It is painful to have to witness this unequal treatment and, despite requests and pleas, not to be heard by the appropriate corridors of power.
Anne-Sophie Mutter (20 Oct 20)
The combination of streaming services and pandemic actually presents a unique danger situation. Netflix's stock price skyrocketed while movie theatres are on artificial respiration.
Andreas Busche (28 Dec 20)
Anyone who doubts, for which there are good scientific reasons, the necessity and effectiveness of the authoritarian government measures to combat the pandemic is treated as if he wants people to die.
Andreas Rosenfelder (25 Apr 21)
Has the fear of the virus, in the words of Erich Fromm, long since mutated into a »fear of freedom«?
René Schlott (08 Feb 21)
Instead of giving up the current season under political constraint or in anticipatory obedience, the task is to finally pull the strings again.
Marco Frei, Christian Wildhagen (01 May 20)
Art is like air. When it's there and it's good, we don't perceive it. If it were gone, we would notice it.
Stephanie Lexer (31 May 20)
I attach great importance to not becoming lifeless.
Feridun Zaimoglu (06 May 20)
Our cultural life was not in the best condition even before the pandemic [...]. I fear that their long-term consequences are not yet clear to us in the least. The great [...] event culture will rise again. But what will become of all the more specific initiatives, venues, artists, less mainstream?
Andreas Staier (04 Nov 20)
There is much debate about why this disease now? What logic is behind it, what morality? Towards the end of your book and after reading Albert Camus' »The Plague«, Matteo comes to the conclusion that there is no morality that can be drawn from such epidemics.
Christoph Leibold (19 Jul 20)
I could imagine that Frankfurt would do well to think about it right now: How can this trade fair be changed? I think it would be a mistake to simply assume that you can carry on as usual.
Elisabeth Ruge (13 Oct 20)
The aids that have been applied are all very unfortunate because they mostly do not apply at all to the professional model of freelance actors, freelance artists.
Jochen Schölch (29 Dec 20)
I know famous accompanying musicians, who usually stand with the biggest German stars on the biggest stages of our country, who are now sitting at the supermarket checkout.
Heinz Rudolf Kunze (17 Sep 20)
With little funding, a lot could be done in the freelance sector - but there is a catch: This would officially recognize that there is a two-tier system in classical music.
Frederik Hanssen (16 Nov 20)
It is not new that our analog concept of the creative person around the book has become more challenging. But Corona is dramatically accelerating the development here. This poses a considerable problem for us.
Ulrich Wellhöfer (02 Apr 20)
It's interesting that we keep an eye on the theatre repertoire business when we all have time for completely different artistic activities and formats.
Nicolas Stemann (29 Jan 21)
I am not given enough thought about the economic consequences of these step-by-step decisions. The entire sector is insecure, paralyzed, there is no basic timetable for what is possible under what conditions and when.
Julius Frack (15 May 20)
They only know entrepreneurs with employees and obviously do not know at all how we work and what we need after we have been banned from the profession.
Nadine M. (07 Jun 20)
Art dealers must hope that [...] they will not already be suffering the cathartic side effects of the pandemic. This would not only be an economic damage, but also a cultural damage. Museums do not have the monopoly on the basic supply of art.
Marcus Woeller (19 Apr 20)
Artists give away their work for free on the net. This reinforces the impression that this is a hobby. They like to do it and everybody is allowed to participate.
Helmut Mauró (02 May 20)
This creative industry most recently achieved a value added of 253 billion euros, accounting for 4.4 percent of the EU's gross domestic product. In short, it ranks as "a European heavyweight.
Stefan Weiss (26 Jan 21)
On top of all that, the Arts Council’s funding requirements now place “relevance” over “excellence” as the highest goal of British theater.
Helen Lewis (12 May 20)
If it were purchases, it would be good, if it were other aids, it is at least welcome. I see it positively and also find it great that Mrs. Grütters is directing money towards galleries. But as I said, purchases would be sustainable.
Rupert Pfab (27 Sep 20)
At the moment there are mainly panic reactions. I don't see any issues negotiated yet.
Cornelia Fiedler (22 May 20)
Just the idea that school classes would follow mathematics lessons in the peace and quiet of a museum for months, receive social studies from Joseph Beuys and discuss history in the stalls of a [...] theater hall - what an outrageous gain.
Catrin Lorch (11 Nov 20)
Being profitable would be the wrong expression. But in fact, we're getting there. We receive support from the Hamburg Department of Culture and therefore we keep afloat.
Corny Littmann (13 Aug 20)
Already in the almost six weeks of the current closure time between March 11 and April 19, the Residenz Theatre will lose revenues of an estimated 650,000 euros.
Tobi Müller (08 Apr 20)
It is true that the many millions [...] are also intended to »award new contracts to freelancers and solo self-employed persons«, as the »Neustart« programme states. It remains to be seen whether this measure will really account for the lion's share in the end or whether it will be invested in Plexiglas panes for everyone.
Ingo Arend (08 Jul 20)
In my view, there is no cultural shortage in children's rooms. A free reading by authors brings no added value to entertainment.
Salah Naoura (25 Mar 20)
It's a curious situation we have right now. For example, if I live as an artist in Hamburg, then I'm lucky. If I live a few kilometres away in Lower Saxony, then I've had bad luck.
Olaf Zimmermann (12 Jun 20)
Everything that is fun and innovative will then disappear. Or it will be bought up by big companies and streamlined until all events look the same.
Julia Gudzent (21 Sep 20)
The Chancellor and the heads of state are obviously interested in making it really bang loudly so that even the last one understands that the summer with its freedoms is over. The theaters are only one of several pawn sacrifices.
Georg Kasch (28 Oct 20)
