the story of the European Cul- tural Foundation as a post-war cultural project, founded in 1954, amidst the optimistic sprouting of pan-European ideas and institu- tions; we could tell you about the vision of its founding fathers, of a united Europe where citizens feel proudly European – a place where they can live, express themselves, work and dream freely, in diver- sity and harmony. And we will. But we believe that the ways in which the Foundation has both adapted to and steered the narrative of Eu- rope are to be found in a wide range of tones, voices and serendip- itous moments, all excavated from its extensive archive. In this publication, we will navigate the history of the European Cultural Foundation in a variegated and multi -tonal way – looking for hidden and oblique links across time and political moments, finding the unexpected lines of thought that contributed to the full history of the European Cultural Foundation: a history in which a photography student predicts an increasingly globalised world; a theatremaker reflects on issues of authority and governance; or a young pianist bridges the seeming insurmountability of the Iron Curtain in the mid- 1980s. It is indeed an approach to a complex archive that requires an open and imaginative mind, much like Europe itself. In the following pages, we have curated a selection of archive material that is featured alongside essays and reflection pieces writ- ten by some of the people who have helped to shape the Founda- tion’s work, including Timothy Garton Ash, Simon Mundy and Alan Smith, as well as others we have supported through our programmes, such as Merve Bedir and Ramsés Morales Izquierdo. We also hear from some of our colleagues at the European Cultural Foundation, as well as from some compelling contemporary European voices, among them Eleanor Penny and Giuseppe Porcaro, with their re- spective strong takes on Europe and the climate crisis, and a futur- ologist take on the ‘Death of Dystopia’. Last but not least, we are in- debted to a number of people who sat where I sit today: the former STORIES OF EUROPE 003 directors of the European Cultural Foundation Raymond Georis, NOTES FROM THE EDITORS 007 Rüdiger Stephan, Gottfried Wagner and Katherine Watson, who all LORE GABLIER AND SABRINA STALLONE took the time to reflect back on their time in office, and whose in- sights have made our archival research a whole lot easier. – All texts and documents have been compiled according to 1947 THE FEDERALIST ATTITUDE 118 nine thematic axes that not only resonate throughout the past six DENIS DE ROUGEMONT and a half decades of our history, but remain important points of ref- 1954/2019 UNPACKING THE ARCHIVES 012 erence for today and tomorrow. Some revolve around much- debated buzzwords such as ‘migration’ and ‘mobility’, ‘sustainability’ and not 1957 SOME SUGGESTIONS IN REGARDS TO ‘FONDATION EUROPÉENNE DE LA CULTURE’ 088 least ‘culture’ itself, illustrating through our non-linear approach how FRANS OTTEN AND FRITS PHILIPS these terms do not pertain solely to today’s discourse; others de- 1962 THE WORLD FACING EUROPE 092 bate the roles of philanthropy, governance and participation, as well as education and the so-called elites in the gigantic task of building RAGHAVAN N. IYER a Europe for all. Lastly, we linger on how Europe’s challenges – some 1975 LES DÉBUTS DE LA FONDATION EUROPÉENNE DE LA CULTURE 030 would call them anxieties – influence our imagined futures, focusing DENIS DE ROUGEMONT on what has yet to come for the Foundation. 1977 ONE DAY IN EUROPE 2000 214 Telling the stories of Europe matters. Particularly in these times when, I admit, one could lose sight of the big European pic- PETER HALL ture. We need a historical perspective to assess, and then resolve, 1985 FAREWELL TO DENIS DE ROUGEMONT AND HENDRIK BRUGMANS 034 the everyday political problems and crises that now confront us. HRH PRINCESS MARGRIET OF THE NETHERLANDS And as for the future? There is no end to history, as some described the end of the Cold War. Instead, everything is possible, even things 1989 NOUVEAU DÉPART POUR LA FONDATION EUROPÉENNE DE LA CULTURE 042 that seemed entirely impossible yesterday. This is something I’ve CHRISTIAN CHARTIER known since the Berlin Wall came down, and it has seared itself into 1991/2019 A RETURN TO EUROPE? 