The KEA Blog

Rem Koolhaas and Luc Tuymans share their vision of Europe - video link below

Europe must have resonance beyond the resolution of financial crisis and regulatory issues.  Rem Koolhaas and Luc Tuymans share the ambition to change perceptions of Europe.

At the event from the organisation "Untitled’ (sans-titre)”, which took place recently in Brussels, the world-famous architect and the artist proposed ideas for a new narrative to reflect the values and the meaning of Europe.

Architecture, art and design help to identify and interpret the rooted, relevant and meaningful.  Memory, heritage and symbols should be embedded in the European project, with quality, imagination and artistic sensitivity at its heart.

Europe must fight its way back to the public domain rather than falling victim to the market economy.

Koolhaas and Tuymans make an appeal to European civil servants and politicians to be bold and to stop apologising. Europe has become too focused on political correctness and this “camouflage” strategy undermines the European project. The EU should stop magnifying technology and new media as an isolated wonder and give equal importance to the artistic expression which gives life and meaning to things and technology.

National governments act too much as a “machine of denigration”. They should also stop erecting cultural frontiers between people.  They should give Europe the means to abolish mental barriers.

These prominent cultural figures call on the EU to do an “overt cultural operation” to promote its leading creativity in a world where innovation and creativity are in demand.

They appeal to fellow artists and creative professionals to take the risk of developing a narrative for Europe and for politicians to encourage creativity. They share the belief that Europe remains an extraordinary “futuristic” project.

Rem Koolhaas and Luc Tuymans are prepared to act as ghost writers for the European Union.

  

VIMEO: http://vimeo.com/34511512    YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA0cy4XinSQ

 

Join KEA Creative Europe on Facebook and Linkedin

Untitled (sans-titre) is about allowing "lateral thinking" on societal issues. It is a platform for divergent thinkers, essentially artists and creative professional s, to address decision makers and fee in a different perspective or disruption through dialogue. Untitled (sans titre) is about mingling and networking at the highest level, bringing art and culture to influence thinking processes.

For more information please contact Allison Reekie, KEA European Affairs, areekie@keanet.eu, +32 2 289 26 05.

EU/China Year of Intercultural Dialogue - Launch Conference

Philippe Kern will be a key-note speaker at the launch conference of the EU/China Year of Intercultural Dialogue taking place in Brussels on 2 February 2012 at Bozar

Programme

How EU Member States deal with Orphan works: KEA publishes a new survey on planned and implemented solutions to the orphan works question

KEA has conducted a study on behalf of the British Film Institute (BFI) on audiovisual orphan works in Europe. This study provides a general overview on how the different EU Member States deal with the problem of orphan works. The research revealed that the majority of the European countries (EU27 and Norway) do not have mechanisms in place that allow the use of orphan works and in particular of audiovisual orphan works. Only the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries have implemented solutions to deal, at least partly, with orphan works.

Seasons'greetings from the KEA team

Welcome to the world of “Creative Partnership”

Creative partnership sounds very much like a marketing or religious slogan, the promise of a better world where “creativity” mingles with altruistic behaviours “partnership”.  Both words “creative” and “partnership” trigger positive feelings in our mind. They make a promising combination.

Creative refers to the world of Creation which is after all the domain of the Gods.

Partnership refers to collusion, empathy, altruistic and social behaviours (as opposed to egoistic or selfish conducts).

Rendons l’ Europe empathique et altruiste!

 L’Europe est un acquis institutionnel. Elle reste à devenir une réalité socioculturelle. Le philosophe Jürgen Habermas, dans son texte « Rendons l’Europe plus démocratique ! » publié dans Le Monde du 26 octobre, identifie deux obstacles majeurs à la construction européenne : la fragmentation politique, en particulier l’incapacité des politiciens à dépasser les modèles de gouvernance du 19^es  ; et l’affirmation, par ces mêmes dirigeants, que l’Union politique ne peut se faire  car « il n’existerait pas de peuple européen ».

The meaning of Europe? The meaning of a European Cultural Forum?

The European Cultural Forum has just taken place in Brussels on 19 and 20 October 2011.  Every year the Forum gathers institutions and organisations involved and interested in the making of cultural policy at European level. The themes of the Forum are linked to the EU 2020 strategy of the European Commission.

The near collapse of the financial system and the sovereign debt crisis are testing the limits of Europe’s solidarity and as a consequence the essence of the European project.  The cultural movement at the Forum was behaving as if nothing was happening to Europe, or worse that it did not care.  