The Corona crisis remains the great art obstacle to classical music. In the USA everything lies idle until January. In Paris, everything is falling apart anyway. In Germany a kind of classical allotment garden is blooming.
Manuel Brug (20 Jun 20)
In Austria, the cultural nation, the following obviously applies: politicians and cultural bureaucracies are waiting for suggestions, organizers are waiting for guidelines. One could despair of this sluggishness if there weren't folk musicians, church musicians and counterexamples.
Hedwig Kainberger (02 Jun 20)
When we show up, nobody is seeing us. When we don't show up,we won't be missed.
Maren Kroymann (14 May 20)
It's hard to remember a time when culture in this country was considered so dangerous that it had to be locked away and banned from public space.
Roman Bucheli (30 Dec 20)
Is it inconceivable to put artists in a position to bridge the next eight, nine, maybe even twelve months without slipping into total depression because of unintentional and undeserved misery?
Anne-Sophie Mutter [u.a.] (19 Apr 20)
So much creative energy has been pent up everywhere during the pandemic, and now it's time to put it to good use!
Gerald Mertens (02 Feb 21)
This is a different mode, but also a chance to present art in a completely different and contemporary way to art aficionados.
Wolfgang Ullrich (17 Mar 20)
It would be ironic if TV streaming services were to make lockdown millions while the very source of our acting, producing, writing and directing talent pool was allowed to die.
Sam Mendes (05 Jun 20)
But if the theaters are really interested in acting as the social laboratory as which they like to see themselves, then they could use the pandemic stop as a pause for reflection to negotiate their own future.
Björn Bicker (20 Jul 20)
The tone in the social networks is becoming increasingly bitter. After all, private aid initiatives have formed.
Eva-Maria Magel (22 Apr 20)
Events of the ten signing Houses of Literature were attended by around 70,000 visitors last year with around 1,400 dates with approximately 3,000 contributors.
Die zehn Häuser der Literatur (11 May 20)
The current chapter of the Leipzig Trade Fair: For now, a vaccination center is moving into the halls. The hope remains: There will be good times again.
Martin Hoferick (29 Jan 21)
Why do we need the cinema? [...] It is about experiencing the increasingly rare protected offline space. Somewhere we have to come back to ourselves, be unreachable and relocate ourselves in our bodies, in the presence of aliveness.
Edgar Reitz (04 Jun 20)
Both, we have lost many jobs. So we had an idea: There's an issue out there, we have time, we're off now.
Thomas Victor (23 May 20)
The Leipzig Book Fair will be all the more sorely missed this year as a forum and a place of self-exploration for an industry whose identity crisis is becoming increasingly apparent.
Helmut Böttiger (29 Jan 21)
Currently we are all experiencing a shortage of the big movies. But perhaps this is an opportunity for the European film industry, but also for Europe as a whole: to establish a new form of communication about films.
Carlo Chatrian (17 Sep 20)
The infection rate that we now see going up has nothing to do with civilized events like concerts, cabaret, theater and that drives the artists crazy!
Volkmar Halbleib (28 Sep 20)
The Minister for Culture and Science in NRW has warned that culture must be careful not to always demand a special treatment. The scene should not >move too far out of the social consensus,< she said. What on earth is the offense of the scene?
Max Moor (08 Nov 20)
The crisis reveals that many self-employed people do not have a business model that can cope with any change from a normal situation. [...] The attitude that crisis and old-age provision for the creative people is a problem for later has no future.
Dieter Haselbach, Pius Knüsel (27 Jul 20)
The answer to the virus can only be that charity goes viral. And if that sounds too pious to someone, he simply calls it solidarity, which is contagious.
Pastor Sieghard Wilm (01 Nov 20)
It is the core challenge of publishers and at the same time the magic of our work to bring the market and the art together. It is a deeply social process.
Tom Kraushaar (27 Mar 20)
We are an important part of the economic cycle: we pay an unbelievable amount during the year to art shippers, art fairs, construction teams, to the Artists' Social Welfare Fund....
Rupert Pfab, Galerist (28 Apr 20)
We think all the time, what can we actually do to positively influence the situation and that is frighteningly little.
Farin Urlaub, Die Ärzte (23 Oct 20)
On the other hand, the Book Fair is a place of lived freedom of opinion and publication. This is also an important pillar of the Frankfurt Book Fair and this pillar will be there.
Alexander Skipis (08 Sep 20)
Nevertheless, culture is indispensable, and therein lies its paradox: it is always both a total luxury product and an elementary medium in which a community agrees on what it considers important or unimportant
Dirk Peitz (05 Jun 20)
I'm really worried that when we open again, not everyone will be there because people have decided to do something else after this long stretch.
Carsten Brosda (11 Feb 21)
There is no protection for workers in the United States, which is why there are mass layoffs in the art world, in galleries and museums.
Vincenzo de Bellis (03 Jun 20)
The protection of life is - in the truest sense of the word - not a killer argument to legitimise arbitrary, limitless restrictions on other freedoms.
Christian Hillgruber (09 Dec 20)
We don't let autumn take us away. Books are more important than ever.
Joe Lendle (12 May 20)
You can fly in a full plane, travel in a bus, but people don't trust us to follow the rules and instead people celebrate in the park.
Erik Kühn (02 Oct 20)
The time of simply expressing opinions is over.
Peter Sloterdijk (02 May 21)
The whole discussion is mined. One can actually only make a mistake at the moment when one tries to make justified legitimate criticism of the measures.
Ulrike Guérot (24 Apr 21)
Absurd. There is no meadow, no pub, no shop, no subway and no cabinet as far apart as the Philharmonie.
Egbert Tholl (25 Jun 20)
We need to enter into resistance. We are going to invade churches, shopping malls, auction houses... and we will put on shows!
Samuel Churin (15 Dec 20)
Perhaps the cultural shutdown also comprises some good points, in so far as one can learn to appreciate Benjamin's “unique appearance of a distance as close as it may be”. Unlike kitchen art an aura cannot be simulated by definition »simply at home«.
