speakers

Gottfried Wagner

Gottfried Wagner has been the Director of the European Cultural Foundation (ECF) since January 2002. The ECF is an independent, European non-profit organization that promotes cultural cooperation in support of the European integration process. With the guidance of its international Board, Advisory Council, and network of National Committees, the ECF pursues its mission on three major fronts: Grants, Programmes and Cultural Policy Development. It is registered as a foundation under Dutch law. Mr. Wagner was formerly the Director of KulturKontakt Austria, a non-profit organization for educational and cultural cooperation with Central, Eastern and South-East Europe. He has also worked for the Austrian Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, with responsibility for educational cooperation with Central and Eastern Europe. Gottfried Wagner was born in 1950. He graduated in Philosophy and German Literature from the University of Vienna, worked as a teacher and university lecturer, and subsequently specialized in management and organizational development.

In "Against the Fetishising of Creativity', Gottfried Wagner (Director, European Cultural Foundation) argues that creativity can mean almost everything to everybody - and increasingly does so. It is seen as a cure-all to our current economic and societal woes. Creative industries are - as a spearhead example - heralded for creating a positive something out of virtually nothing. In that sense the budget less European Year of Creativity and Innovation can almost be seen as an example of creativity conjured out of very little. As well as meaning almost anything, creativity can produce almost anything too - and the content that does emerge need not either be good or do us good. The conditions favorable to creativity are essentially unknown, perhaps unknowable. Creativity is being hailed by free-market apologists, cultural/educational managers and national/EU politicians alike. Geopolitically, it could well rehabilitate old-style Euro centrism as "the West' pursues sharply competitive innovation in craven fear of becoming the museum of the world if it fails to compete. Global competition appears so dominant that societies and citizens tend to overlook the danger that the emphasis will be on gaining unilateral advantages as opposed to true interdependence. The situation is not beyond repair. We may yet be on the threshold of developing a new understanding of global interdependence and wellbeing, a project in which the creativity of all would serve all. After lessons are learned from the financial meltdown, civil society will have to become a key player in the creative reorganization of our economies; shared creative solutions to climatic and environmental problems will be needed, and creativity can bolster the new ethical political paradigm that is on the rise. The hoped-for result would be a culture of responsibility accompanied by creative citizenship.

Link:

www.eurocult.org