170 my consciousness ever since. It’s even possible that Europe could TIMOTHY GARTON ASH emerge stronger and better from the current crisis while its doubters and opponents become a footnote in history. Everything is possible, 1994 THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT 134 but only if we do something, take a stand, challenge ourselves, find STUDENTS FROM THE COLLEGE OF EUROPE new partners and act courageously. This is exactly what the Euro- 1994 EUROPE 2000: BETWEEN HOPE AND ANXIETY 194 pean Cultural Foundation intends to do, now and into the future. 1996/2019 A CONVERSATION WITH 176 André Wilkens, DEJAN VEKIC Director of the European Cultural Foundation 1997/2019 USE SOME IMAGINATION / USE IMAGINATION AGAIN 072 SIMON MUNDY 1998 AFFINITY 168 BARBARA LUDMAN 1998 URBAN CULTURES: HOW TO SURVIVE THE CITY 220 MARIUJZ R. FILIPOWICZ 1999 HABEAS ANIMAM. HABEAS ANIMAM? 066 2003 BALKANS, MY BALKANS 182 DUBRAVKA UGREŠIĆ 2004 A SERIES OF CONFUSED DREAMS AND PIECES OF REALITY 046 GOTTFRIED WAGNER 2004 WHO IS IN CHARGE? THE STORY 116 MARTINA KUJUNDŽIĆ 2008 DISGUISED GEOGRAPHIES, VEILED HISTORIES 078 STORIES OF EUROPE 004 NURIA ENGUITA MAYO 2008 A SHORT MONOLOGUE IN A LENGTHY DIALOGUE 192 The following texts present the nine thematic axes that have emerged from our archival BASMA EL HUSSEINY research on the European Cultural Foundation. They not only raise questions that still res- 2013 ANXIETIES AND DIALOGUES OF CONTINENTS 156 onate today – some perhaps even more loudly than they used to – but are also intended as a set of coordinates to navigate the documents and essays we have compiled. These RANABIR SAMADDAR axes don’t follow parallel lines; quite the contrary, they intersect and converse with each 2014/2019 A NEW EUROPEAN CONUNDRUM 120 other, often in unexpected ways. To help readers navigate, we have set up a system of RAMSÉS MORALES IZQUIERDO cross-references that link together the different texts, further emphasising our desire to 2017 FROM CIVIL SOCIETY TO POLITICAL SOCIETY 124 propose a non-linear and non-exhaustive journey through the Foundation’s vast history. AGNIESZKA WIŚNIEWSKA 2018 IMAGINING DIFFERENT FUTURES 080 FOUNDING FOUNDATIONS GILANE TAWADROS There is something of a foundation myth surrounding the European Cultural Foun- 2018 MESSAGES FROM ERASMUS FOR EUROPEAN STRATEGY 105 dation: a story of justified anger, as Princess Margriet of the Netherlands pointed out in her farewell speech to founding members Denis de Rougemont and Hendrik ALAN SMITH Brugmans in 1985. Learning of the Ford Foundation’s refusal to support its Cen- 2019 FOUNDING OUR FUTURE 050 tre Européen de la Culture – considered ‘unclassifiable’ – de Rougemont shouted: “They only lend to the rich, that’s understood. But to be rich, you have to be able to VIVIAN PAULISSEN give.” The idea of initiating a foundation was born, and two years later, in Decem- 2019 THE TRIBAL, THE WINDOW, THE BLUEPRINT AND THE SPARK 054 ber 1954, de Rougemont officially launched the European Cultural Foundation. Due to its very nature – neither a private nor a public organisation, with RUBEN PATER a modest but steady endowment – the European Cultural Foundation played a 2019 WHAT CAN CULTURE DO? 064 particular role within the worlds of European culture and policy, tackling areas of work and issues that institutions could or would not undertake. An example of this ANDRÉ WILKENS is the instrumental role the Foundation played in implementing and developing 2019 ERASMUS: GENESIS OF A PROGRAMME (SINCE 1973) 100 ERASMUS (European Action Programme for the Mobility of University Students), acting as a partner of the European Commission, whose action space in the realm LORE GABLIER of education was still very limited. As current Foundation board member Rien van 2019 A CONVERSATION WITH 108 Gendt recently highlighted, foundations are more likely than governments to ad- dress issues of social cohesion, as this requires an interdisciplinary and a holistic RAYMOND GEORIS approach rather than a siloed structure. 2019 A CONVERSATION WITH 110 But philanthropic organisations also have their downside, and risk replicat- ing the same hierarchical behaviours and structural inequalities that they are try- TEGIYE BIREY ing to oppose.

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