Richard Kämmerlings (27 Apr 20)
We want to write a manifesto to the president, all of us, thousands of Marseillians, to make it clear that there is no reason at all to sacrifice culture in this situation.
Benoît Payan (30 Jan 21)
This year is a complete write-off, and if it continues like this, then at least for me I can no longer work as a freelance writer, if no money comes in through book sales and readings, then I have no income.
Michael Stavarič (25 Sep 20)
If so many who work in the private and publicly funded art business can currently survive only with aid packages, something is wrong with the entire system. Something has to change radically here.
Iris Dressler (23 May 20)
If we want to survive this crisis reasonably in the cultural sector, then there must be additional subsidies for a specific culture fund.
Olaf Zimmermann (25 May 20)
This almost sounds like a self-abandonment of classical book culture. Corona doesn't seem to be the only virus the industry is suffering from. If in the end a virus called anxiety causes even greater damage, that would be fatal.
Paul Jandl (17 Jul 20)
Artists and cultural institutions have no lobby and had to serve as "soft targets" for measures that politicians had not dared to implement elsewhere.
Nicolas Freund (05 Jul 20)
That's the perversion of the whole story. We are not a swimming center. It's not like we can close in one day and on December 1st we open again and the audience is back.
Louwrens Langevoort (29 Oct 20)
Today, doubt is permissible, even desirable, and basically also the driving force of liberal societies to move forward by questioning what is already there.
Ralf Schuler (25 Apr 21)
Now everyone is surprised that the great cheers about the reopened museums are missing. Many visitors are still sceptical. Many museums had hoped for completely different numbers than they can now present.
Wolfgang Ullrich (14 Jul 20)
The bottom line is that "Neustart Kultur" [Restart Culture] is nevertheless only a small program, a drop in the ocean, on which especially private artists are threatened with thirst.
Anne Sailer (24 Aug 20)
It’s hard not to feel abandoned by American society as an arts worker.
Georgina Pazcoguin (23 Sep 20)
We had a certainty that concerts would take place, that trips could be made, that tours would take place [...]. All that is really really shaken, shattered, you could say.
Marie König (15 Feb 21)
As soon as it becomes the rule to override fundamental constitutional rights at will with every new challenge, democracy is damaged.
Dieter Hallervorden (09 Nov 20)
It was difficult to get a view, to see or to read corona-distant, even non-corona topics, but with the first easings this is slowly changing again. But now Corona literature snapshots?
Gerrit Bartels (06 May 20)
[...] perhaps that will be the essence of after-pandemic criticism. More personal, more to the point, more empathetic, more open and less formulaic.
Philip Kennicott (29 Nov 20)
The past few years have already seen pushback against the art world’s gross socio-economic inequities [...]. Even before Covid, it was high time for a reset.
Jane Kallir (22 Jun 20)
It is true that the event industry as a whole needs urgent help, survival aid. The distress is enormous.
Tom Koperek (22 Jun 20)
I have seldom seen the audience so grateful, everyone was incredibly happy that there are cultural offers again, and it became clear: literature is a nutrient.
Heike Strecker (19 Jun 20)
In doing so, it is time to give the small, local events as the ecological garden prior to intensive agriculture, [...] the individual artist prior to the culture industry employee the focus and empathy they have long lost.
Karl-Werner Joerg (26 Dec 20)
Our work stands for diversity and freedom of opinion, for knowledge and pluralism, for emotional, intellectual and cultural exchange, innovation in thinking and the intellectual creation of new - and sometimes better - worlds.
Netzwerk Autorenrechte (05 Jun 20)
However, when the going gets tough, people pretend that self-employment was above all self-realisation and nobody could expect society to take responsibility for it now.
Jagoda Marinic (12 Jun 20)
In 2019 there were almost 800 film releases, this year we might not even get 200, and even worse, we're not getting the films we need to attract an audience.
Michael Pawlowski (05 Sep 20)
If we high-frequency culture users were a political party, we would fail at the five per cent hurdle in every election.
Peter Grabowski (01 Feb 21)
The play that our stages have to play right now is called: »Struggle for survival« – not only of artists, but of an enlightened and open society [...].
Axel Brüggemann (27 Oct 20)
At the moment my job here in the theater is to actually take care of the inner life. Not mine, but that of the many staff members, because it feels very different than in March, when we were in a phase of the emerging spring [...].
Karin Beier (29 Sep 20)
Nobody is completely submerged, swimming against the current is exhausting, but sometimes clever thoughts go through your head.
Sabine Seifert (29 Jul 20)
Now that the Book Fair has been subjected to this ordeal, it is clear what this unique, crazy, sensory event has always been: always too crowded, always too loud, always too expensive, always a risk. But at the same time, it is also a fascinating place to negotiate spirit and goods [...].
Sandra Kegel (04 Jul 20)
The existence of the entire cultural and event industry is currently under threat.
Theater Alte Brücke, Sachsenhausen (13 Mar 20)
»The show must go on, no matter how difficult it is.« It's an overused expression, but I think it's the essence of theater.
Hideki Noda (05 Mar 20)
How can the art world react to the fact that the institutions are so geared towards tourism and large exhibitions.
Daniel Birnbaum (30 Apr 20)
The fact that critical contemporary art of all things leaves a lousy carbon footprint is deeply absurd. A new museum culture could slow down the carousel, if only because in future either the works travel or the viewers do. Not both.
Catrin Lorch (05 Jul 20)
A two-man duel in the penalty area is hardly less intimate than the kissing scene from William Shakespeare's "Othello".
Egbert Tholl, Reinhard J. Brembeck (08 May 20)
During the Frankfurt Book Fair, there is always such a rapid rise in the level of debates in German media - and this is another reason why the silence this week is so spooky.
