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BOZAR organises roundtable with President Barroso, artists and intellectuals

21 September 2012

On 17 September 2012, the Centre for Fine Arts of Brussels (BOZAR) and the European Commission co-organised a roundtable with its President, José Manuel Barroso, and 20 renowned artistes and intellectuals from the cultural world (see list below). Three main topics were discussed: the impact of the financial crisis on European citizenship and the notion of European identity, what artists can do for Europe, and what Europe can do for artists. “My vision of culture is not culture as an instrument. As science, culture is a way for people’s fulfilment”, declared the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, during an exchange of views with a selected panel of highly renowned artists and intellectuals from the cultural world as well as Commissioner for Education and Culture Androulla Vassiliou on 17 September 2012. Insisting on the need to create emotional connections with Europe and its citizens, the President suggested that the mutual benefits generated by the relation between culture, the arts and Europe should be better communicated to citizens. This dialogue between the world of culture and politics sought to explore how culture contributes to the European project and how Europe can better support culture. With participants representing all artistic disciplines, from visual arts to cinema, literature, performing arts, classical and popular music or also science, the meeting provided an inspiring moment to address – through cultural lenses – and even make policy recommendations to global challenges such as the European crisis and the growing Euroscepticism of citizens, including among young people. It is therefore that culture and artists have a role to play to fill this gap and help citizens reconnect with the European project. Artists also largely welcomed the recent European Commission proposal for a new support programme for the cultural sector, Creative Europe, with a € 1.8 billion budget for 2014-2020. The roundtable provided a clear and concrete reaction to President Barroso’s recent call in his State of the Union 2012 address to cultural people in Europe to ‘take part in the debate on the future of Europe’. The artists and intellectuals present warmly welcomed the President’s proposal to organise a European Agora on Culture to continue in 2013 with a higher visibility towards the public and a stronger emphasis on civil society. The President thanked BOZAR and its CEO, Paul Dujardin, for the work carried out and invited him to pursue the efforts to continue this platform. At the end of the meeting, President Barroso said: "Let's do something formidable in 2013. Let's create platforms to communicate where women and men from culture debate Europe and where we all engage with citizens in a serious conversation about the future of Europe.” List of participants - representatives from the cultural world: • Jorge BARRETO XAVIER - Professor, Public Policies on Culture (PT) • Joana CARNEIRO - Conductor (PT) • Emmanuel DEMARCY-MOTA - Playwright, Director of the Théâtre de la Ville (FR) • Paul DUJARDIN - Artistic director of BOZAR (BE) • Birgitta ENGLIN - Theatre Director (SE) • Jan FABRE - Visual artist, theatre artist, author (BE) • Rose FENTON - Arts producer, advisor (UK) • Bernard FOCCROULLE - Composer, organist, opera director (BE) • Rosie GOLDSMITH - Writer, reporter, TV presenter (UK) • Vasco GRAÇA MOURA - Writer, poet, President of Centro Cultural de Belém (PT) • Claudie HAIGNERÉ - President of Universcience (FR) • Péter INKEI - Director, The Budapest Observatory (HU) • György KONRÁD - Writer (HU) • Geert MAK - Writer, journalist, historian (NL) • Mary McCARTHY - Director of The National Sculpture Factory (IR) • Radu MIHAILEANU - Filmmaker, playwright (RO) • Michelangelo PISTOLETTO - Painter, action and object artist, art theorist (IT) • Pere PORTABELLA - Filmmaker, producer (ES) • Jordi SAVALL - Musician, conductor, composer (ES) • Luc TUYMANS - Painter (BE) • Bjorn ULVAEUS - Songwriter, ABBA composer, musician, writer, producer, singer (SE) Related links and documents: • Press release of the European CommissionMore information about the eventPictures