INTERVIEWS
Where does freedom start and end?
Interview with the Secretary General of Goethe-Institut Johannes Ebert by Vasiliki Grammatikogianni
How can we turn the city into a freedom zone for all? Do you think segregation is responsible for the rise of fascism in big European cities? Where does freedom start and end? Is the Europe we inhabit the Europe we want it to be? These were some of the questions that artists from European cities tried to answer within the framework of the FREIRAUM project, a project involving Goethe-Instituts in 42 European cities. Journalist Vasiliki Grammatikogianni met the Secretary General of Goethe-Institut, Johannes Ebert, in Berlin and asked him about the project. Here’s what he said.
Think about Freedom Historically
Interview with philosopher Juliane Rebentisch by Ekkehard Knörer
Neoliberalism wants people to serve as ultra-flexible performers, the new fundamentalisms want fixed, Procrustean identities. Both ideologies hugely determine our present-day social existence – and curtail our freedom in that they do not see that our ideas of freedom and self-determination change over time or will not let them change. Philosopher Juliane Rebentisch calls on democratic society not to suppress the historical aspect of freedom. She talks to Ekkehard Knörer about the pressure to achieve creative personal fulfilment, about the selfie culture, the two-way movement* of freedom, and about love and art.
Interview with the Secretary General of Goethe-Institut Johannes Ebert by Vasiliki Grammatikogianni
How can we turn the city into a freedom zone for all? Do you think segregation is responsible for the rise of fascism in big European cities? Where does freedom start and end? Is the Europe we inhabit the Europe we want it to be? These were some of the questions that artists from European cities tried to answer within the framework of the FREIRAUM project, a project involving Goethe-Instituts in 42 European cities. Journalist Vasiliki Grammatikogianni met the Secretary General of Goethe-Institut, Johannes Ebert, in Berlin and asked him about the project. Here’s what he said.
Think about Freedom Historically
Interview with philosopher Juliane Rebentisch by Ekkehard Knörer
Neoliberalism wants people to serve as ultra-flexible performers, the new fundamentalisms want fixed, Procrustean identities. Both ideologies hugely determine our present-day social existence – and curtail our freedom in that they do not see that our ideas of freedom and self-determination change over time or will not let them change. Philosopher Juliane Rebentisch calls on democratic society not to suppress the historical aspect of freedom. She talks to Ekkehard Knörer about the pressure to achieve creative personal fulfilment, about the selfie culture, the two-way movement* of freedom, and about love and art.
ESSAYS
"Illness as a political category"
"The time when we began existing"
Two essays by Iskra Geshoska, President of Kontrapunkt and program coordinator of the CRIC - Festival of Critical Culture in Skopje
President of the Curatorial Committee of Freiraum
"The time when we began existing"
Two essays by Iskra Geshoska, President of Kontrapunkt and program coordinator of the CRIC - Festival of Critical Culture in Skopje
President of the Curatorial Committee of Freiraum
CHAINREACTION
Thinking Across Europe
Intellectuals across Europe pose questions and offer their perspectives on the future of Freedom and Democracy.
Ainhoa Achutegui, Luxembourg
Michalis Attalides, Cyprus
Andreas Degkwitz, Germany
Nikita Dhawan, Austria
Diego Fernandez, Spain
Iskra Geshoska, North Macedonia
Nora Gomringer, Germany
Samuel Hamen, Germany
Cecilia Hansson, Sweden
Elnathan John, Nigeria/Germany
Beata Kowalska, Poland
Harry Liivrand, Estonia
Maxi Obexer, Germany
Rasmus Ohlenschlæger, Denmark
Despina Zefkili, Greece
Michalis Attalides, Cyprus
Andreas Degkwitz, Germany
Nikita Dhawan, Austria
Diego Fernandez, Spain
Iskra Geshoska, North Macedonia
Nora Gomringer, Germany
Samuel Hamen, Germany
Cecilia Hansson, Sweden
Elnathan John, Nigeria/Germany
Beata Kowalska, Poland
Harry Liivrand, Estonia
Maxi Obexer, Germany
Rasmus Ohlenschlæger, Denmark
Despina Zefkili, Greece
A GOOD EUROPEAN
EIGHT SHORT STORIES
At the latest since the Enlightenment in Europe, the concept of freedom has been of enormous importance to European identity. But the promise that this term held for a long time has apparently lost its charisma. For the people of Europe, being free is either too self-evident - or has taken on too many, often very different meanings. Freedom today has an indistinct value, conceptions of it often collide seemingly irreconcilably.
How shall we deal with this state of affairs? How shall we reconcile awareness of tradition and self-determination? How can permeable borders be reconciled with secure coexistence? Is peace freedom enough when one has emerged from war? Is capitalism freedom if one has previously undergone socialism?