Felix Stephan (17 Oct 20)
In the Corona crisis we experience a strange recourse to images. But pictures do not help us to understand the situation from a distance, neither in Bergamo nor in New York.
Daniel Kehlmann (06 May 20)
What is needed are the open spaces of art that make exchange and reflection possible - including on how Corona is changing our society.
Barbara Mundel (22 Oct 20)
The real and the beautiful is often created under precarious conditions. So far, hardly anyone has been interested in this. This should make the audience and the press blush of embarrassment..
Gero Schließ (30 May 20)
There is a concern that there will be less opportunity to give presents because of fewer celebrations. However, confidence is based on the fact that customers more often choose cheap gift books than expensive skis in times of crisis.
Michael Wurmitzer (09 Nov 20)
It is about raising awareness that the artistic values ??that are created are more than aesthetics. They are basically life-sustaining spaces of reflection and scope for society as a whole.
Ulrich Khuon (19 Apr 20)
Give back culture to the Bavarian people! Unfortunately, State Premier Söder and Minister of Culture and Science Sibler react completely ignorantly and arrogantly.
Dr. Axel Schertel (07 Jul 20)
It is incomprehensible to us why it is possible to keep DIY stores, car showrooms and other stores open, but museums, which have the same or more generous areas for corona-friendly public traffic, are closed.
Deutsche Museumsdirektoren (01 Nov 20)
In houses like Baden-Baden and the Berlin Philharmonic, the air conditioning is just as good, and the economic hardship is just as great. If airplanes are allowed to be packed, then so are the concert halls. This requires equal treatment.
Reinhard J. Brembeck (22 May 20)
Of course I would like us to [...] sing again soon. But I also know that when we sing, when we speak, aerosol clouds are created. And I think it's important that this is now being scientifically investigated.
Kerstin Rosenfeldt (03 Jul 20)
Never has the book, never has literature been so valuable, so important, as a place of escape, as a retreat, as a source of new, different thoughts - and for a long time the symptoms of economic crisis have not been as threatening as in 2020.
Gerrit Bartels (08 Oct 20)
The Corona virus crisis revealed clearly that very many artists are not safeguarded and that it is more than ever necessary for artists to be able to insure themselves against unemployment, for example.
Caroline Richards (17 Jun 20)
So far there is not a single proven infection in a theater [...]. In this respect, this is not at all a place that is suitable to meet the rising incidence value.
Marc Grandmontagne (15 Oct 20)
I think it is also simply too rigid how culture is treated.
Gunter Gebauer (24 Oct 20)
The precarious conditions under which so many freelancers work in the cultural sector must be reconsidered in future funding policy.
Ulrike Groos (07 Jul 20)
If we assume that more and more rich people want to buy social status, charisma, and appreciation with art, there are no sales worries for the art markets, rather supply problems.
Christian Herchenröder (17 Dec 20)
Theaters, opera houses and concert halls have been proven not to be places of infection. Their excessive restriction therefore does not contribute to the containment of the occurrence of infection, and is therefore disproportionate.
Deutscher Bühnenverein (27 Oct 20)
There will also be a new appreciation for how precious each seat is. Because then there are fewer houses in the country that play, fewer performances, fewer places. Theater tickets will be the hot shit in Berlin!
Oliver Reese (23 May 20)
If we are honest, the question of what costs what is no longer an issue. [...] The thing that is really depressing the population at the moment is that we have these limitations when it comes to social contacts.
Olaf Zimmermann (26 Oct 20)
We all hoped so much that business would restart in autumn, but now no one can come from China or America. And the Spanish or French collectors will also drop out.
Esther Schipper (11 Sep 20)
The plans for the next season had to be completely revised and reorganized in the last weeks. But we have succeeded [...] in developing new visions for this coming, extraordinary season.
Oliver Reese (19 Jul 20)
So we need more fear-free discourse, which is obviously not easy in the face of Corona. That's one of the lessons we should learn from #allesdichtmachen.
Markus Gabriel (26 Apr 21)
Despite the arts sector being the first and worst hit sector, and likely the last to recover, the budget fails to provide a roadmap for the sector based on bold, strategic vision and long-term recovery.
Leya Reid (08 Oct 20)
What is actually needed in parallel is an instrument for short-time work for the artists.
Heike Herold (04 Jul 20)
I surmise that this time, if it ever comes to an end, if we can overcome this pandemic, we will all emerge traumatized. I don't think it's something you can simply terminate.
Lars Eidinger (18 Nov 20)
Rather, the bitter impression that the significance of culture is so low, despite your lip service in recent months, that the first solution to the rising number of infections seems to be: »Is this art? Then let's get rid of it!«
GMD- und Chefdirigent*innenkonferenz (02 Nov 20)
Then, however, Hesse, as the federal pioneer, opened up before all the other states again at once. Announced on Friday it was fact on Monday. Nobody could get up that fast. Theatres are tankers, complex, interlinked systems.
Manuel Brug (20 May 20)
For everything that is not subsidized in the field of classical music, the prospects look extremely dismal at the moment.
Karsten Witt (08 May 20)
I would like to see a more relaxed view on the risks of life. After all, we don't take away the driving license of every second driver because he is a potential cause of accidents.
Matthias Goerne (13 Sep 20)
What costs nothing is worth nothing.
Georg Scharegg (22 Dec 20)
Singing in closed rooms is prohibited, period.
Maria Ossowski (29 Jun 20)
The employer's contribution to the artists' social security fund KSK is paid not only by the state, but also by the companies in the art and culture industry with their duties. Since the cultural industry has come to a standstill, these are now missing, and the existence of the artists' social security fund is endangered.
