Karl-Erik Norrman in conversation with Caroline Boyle
After a distinguished diplomatic career in the Swedish Foreign Ministry including posts in Moscow, Peking, Geneva, Rome, as Swedish Commissioner General in Expo 92, Seville, and as Head of the Cultural Department, Foreign Ministry, Karl-Erik Norrman is now Secretary-General of the European Cultural Parliament (ECP) based in Berlin.
Karl-Erik Norrman (in the centre) with José Manuel Barroso and Emilio Rui Vilar, Gulbenkian Foundation
What is the European Cultural Parliament and what is it trying to do? What was the impulse for setting it up?
It is a forum for outstanding artists and intellectuals from all parts of Europe including philosophers, historians, designers and architects as well as those involved in theatre, music, art and literature. It is not just a collection of the usual suspects in European cultural policy discourse, but is widening the net to include younger and lesser heard voices as well.
We believe artists are not listened to today by politicians to the degree they were say 100 years ago although they are frequently spokespeople for their generations in a way politicians no longer seem to be. We think this lack of mixing of ideas between artists and politicians means that a vital voice and energy is missing in today's political discourse. The European Union is dominated by technocrats.We want to help inject fresh vitality into what has become a rather stale and technical debate.
We also believe that sometimes not enough is being made of the opportunities offered by the European Capital of Culture programme. It has immense potential to bring people together from all parts of the Continent and beyond = Whilst successful at a local or regional level it has not often seizedthe possibilities of real international appeal or had genuinely long lasting results. This is a challenge.
Why call it a Parliament?
We took the name from something Yehudi Menuhin, the violinist, conductor andtireless contributor to religious, social, and environmental organisations throughout the world said in the year before he died: "Artists need a parliament". I never met him or spoke to him about this so I cannot be sure what he meant but we mean it as a provocation. We want to remind people that we in the artistic world can also be serious about politics and are here to help discuss important issues for Europe's future in different ways and with new audiences.We want to use all the arts to explore possible futures.
How do you choose ECP members and who are the members from the UK?
I was one of a dozen founder members - a group largely made up of former Ministers of culture. We started by brainstorming andnominated a core group of 40 top artists.The ECPmet for the first time in 2002 in Bruges, in the following years in Graz, Genoa, Lisbon and Turku. We seek a 50/50 balance between East and West. Our membership area is the larger Europe rather than just the EU - almost the equivalent membership of the Council of Europe - with 40 countries so far and we thereforehave artists fromcountriesin the East such as Russia, Ukraine, Georgia and Belarus. We try for a 50/50 gender balance, currently we have 45% female membership and an average age of around 40. Members are at the peak of their dynamism and influence professionally. They are all well-known cultural personalities in their own countries and need to be above all excellent communicators and tolike discussion. This is a parliament after all! Each member can nominate other members but they have to be from a country which is not their own. Each new host town or cityof the ECPalso invited to nominate 3 or 4 people from their regions. So we grow organically and are now 130 members.
UK members are: Jude Kelly, Chair of the Arts, Culture and Education Committee at London 2012, Professor Paul Robertson, founder of the Medici Quartet and Venu Dhupa from NESTA, the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts.
How does the Parliament operate?
We have one session per year in the autumn with debates focussed onone or two main themes. This year's meeting was in Turku in Finland and looked at "can culture help dissolve the European stalemate". We feed in our ideas to those we are trying to influence - in this case the European Commission, other EU institutions and the governments and media of member countries. We hope our ideas will be useful for various purposes: in the Plan D for democracy discussions for example, and above all in the the Lisbon Agenda 2000 as we believe culture and the creative industries have a huge role to play in the competitiveness of the Continent.
We also work on specific projects and areas of research. These include: the Nomadic University for the arts, philosophy and enterprise (NUROPE), Directors across borders in association with the international film festival in Yerevan, andwork on the positive effects on health of music.
Which languages do you work in?
English is our working language. It has to be. Sadly we cannot afford interpreting and translation services.
Jean Monnet is quoted as having said as he looked back on his career and the creation of the European Communities "If I could start again I would start with culture". What do you think he might have meant by this?
I am very sceptical that he said it at all. It is always reeled out when culture is looking for more support. If he did say it I think it was just one of these old menbefore the grave wanting to introduce some noble values of culture and humanisminto the prosaic economic/technical European reality. However, the quote -if itwas made- does highlight the need for greater recognition of the place of culture within the European Union. Culture could and should play an important rolefor future European cohesion.
Are you hopeful that politicians and others are listening to what the European Cultural Parliament has to say?
Yes. Very hopeful. It has taken some time since the end of the Cold War but I think now is a time when artists can speak and cooperate freely across borders as never before. For some of our members who remain outside the EU there are still problems with borders and visas and restrictions. For us in the EU we are all now free. Paradoxically when the Berlin Wall and Iron Curtain were in place, there might have been the excitement for artists from the West of the "forbidden love affair": the great desire to communicate mixed with the difficulty of communication and indeed great art was created from these times of great suffering and difficulty but we are now free to use our creative energies however we want. The challenge is: How are we going to use it in this New re-united Europe?
Next year is the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. In your experience and in talking and listening to others throughout Europe how important has the cultural element of the EU been? Do we understand and respect each other more or less or differently? What matters most culturally now? Do science and technology have more of an impact than the arts? How do you see things developing in the next ten years?
We are now facing a different world. At the beginning we were rebuilding the fabric of Europe, healing wounds, becoming friends. Even if we could not wholly forgive, we left some things behind to build something new and better together. We are slowly getting over that trauma. We develop now from what we have become through fifty years of peace and co-operation and slow integration. Science certainly has been rather important in the European project. Culture has not really been centre stage politically for the past fifty years but it remains a hugely significant force in society. Culture Ministers have rarely been the strongest or most important with portfolios subject to frequent change and holders with differing visions. A European identity is still lacking. There are few "European patriots". Culture can and does promote cohesion. It can show us how much we have in common - for good or ill, and it can also point at the future possibilities of cooperation and feelings of identity.The ECP believes that the European idea is based on a balance between respect for the differing cultures in Europe and cross-cultural tolerance and understanding. We continue to stand for common values, culture, identity and diversity and the promotion of bridge building. In the immediate future weintend to play a major role in the Year of Intercultural Dialogue in 2008 andwill work closely with European Capitals of Culture. We are looking forwardvery much to being involved with Liverpool Capital of Culture in 2008.
More about the ECP at www.kulturparlament.com