Gottfried Wagner in discussion with Luc Tuymans
Debate
16.06.2011, 7pm
Goethe-Institut Brüssel |rue Belliard ∙ Belliardstraat 58 | 1000 Brussels
German, simultaneous translation into English
Free access.
info@bruessel.goethe.org
Europe has culture, but is it a cultural project?
The Goethe-Institut Brüssel investigates Europe. How should European politics
and European cultures interact?
How can cultural diversity be a basis for a European society, who shares with
each other a kind of common democratic utopia? Which role plays culture in
developing an actual transnational Europe? The author Gottfried Wagner
(„The Art of Difference“, Alliance, 2011) and the artist Luc Tuymans take
this questions up in a debate.
The Art of difference is, in many senses, both a personal and a political book,
based on affection for this extraordinary and (so far) successful ‚project Europe’:
a political project for which contemporary and future narratives need to be developed,
especially given the deep crisis of capitalism. As the author says: “In that search,
there is a role for culture, not for culturalization of difference, though; and there is
a place to be occupied by public cultural policies – European and global.”
Gottfried Wagner (*1950) has worked for the private non-profit sector and public sector,
in national and transnational organizations and institutions, in education and culture. He
was director of KulturKontakt Austria and of the European Cultural Foundation (2002-2009).
He has been a member of various European selection committees and expert groups. At
present he works for the Austrian federal ministry for education, arts and culture in Vienna.
Luc Tuymans (*1958) is one of the most important representative of international visual arts.
Beside a great number of group expositions, his most recent solo-expositions were:
Bozar Brussels (2011), Centro de Arte Contemporáneo, Málaga (2011), David Zwirner,
New York (2010), Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas (2010). He lives and works in Antwerp.
In collaboration with the Austrian EU-Representation, the European Cultural Foundation and EUNIC.