Brigitte Werneburg (09 Nov 20)
We are also there to hold up the mirror to society and to initiate discussions. But if everyone has to eke out a living with side jobs, there can be no more social criticism in the future.
Petra Tobies (08 Aug 20)
I had actually written another book. When the virus came, he snuck in there relatively quickly. Then I thought, what does he want here. He wanted to get in there.
Lola Randl (28 Aug 20)
In music, the audience is part of the communication. Clapping, reacting, empathizing is a crucial part of a live experience. It is very difficult to reproduce this digitally via livestream.
Dr. Pop (08 May 20)
Many people no longer want to accept the situation. If it continues, the consequences for human coexistence and social peace will be almost incalculable.
Alexander Skipis (23 Feb 21)
I just think things out: I have looked at the plans from the WHO, from the Federal Government. Then I researched everywhere and made a story out of it, and now that story is about to become reality.
Klaus-Peter Wolf (06 Mar 20)
What really worries me is that in public discourse, especially in the leading media, [...] very, very little art and culture has appeared. That means both the question: How are you? How do you work? And also: How do you, dear artists, think about this situation? What is your contribution?
Stephan Behrmann (02 Oct 20)
In 2020, we still had the income from 2019, in which Corona played no role at all. But that means that in 2021 we will have the full loss of the German Performing Rights Society (GEMA) payment, because in 2020 only a fraction of the concerts were performed.
Christiane Albiez (03 Feb 21)
While permanent employees would receive short-time work compensation, the loss of earnings of artists would be "completely negated". In many cases, at least.
Karin Finkenzeller (14 Jun 20)
What would have to happen? You now have the opportunity to rattle a few cages.
Jörg Biesler (02 Aug 20)
I lose a lot of my potential audience. And as someone who doesn't have a regular readership, that's not the best thing.
Jasmin Schreiber (06 Apr 20)
The film industry in Austria stands for an economic output of approximately 1.4 billion. We are now running for our economic life and for this survival a state default liability related to Corona is essential.
Oliver Auspitz (16 May 20)
The pandemic has not only negatively impacted the creative sector in Africa, but it has also exposed its shortcomings.
Ribio Nzeza Bunketi Buse (28 Dec 20)
Culture is one of the major location factors in the region. With the "Stage-Drive" offer, we can support the cultural industry having employed many people, who are currently sentenced to inaction because of Corona.
Jörg Schaub, Geschäftsführer der Wirtschaftsinitiative Frankfurt/Rhein-Main (22 May 20)
[...] Wednesday's package of federal and state resolutions, on the other hand, pushes culture into the annex, which lists the closure orders still in force, between "restaurants, bars, clubs" and "prostitution facilities", between beer and brothels.
Andreas Kilb (18 Apr 20)
Nobody has to come up with investigations anymore, really. Or do they after all? Exactly with this? With the investigation of what happens and what remains when a community experiences a collective heartbreak, a general disaster?
Simone Buchholz (28 Oct 20)
The digital life, an aid in times of distress, will not be able to replace our need for a home. Not satisfying our thirst for shelter.
Carmen-Francesca Banciu (20 Nov 20)
The frustration and with freelancers also the fear are nevertheless understandable. But culture needs better ideas about itself. Better arguments for what it is there for. And for what it is not. Culture, for example, is not there for everyone.
Tobi Müller (29 Oct 20)
You may call it kitschy or embarrassingly pathetic: But the soul of many people needs some solace in the pre-Christmas season. Solace with music, with concerts, with theaters, with musicals, with art. Culture helps to survive the most emotionally challenging time of the year.
Maria Ossowski (26 Nov 20)
We are already in our fourth month. There is no longer any hope for the goodwill of the real estate industry.
Lutz Leichsenring (20 Jul 20)
Nevertheless, artists should not be allowed to commit themselves to the role of the poor creative in the quiet closet. You should occasionally make it clear to your audience that good art is a scarce good that costs something.
Elke Buhr (08 Apr 20)
For freelance musicians, the federal government has made it much easier to apply for basic social care, also known as 'Hartz IV'. But many find it humiliating to go to the job center.
Eva Blaskewitz (02 Jun 20)
Creative industries will lose an estimated 2.7 million jobs and more than $150 billion in sales of goods and services, amounting to nearly a third of creative-industry jobs and almost 10% of annual sales.
Richard Florida & Michael Seman (11 Aug 20)
It is very uncomfortable that nobody spoke to us directly.
Arne Höhne, Freiluftkino Friedrichshain (23 May 20)
Not hugging, not touching, moving at least one and a half metres away from the neighbour - for people who consciously communicate with their bodies every day, this is a maximum penalty.
Dorion Weickmann (12 May 20)
Well. Does culture suddenly no longer have to explain that it is not a luxury that you only have to worry about once survival is assured?
Kolja Reichert (25 Apr 20)
When I hear this relentlessly rigorous Karl Lauterbach, I would like to recommend Juli Zeh's novel »Corpus Delicti« and a little grain of the author's sense of freedom.
Arno Orzessek (25 May 20)
A logistical adventure is currently taking place in the rehearsal rooms: routing people with masks to the rooms, then let them play without masks, but with the distances that they must not exceed.
Michael Schmitz-Aufterbeck (31 May 20)
Wouldn't the time be right for a special solidarity payment for the wealthiest in this probably harsh autumn and an impending full lockdown?
Herbert Grönemeyer (04 Nov 20)
Much more is possible than is currently in our minds.
Marc Grandmontagne (05 Sep 20)
That is strange. I was just at the ticket office, and people don't want to give their tickets back at all, they prefer to see the schedule for December already. They push it into the theater, and yet I think there is a weaning effect in the long run.
Christian Stückl (02 Nov 20)
If I find the measures inconsistent, arbitrary and not effective enough, however, how will the rioters and haters in the web feel?