This was the opportunity for the Cultural Forum to calls on Head of States and Governments to work towards Europe’s unity[1] and keep the European utopia alive.  Culture activists have a special responsibility to keep alive the perspective of a Europe where all Europeans, despite their cultural differences and mental barriers, work for a common destiny and for the promotion of shared values such as democracy, human rights, social solidarity, cultural diversity and tolerance.

Premier League EU Court’s decision set new limit to contractual freedom in copyright

In its awaited decision on the Premier League case rendered on 4 October the EU Court of Justice has concluded the following:

1. The sale, import or use of conditional access devices cannot be restricted unless the devices are illicit.

2. The restriction of the freedom of services can be justified by the protection of intellectual property rights, the subject-matter of which is the right to exploit commercially the marketing or making available the protected content by granting licences in return for payment of remuneration. Accordingly as soon as rights holders are appropriately remunerated, the Court states that they cannot prohibit the use of foreign decoding devices in the Member State not covered by the licence and thus restrict the freedom of services.

Hommage

Jean-François Michel, le fondateur du European Music Office (EMO) , est mort le 23 juillet dernier. Avec lui l’Europe perd l’un des plus ardents défenseurs,  un champion de la cause culturelle.  Je n’oublierais jamais que Jean-François a été le premier soutien de KEA à sa naissance en 1999.  EMO et KEA ont travaillé ensemble pour une meilleure prise en compte des intérêts de l’industrie de la musique dans les politiques européennes.   Les deux organisations ont partagé des bureaux à Bruxelles et ont grandi ensemble.  Avec finesse, persévérance,  diplomatie mais aussi beaucoup de chaleur humaine Jean-François savait convaincre au-delà des frontières et des différences culturelles. La culture perd un de ses meilleurs ambassadeurs. Son charme et sa gentillesse laissent un grand vide.  Le goût du cigare et du steak au poivre ne sera plus le même. Perdre un voisin, un collègue  et un ami c’est perdre un peu de soi-même.

Philippe Kern, KEA

Jean-François Michel, the founder of the European Music Office (EMO), died on the 23 July this year. Europe has now lost one if it’s most ardent supporters, a champion for the cultural cause. I will never forget that Jean-François was the first to support to KEA at its launch in 1999. EMO and KEA worked side by side to ensure that the interests of the music industry were better taken into account in European policies. The two organizations shared offices in Brussels and grew up together. With finesse, perseverance, diplomacy but also a great deal of warmth, Jean-François knew how to convince people beyond frontiers and cultural differences. Culture has lost one of its best ambassadors. His charm and his kindness leave a great void. The taste of a cigar and a pepper steak will no longer be the same. To lose a neighbour, a colleague and a friend is like losing a part of oneself.

 Philippe Kern, KEA

Trade in cultural services and cultural exchanges after the Cariforum-EU EPA, where do we stand?

Trade in cultural services and cultural exchanges after the Cariforum-EU EPA[1], where do we stand?

 In 2005, the EU signed the UNESCO Convention on the Promotion and Protection of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. Since then, the EU has taken a number steps to ensure its implementation. For example, in May 2007 the EU adopted the European Agenda for Culture in a Globalizing World, identifying the promotion of culture as a vital element in the EU’s international relations as a core objective. Likewise, the EU has mainstreamed culture into other policy areas such as development and neighbourhood policy and it has developed policy dialogues on culture with other regions in the world.

 This process has also touched upon trade relations. The Cariforum-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) is the first reflection of this. This agreement facilitates trade in cultural services by improving market access conditions for entertainment services suppliers from Cariforum countries. In addition, it includes a new mechanism, the Protocol on Cultural Cooperation (“Protocol”), which sets a framework for cooperation seeking to promote cultural and audiovisual exchanges.

ON A VITE COMPRIS – La 54e Biennale de Venise

« On a vite compris » écrit le journaliste du Monde dans sa chronique du 6 juin 2011 sur la 54^e Biennale de Venise à propos de certaines œuvres.  Pourtant, le monde de l’artiste reste souvent impénétrable. Le simple regard sur l’œuvre ne suffit pas à créer l’empathie.  Rendre l’œuvre compréhensible nécessite de la recherche  et surtout la curiosité de se confronter à l’étrange.  Souvent le discours se substitue à l’œuvre visuel.   Le coup de cœur est rare; l’interrogation est le sentiment qui prédomine.

L’art contemporain est intellectuel, foncièrement conceptuel en général.  Il  est l’expression de pensées philosophiques, sociologiques, politiques, mathématique ou physique.  Pourtant les thèmes de l’art contemporain restent ceux de l’art classique : la place de l’homme dans son environnement, confronté à ses contradictions ;  « l’art comme éclaircissement de l’être » selon Alain Finkelkraut.