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The need to remember, the necessity to forget:
Memory, Identity and the future of Europe

Felix Meritis, Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
Date: 21-02-2003

Europe European Cultural Foundation (ECF): A lunch-time discussion on the
cultural and intellectual foundations of Europe as a community of citizens,
in collaboration with Felix Meritis and The Amsterdam - Maastricht Summer
University.

European Cultural Foundation in Amsterdam established a Reflection Group
consisting of several prominent European intellectuals in spring 2002, with
a mandate to consider in the course of two years some of the crucial issues,
determining the position of culture in Europe, especially in terms of
globalization, EU enlargement and the emerging Constitutional Treaty of the
EU.

On February 21, part of the Reflection Group meeting will take a form of a
public session in Felix Meritis. The debate will focus on the past and
future foundations of a European community in development. If the EU is to
be a community - and not just a market and a security arrangement among
several states - its citizens would have to share some experiences, values
and aspirations. Issues such as common European heritage, common European
cultural memory, and, inevitably European cultural identity would come into
discussion. What is the necessary 'investment' in the construction of this
common ground: what do we need to remember, but also what do we need to
forget, peripherize or ignore in order to allow the process to go on? The
common cultural heritage might be invoked as a solid starting point but the
assumption of commonness needs further scrutiny. How much past remembrances
and how much of future aspirations can the project of a European community
of citizens accommodate? Is collective amnesia or widespread ignorance of
some events in the past an obstacle or a welcome circumstance in some
specific cases?

The members of the Reflection Group are:
- Mr Massimo Cacciari, philosopher of Aesthetics; former major of Venice;
Professor of Philosophy at the San Raffaelle University of Milan.
- Mr Otto von der Gablentz, former Ambassador for Germany to Russia, Israël
and the Netherlands; former Rector of the College of Europe in Bruges;
Executive President of Europa Nostra.
- Mr Boris Groys, art historian and philosopher; Professor of Aesthetics,
Art History and Media Theory at the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie,
Karlsruhe, Germany.
- Ms Sonja Licht, President Open Society Belgrade; researcher for social and
political changes in East Europe and ex-Yugoslavia.
- Mr Michael Naumann, chief co-editor of Die Zeit; political scientist and
former professor at the Humboldt University Berlin; former German minister
for Culture.
- Mr Geert Mak, author; former lecturer of Law at the University of Utrecht;
journalist for the NRC (Dutch daily newspaper); editor of de Groene
Amsterdammer.
- Professor Andrei Plesu, former Minster of Culture and of Foreign affairs;
professor of Philosophy of Religion; author; Member of the National College
for the Study of the Former 'Securitate' Archives.
- Mr Maarten van Veen, Chairman of the Royal Concerthall Orchestra
Foundation, Amsterdam.
- Mr Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, theologist; philosopher; professor of Islam
Studies at the University of Leiden.
- Mr Zelimir Zilnik, film director; active as a director since 1969; dealing
with themes such as nationality and Eastern-European issues.

Moderator is Dr Dragan Klaic, a permanent fellow of Felix Meritis and
Professor of Theatre Studies at the University of Amsterdam.

Lunch and entrance free. Please make reservations at Felix Meritis (front
desk), or telephone: 020 623 13 11. Pick up your tickets before February 19.

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