Dorothea Marcus (31 Oct 20)
The criteria for evaluating art in the digital world are missing. Just because something is done digitally doesn't mean it is the hot shit.
Anika Meier (02 Jun 20)
Artists, especially those who are not permanently employed, have to improvise permanently, have to do things they are not qualified for, they all almost become entrepreneurs as independent artists.
Julian Nida-Rümelin (18 Oct 20)
I think that even if the shields were to be released in the fall and the audience would willingly think them away, that would not be possible. I see what I see. With masks it would be funny, you hardly see the actor, you don't really hear him.
Jan Bosse (26 May 20)
It is the very own task of the management of a state theater to guarantee the operation of the play in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.
Angela Dorn (26 Sep 20)
We were closed with restaurants and bars, but they’ve been open for a while, and it’s actually safer to be in a theater because you keep your mask on.
Catherine Russell (26 Oct 20)
While some are looking for the vaccine and others are discussing whether it is actually a good thing, we at least provide in theatre a vaccine against mental incrustation and aberration.
Nicolas Stemann (25 May 20)
I would just like to see that the contribution that we make to the containment of Covid-19 is not rendered moot by keeping, say, the ski resorts open.
Nicolas Stemann (22 Dec 20)
The 2020 budget is more uncertain than any budget I have ever experienced.
Claudia Rütsche (10 Aug 20)
If there was ever a time that the world needed artists, it is now. In the aftermath of the virus, when the world is rebuilding itself, the cities have to step up.
Hans Ulrich Obrist (05 May 20)
The true state religion in this country is to have permanent positions. This explains the Corona special regulations and billions in aid. In the case of the self-employed, the state acts as if they themselves are to blame for the lack of orders.
Sascha Lobo (09 Dec 20)
Galleries such as Pace, Gagosian (which furloughed its part-time staffers in April), and David Zwirner (which laid off nearly 40 employees this month) all took in between $2 million and $5 million.
(07 Jul 20)
Dynamic situation is already my unword of the year.
Stephan Thanscheidt (17 Aug 20)
We don't know yet how long the Corona period will last. If older actors are systematically not cast, this could result in age discrimination.
Heinrich Schafmeister (17 Jun 20)
A final climax, a bright final chord - and then? No cheering. No bravos. Only dead silence after a sensationally good concert, a strong plea for New Music and an appeal for more music in lonely times. And I am close to tears. Rattle still quietly says "Bless you. Thank you so much." - and releases you into silence.
Jens Lehmann (13 Mar 20)
As far as gross value concerned, we have added value that is only surpassed by the automotive industry. We have more than the chemical industry, we have more than the financial service providers. In 2018, we generated in our sector more than 100 billion euros in gross value added.
Noam Zur (29 May 20)
Grönemeyer considers cultural workers to be civil servants of a public enterprise on behalf of the nation's services for the public.
Rainer Hank (15 Nov 20)
The balance sheet is of course devastating. After almost six months of lockdown, three months of really bad business, we have a 70 percent drop in sales.
Christine Berg (20 Dec 20)
Now it's about not complaining, but still offering theater in all its facets - if you let us. At the moment we are allowed to do so, and now we have to show that it is right.
Uwe Lohr (13 Sep 20)
When I look at how solo artists are doing: There are many of them who have no income and have to live with short-term support again and again [...], then I think we should perhaps use this break to think a little bit about the future.
Amelie Deuflhard (05 Nov 20)
Recently, Jens Spahn also warned against events. He meant private celebrations, but he said: events. After that our advance ticket sales collapsed because people thought it was too dangerous to go to the theatre.
Wiebke Eymess (23 Sep 20)
[...] first the business life and then we can take care of sports and culture. I find that such a purely populist statement, which is after all said by a prime minister who is one of the leading figures in the management of the Corona crisis. That does pull the plug.
Ulrich Khuon (07 Sep 20)
Will the ticket inspectors measure the temperature of visitors in the future?
Jörg Häntzschel (19 May 20)
And then I worry about all my colleagues and friends who work as freelancers. Nobody knows what should happen to them when concerts simply no longer take place.
Geoffry Wharton (12 Mar 20)
The decision affects the wrong people, it touche them to the quick, it is destructive, because culture is not relevant to the system, this term from the financial crisis is only annoying. Culture is relevant to existence, it is relevant to life.
Maria Ossowski (29 Oct 20)
For me, this will be the first Christmas in 20 years without performances, without children's laughter and without mulled wine with colleagues.
Kerstin Dathe (26 Nov 20)
There won't be any viewers crowding into a sold-out house close to each other and glowing with joy, and that's not because of the quality of the program.
Nicolas Stemann (11 May 20)
And so films are shot all over the republic, with sometimes quite different restrictions ranging from very strict to rather lax. And also with double standards: On the set, we pay attention to distances. After the shooting is over, we meet in the beer garden without masks.
Jörg Seewald (16 Jul 20)
"United We Stream" won't help us to rescue the clubs. Just for Berlin, 10 million per month are needed for personnel, rent, leasing contracts, etc. to save the venues.
Lutz Leichsenring (28 May 20)
These freelance photographers, along with many other freelancers, are probably the poorest pigs in the corona crisis. Yes, there is a lot to photograph. But the commissions are missing.
Steffen Grimberg (07 May 20)
A general strike up to a hunger strike would literally show how much the culture, namely the creative people, are starved.
Peter Weibel (28 Apr 20)
To shape better policies, national and subnational governments need more and better evidence on the economic and social impact of cultural and creative sectors.
OECD (07 Sep 20)

