Culture: A matter of life and death
Our team has worked widely in the cultural sphere in the UK, Central Europe and The Balkans. Both Memet and I have produced and directed movies, TV and documentaries for major broadcasters across all those regions, and in Memet’s case starred in many of them too. Both of us have worked in theatre and written for journals and newspapers and appeared on often on radio. The world of public culture is an integral part of our lives as creatives, consumers and commentators. There are always deadlines to meet, funds to chase and forms to fill. Very often organisations and artists vision can be moulded by the need to meet formal, official objectives in order to get their funding. Quality can become secondary to knowing how to meet KPIs in the evaluation report. Governments of all shades love nothing more than to meddle with cultural strategy and make their mark upon the arts world. What we sometimes lose track of is why we’re making art in the first place. What’s the point of all this endeavour, the hours the toil of production, the rejection, the frustration. What are we making art for?
That was why my attention was drawn to The Guardian and an article by Jaques Rupnik about Milan Kundera. Of course Kundera was writing in a time and a place when culture was undoubtedly a matter of life and death. Rupnik argues that he’s become more and more relevant over time especially his insights into the cultural and political relationship between a tortured central europe pulled between East and West. I was struck by this comment from Rupnik “The predicament of the small nations between Russia and Germany was that their existence was not “self-evident” but remained closely tied to the vitality of their culture, and historically intertwined with that of the west from which they had been “kidnapped” in 1945.” The highlights are mine. Kundera was thinking specifically about the Czechs, Hungarians and Poles but I couldn’t help abstract the notion that all small countries face a similar dilemma.
Without a vibrant, dynamic and ‘vital’ culture. what is the point of these small nations. Wales and other small nations need to nurture creatives and creativity as much as we all need to breath We need to make theatre and films, write poetry and books, paint and sculpt and dance as if our lives depend upon it not because we want to tick boxes but because we have to. Without culture we are nothing and that’s why, culture really remains a matter of life and death.
Dave Evans, Creative Producer