“Europe is based on the openness of the cultural life of the individual countries and their free cooperation. If these disappear, the European project will lose its soul and its meaning.” (Petition RESISTANCE NOW: FREE CULTURE)
By signing the open letter RESISTANCE NOW: FREE CULTURE, European cultural actors, including the ITI Center Germany, are expressing their concern about the “attacks, bans, layoffs and cuts” against cultural institutions in Hungary and Slovakia. At the beginning of November, ultranationalist groups violently prevented a premiere of US actor and director John Malkovich at the Ivan Vazov National Theater in Bulgaria. The attacks are aimed at undermining a “diverse European culture” - and risk spreading to other European countries such as the Netherlands, France and Germany.
In view of this threat to cultural diversity in Europe from nationalist movements, Milo Rau & Artemis Vakianis (Directors of the Wiener Festwochen, Austria), Matej Drlička (dismissed Director of the Slovak National Theatre, Slovakia) and Vasil Vasilev (Director of the National Theatre, Bulgaria), together with the network of publicly funded theaters European Theatre Convention (ETC), the platform Prospero - Extended Theatre and the Opera Europa network, have initiated the Open Letter RESISTANCE NOW: FREE CULTURE to the European Parliament.
Together, they call on the European Parliament to “finally take a clear stand” on cultural autonomy and introduce a “law on the freedom of culture” to protect artists through the rule of law.
Sign the petition now and share it in your networks!
The almost 200 internationally renowned, initial signatories - including Yvonne Büdenhölzer and Thomas Engel from the ITI Center Germany - also include: Lukáš Trpišovský and Martin Kukučka (Artistic Directors of the National Theater Prague, Czech Republic), Krzysztof Warlikowski (Artistic Director of Nowy Teatr in Poland), Tiago Rodrigues (Director of the Festival d'Avignon in France), Iris Laufenberg (Artistic Director of the Deutsches Theater in Germany), Gianina Carbunariu (Director and Dramaturg in Romania), Mattias Anderson (Artistic Director of Royal Dramaten in Sweden) and Peter de Caluwe (General Director and Artistic Director of La Monnaie / De Munt in Belgium).
Photo © Franz Kreis