❮ ❯

Quo vadis ars?

The situation in the cultural sector has been described and discussed in numerous interviews, corona diaries, comments and reports in the past few weeks. Our annotated collection of currently 193 sources gathers voices from different sectors and media. This creates a picture of the cultural landscape in crisis, whose temporal transformation can be explored interactively via a dedicated tag cloud.

Mein Europa: Ohne Kunst und Kultur wird's still
My Europe: Without art and culture it will be quiet.

by Carmen-Francesca Banciu (20 Nov 2020)
Original source: Deutsche Welle

With the reference "Without art and culture it will be quiet", cultural workers are currently drawing attention to the existential threat to the cultural industry posed by the corona lockdown, an industry that was already precarious before the crisis. But what does this mean in concrete terms?
The writer Carmen-Francesca Banciu makes it clear in her column at Deutsche Welle with an appeal by Nancy Bass Wyden, the owner of the New York Strand Book Shop on the corner of 12th Street and Broadway: »We need help.« Institutions like the world -famous antiquarian bookstore are facing the end of their existence in the face of the consequences of Corona if they do not receive support. This does not only apply to the Strand Book Shop but also to the »Dussmann in Berlin, Dom Knigi in St. Petersburg, Dominicans in Maastricht, Libreria Aqua Alta in Venice, Atlantic Books on Santorini, Livraria Lello & Irmao in Porto, Desperate Literatur in Madrid, Carturesti in Bucharest« - the list could be extended by many, many more bookstores, cultural department stores or record stores. All of these are places where not only books were sold, but also meeting places for authors, musicians, artists, readers, critics and all other culture enthusiasts. Places which, because of their special atmosphere, became the backdrop for films and whose charisma not only represents the European spirit, but which also became a spiritual home for their visitors. This cannot be captured by streaming music or theater performances. This is why the statement »Without art and culture it will be quiet« is so important at the moment: When the world becomes quiet, according to Carmen-Francesca Banciu, it becomes dark within us. This must be avoided.

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tag Buchhandlungen Kulturkaufhäuser Streaming geistige Heimat Prekariat Strand Book Shop New York
All sections Gastkolumne

Corona zum Weihnachtsgeschäft: Wie es dem Buchhandel in der Krise geht
Corona for the Christmas business: How the book trade is doing in the crisis

by Michael Wurmitzer (09 Nov 2020)
Original source: Der Standard

Actually, the sales figures for the Austrianbook industry in Corona times look good. Following slumps of minus 41 and minus 65 percent in March and April respectively, the figures for the fall were actually slightly higher than the previous year. But if you take a closer look at the figures, like Helmut Zechner from the bookshop Heyn in Klagenfurt and Chairman of the Austrian Booksellers Association, the situation looks different. If you take the online giant Amazon out of the statistics, the bookstores are left with an annual minus of twelve percent. The can cellation of the Buch Wien book fair and the lockdown now give booksellers reason to fear the worst, as the industry in Austria generates a third of its annual sales in November and December. Contemporary literature in particular is now suffering from the lack of attention to new publications. It is difficult to say whether the lack of readings and events is actually the cause of the drop in sales. Small publishing houses in particular are making a living from live events, while the large corporations have currently stepped up their social media activities and are increasingly offering online readings. On the other hand, small publishers in particular have a more loyal core audience. In addition, many publishers have slimmed down their fall program considerably, while large bookstore chains like Thalia are increasingly focusing on hygiene concepts. Thalia even offers pick-up machines in Vienna to provide customer-friendly service during the crisis. The reduction in value-added tax is also currently a great help to the industry - although there are already indications that this will not be extended beyond the turn of the year. So the only thing that remains to be hoped for is a good Christmas business so that the book industry in Austria can get through the crisis well.