Eight European authors endeavour to provide narrative answers to these questions. Their short stories reflect their different experiences and systemic influences. But there is a certain anxiety inherent in almost all their stories - fear of the loss of freedom, scepticism about what freedom stands for today, shame at the distinctions Europe is making.
How shall we deal with this state of affairs? How shall we reconcile awareness of tradition and self-determination? How can permeable borders be reconciled with secure coexistence? Is peace freedom enough when one has emerged from war? Is capitalism freedom if one has previously undergone socialism?
Eight European authors endeavour to provide narrative answers to these questions. Their short stories reflect their different experiences and systemic influences. But there is a certain anxiety inherent in almost all their stories - fear of the loss of freedom, scepticism about what freedom stands for today, shame at the distinctions Europe is making.
THE FUTURE HAS BEGUN
Report on Freiraum Festival 2020 by Uwe Rada
Commissioned by Goethe-Institut Brüssel
Translated by Eric Rosencrantz
In a polyphonic patchwork of talks, performances and local physical events, the Freiraum Festival held the last weekend of October delved into the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on civil liberties in Europe. (...) So, after three years, the Freiraum Festival was the culmination of the project up to this point. It was a hybrid and movable festival, mostly online owing to the pandemic, with events lined up all over Europe and masterfully, if remotely, moderated from down in Thessaloniki, Greece. The pandemic did not curtail all the freedoms necessary for a successful festival: on the contrary, in fact, it actually catalysed some key reactions.
Click below or download the pdf to read.
Click below or download the pdf to read.

freiraum2020_report_by_uwe_rada.pdf | |
File Size: | 41 kb |
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"CORONA ZWINGT UNS DAZU, IN UNSERER BLASE ZU BLEIDEN"
INTERVIEW WITH PHILIPPE VAN PARIJS, PHILOSOPHER, ECONOMIST AND PROFESSOR EMERITUS AT UCLOUVAIN
BY UWE RADA
Goethe-Institut Brüssel - Freiraum Festival 2020
Philippe Van Parijs is a guest professor at the Universities of Louvain and Leuven and a Robert Schuman Fellow at the European University Institute (Florence). He was the founding director of Louvain’s Hoover Chair of Economic and Social Ethics from 1991 to 2016, and a regular visiting professor at Harvard University from 2004 to 2008 and at the University of Oxford from 2011 to 2015. He is a member of Belgium’s Royal Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the British Academy. He was awarded the Francqui Prize in 2001 and the Arkprijs voor het Vrije Woord in 2011. He is one of the founders of the Basic Income Earth Network and chairs its Advisory Board.
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FREEDOM OF PRESS IN EUROPE
Goethe-Institut Brüssel, in collaboration with Beursschouwburg
Freiraum Festival 2020
The Big Conversation on freedom of the press in Europe today, organised in collaboration between Beursschouwburg and Goethe-Institut Brüssel, is a participatory, experimental discussion format with journalists and experts from NGO and institutions.
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THE WELFARE CITY IN TRANSITION
A Compilation of Texts and Images 1923-2020
Copenhagen Architecture Festival
Freiraum Festival 2020
Eds. Kristoffer Lindhardt Weiss, Pernille Maria Bärnheim and Signe Sophie Bøggild
Copenhagen: Danish Architectural Press, 2020
Reflecting on issues of democracy and freedom in relation to architecture, urban development and the welfare state.
The welfare city as we know it today is facing structural transformations, undermining the ideology of the post-war welfarism. As the welfare city has entered a new phase of market driven development, many of the challenges that the post-war welfare city's architects and decision makers dealt with resemble the present- day crises: financial crisis, migration crisis, democracy crisis, housing crisis, health crisis - and on top of it the major 'newcomer' crises of climate changes and the covid-19 pandemic.
Through a compilation of texts and images from different voices and decades the book presents key challenges and perspectives of the past, present and future of the Danish welfare city. It provides a critical map for reflection and action when tackling the urban issues of our time.
Copenhagen: Danish Architectural Press, 2020
Reflecting on issues of democracy and freedom in relation to architecture, urban development and the welfare state.
The welfare city as we know it today is facing structural transformations, undermining the ideology of the post-war welfarism. As the welfare city has entered a new phase of market driven development, many of the challenges that the post-war welfare city's architects and decision makers dealt with resemble the present- day crises: financial crisis, migration crisis, democracy crisis, housing crisis, health crisis - and on top of it the major 'newcomer' crises of climate changes and the covid-19 pandemic.
Through a compilation of texts and images from different voices and decades the book presents key challenges and perspectives of the past, present and future of the Danish welfare city. It provides a critical map for reflection and action when tackling the urban issues of our time.