“European Identity – European Misunderstandings” – It may be that this issue is a problem that doesn’t actually exist, at least not in present-day art. Is that the real misunderstanding?

Artists are not ambassadors
The task of ambassadors is to represent their country. This is not the job of artists.
Governments sometimes have a tendency to use art and artists for representative purposes. Usually, though, such attempts go wrong.
Sometimes the art is too innocuous, and serves merely as adornment or decoration for a champagne reception. It is not disruptive, but neither is it really interesting. This type of presentation is known to those working in the field of cultural exchange as “embassy art”. “Embassy art” consists of lower-grade presentations organized by bodies with little cultural expertise. The name arose because such presentations are often staged in embassies.
Alternatively, the artists take the initiative. They act not in the accommodating and sugar-coated way that was expected of them, but are instead critical or indeed rebellious. That usually leads to problems.
We in the Berlin cultural administration have never considered that artists should play the role of diplomats. When we support presentations by artists abroad the first question we ask is: is the interest there? If an invitation has been issued and the costs are being absorbed, that is evidence that it is.
If we make the first move ourselves, for instance proposing a cultural exchange programme as part of a twinning arrangement between cities, we are happy to show something that we think is particularly interesting. Things can go wrong there too, if the partner city has completely different ideas. In my view, twinning programmes like this are often no longer relevant today, because cultural institutions that receive government support can conduct international discourse themselves.
National identity plays no role in culture sponsorship in Germany
And definitely not in Berlin. Nor are European identities important. Support for artists in Berlin is aimed at those who live in the city, be they Russian or American, Kurd or Turk, Swiss or German. That has been the policy for decades and it is probably the only way of running things, since Berlin has traditionally been made up of immigrants. Artists who were born, grew up and live in the city are a rarity.
Over the last 20 years, the contemporary art scene in Berlin has become very international. That is especially true of the independent sector. There are hardly any artists of significance who are not active internationally. This development occurred in music and the visual arts earlier than it did in the forms of art that work with language, but over recent years the independent stage scene has played host to increasing numbers of multilingual performances. As I see it, the most international field at present is contemporary dance.
Things may be different where folk art is concerned. In Germany, as in Switzerland, the promotion of culture is decentralized, and I occasionally receive questionnaires from other federal states which are designed to establish how regional customs and local art are supported. IÂ’m at a loss to answer these questions, since the only costume groups that receive support are those associated with the Carnival of the Cultures, which takes place at Whitsun every year and is attended by groups from around 150 countries. ItÂ’s a sector in which I have no experience.
Undiscovered, difficult and multiple identities
People often remain unaware that they embody something until they experience exclusion. At least, that was my experience. The first time I became aware of my national identity as a German was when I was a schoolgirl in London and another passenger refused to travel with me because of the crimes committed by the Nazis.
The first time someone took me for a European was in the US. Before then, I would never have imagined that there is such a thing as a European identity, because Europeans are so diverse.
A similar thing happened to the East Germans. The “citizen of the German Democratic Republic” – an empty propaganda phrase of little use to anyone as long as the GDR existed – became a reality once the state passed into history: millions of East Germans realized they had a background of shared experiences markedly different from that of the country they had joined.
The Germans began engaging seriously with the issue of their national identity at least as far back as the Romantics, and itÂ’s something that has caused them much discomfort. The issue is now back in the headlines, with discussions on issues such as assimilation and German culture and Germany as a country of immigration. It is not easy to appreciate that there are Russian or Turkish Germans who bring with them different kinds of cultural input. We have only just begun the process of intercultural learning, and the same is true of German society as a whole.
Where contemporary art is concerned, things are different: There is a global context within which most artists operate. It is a context within which multiple identities are accepted without question. There is great openness and also curiosity about things and people that are “other”. In this process, everyone will change their identity. Every work of art could carry a warning stating “Art can damage your identity” – but is that a bad thing? We are entitled to change. That’s what makes life interesting.