Europe Is Culture Too
Posted by jonathanfryer on Thursday, 8th May, 2008
If one relied mainly for one’s information on the Daily Mail and the Sun (as, alas, millions of people in Britain do), one might believe that the European Union is all about banana-straighteners and widget directives. One of my main tasks, in articles and speeches, is dispelling such Euro-myths. But there is another, important side to Europe, too: its cultural diversity, which is something the EU actively champions. So it was particularly interesting and enjoyable to attend the opening of a new Slovenian exhibition ‘Saaneckh People from Elsewhere’ at the European Commission building in Storey’s Gate, Westminster, last night. Slovenia, of course, is holding the EU Presidency until the end of next month.
The exhibition was an installation by Miha Vipotnik, who was on hand to explain what it is all about. In his own words, ‘Disiciplined science presents history and the past as a belt, a straight line that explains the flow, causes and consequences of the events that took place in the past. However, the more undiciplined people there are dealing with the past, the more they mythologise it.’ Quite so! The centrepiece is a fascinating projection on the floor of an aerial view of one of Slovenia’s finest castles, which disintegrates before one’s eyes. Why not go along and try to work things out for yourself!
Link: www.vi.potnik.siol.com
Tristan Mills said
Why does the EU need to get involved in that?
Actually, why does government need to be involved in ‘culture’ at all? Culture is something which arises independent of government and tends to be hindered by government rather than helped.
The one thing the EU has done for cultural diversity is removing barriers to movement of people – which I definitely support. It does however prevent movement of people from outside the EU (I suppose some free movement is better than none, but its still far from ideal)
Jonathan Fryer said
The main reason for involvement by both government and the EU is financial: without such support, many cultural events (especially those which are free, like this one) just wouldn’t happen. I was really pleased the European Commission thought this an appropriate use of their rarely utilised ground floor space, too.
ab said
I would just like to point out that the link you added (www.vi.potnik.siol.com) is wrong. the right link should be http://www.metroljub.com/metrocel and was only added after the show.
jonathanfryer said
Thanks, Andraz; I added the nearest relevant link I could (about Vipotnik’s other work), but am glad now people can get through to a more relevant one!