14 April 2019

Alliances of culture for a common European action:
A Soul for Europe Conference 2019 highlights the power of cultural alliances to purposefully influence the European process

In order to make better use of the specific potential art and culture have to create encounters between people and to thus become more effective for the European project, cultural actors need to forge alliances. Like any alliance, cultural alliances rely on networking and communication, gaining their power from pooling strengths and turning dialogue into action.

This conclusion was drawn at this year's A Soul for Europe Conference, which took place at the Akademie der Künste on 12 and 13 April, six weeks before the decisive European elections. The conference brought together leading representatives of the European political parties with artists and intellectuals from across Europe as well as actors from civil society in a multifaceted discussion and workshop programme.

Jeanine Meerapfel, President of the Akademie der Künste, presented her plan to create an alliance of academies for Europe.

Throughout the conference, the façade of the Akademie displayed a collection of posters for the “Vote together” campaign by artist Wolfgang Tillmans, calling to vote in the May elections in all European languages.

Read more in the press release.