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tag Buchhandel Verlage Buchmesse Amazon Umsatz Weihnachtsgeschäft Hygienekonzept
Literature/ Text Bericht

Sprachmacht und Sachertorte . Österreichische Literatur in der Coronakrise
Power of language and the Sacher cake . Austrain literature during corona crisis

by Irene Binal (25 Sep 2020)
Original source: Deutschlandfunk Kultur

In a feature on the current situation of Austrian literature, the topic of Corona, which is currently a major concern for all creative artists, should not be missing, in addition to the great role models, the special features of the publishing landscape and the coffee house culture in Vienna.
The author Michael Stavarič, who accompanies the journalist Irene Binal through Vienna, is particularly affected by the crisis, as his current novel "Fremdes Licht" (Strange Light) was published in spring. About 30 lectures were cancelled, interviews and meetings w ere missed. After four years of work, there is now a lack of income and the author is thinking about whether life as a freelance writer can still afford to live in the next few years.
Despite comparable hardship, many Austrian authors do not feel that state support is adequate. With the project "Work instead of Alms" Marlen Schachinger wanted to set an example in this situation. Through a crowdfunding campaign she has raised about 20,000 €. Most of the money came from readers and is used to pay not only for the anthology itself but above all for the fees of the about 20 authors.

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tag Literatur Österreich Arbeit statt Almosen Marlen Schachinger Michael Stavarič Umsatzeinbruch Crowdfunding
Literature/ Text Feature

Buchhandel setzt auf Digitalpräsenz . Frankfurter Buchmesse ohne Aussteller
Book trade focuses on digital presence . Frankfurt Book Fair without exhibitors

by Alexander Skipis, Britta Bürger (08 Sep 2020)
Original source: Deutschlandfunk Kultur

At a press conference, the director of the Frankfurt Book Fair, Juergen Boos, announced the cancellation of the presence fair in the exhibition halls in Frankfurt. The decision was made together with all publishers and representatives of the national booths. In the end, the restrictions, especially the travel restrictions, were too great to adhere to the presence event.
The fair is an important pillar for the book industry. Since a digital offering was also planned from the outset, Alexander Skipis, General Manager of the German Publishers & Booksellers Associ ation (Börsenverein des deutschen Buchhandels), assumes that the presence of books will be maintained. As before, there will also be physical events in Frankfurt where authors can be experienced live.
As a further mainstay, a digital rights trading platform will enable publishers to handle the rights business, which has been important at the fair to date. However, personal exchange will not be possible at this point.
Another important pillar of the Book Fair is intellectual exchange and freedom of opinion and the press. These topics will also be dealt with online and in face-to-face events. Such online offerings will certainly not reach as many readers as a presence fair. The intensive encounter will therefore play a major role in 2021.

There will be a series of physical events in Frankfurt. In addition to the award ceremonies - Book Prize and Peace Prize - there will be readings in the festival hall. They will be distributed simultaneously through the media and can be accessed worldwide. Nevertheless, it should not be overlooked that the lack of attention to the book will damage the book market. Sales will probably not really be satisfactory in the autumn of 2020 either.

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tag Buchbranche Buchmesse Frankfurt Lesung Alexander Skipis virtuelles Angebot
Literature/ Text Interview

Wie Autorinnen und Autoren in der Corona-Krise geholfen wird . Rettungspaket »Neustart Kultur«
How authors are getting help in the Corona crisis . Rescue package »Neustart Kultur«

by Anne Sailer (24 Aug 2020)
Original source: mdr Kultur

Within the framework of "Neustart Kultur" [Restart Culture], authors are also to be supported in three subprograms. The aim of the programs is to generate public attention in order to boost sales. In addition to an internet platform on which 100 authors can present themselves and receive €500 each for their contribution, there is also the program "Thousand Literary Reencounters". Here the authors receive 1000€ each. In the third line of funding, interactive programs for children and young people are supported.
The German Literature Fu nd was commissioned by the German Federal Cultural Minister of State Monika Grütters, to distribute the money. This means that the association is faced with a very special task, since its task is more to promote aesthetically demanding literature that has few chances on the market.
One author whose film can already be viewed on the Literature Fund website is Daniela Danz. She applied for the first subprogram with a sketch of her ideas. Now she can be watched walking through the grass in rubber boots and reading the opening poem of her new poetry collection. Even though everything appears very relaxed in the video, it took her many attempts until the timing was right. Even if the offer seems very low-threshold, the technical realization is still a challenge. The German Literature Fund received far more project proposals than there is money for. But even for those authors who are allowed to present themselves in a video, the program is only a drop in the ocean. What would really help is a return to normality, with real readings in front of an attentive audience.

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tag Autorenförderung Neustart Kultur Deutscher Literaturfonds Monika Grütters Daniela Danz
Literature/ Text Bericht

Macht die Theater zu – und fangt von vorne an . Theater als Gesellschaftslabor
Close the theaters - and start from scratch . Theater as social laboratory

by Björn Bicker (20 Jul 2020)
Original source: BR Kultur

Björn Bicker considers the slogan of the »crisis as an opportunity«, which is often used in connection with the Corona pandemic, to be one of the last possibilities to save the German-speaking publicly financed theater landscape. His analysis of the situation is unsparing: at the theaters, which are predominantly run by despots, plays are now only performed for a parallel society. The white, well-off middle class is having its theaters financed by an increasingly diverse society.
The compulsory pause, which was heralded by the lockdown, could have been used as a pause for reflection. The standstill was a chance to reflect on the conditions of their own work. But instead of devoting themselves to the question of what a theater of tomorrow might look like, many houses fell into a digital hyper-actionism. Readings, short scenes up to entire performances were put on the net. The opportunity is not yet gone. Instead of continuing to indulge in an actionism that does not reach society, performing theater should pause for a while. This time can be used not only to find a new togetherness in the houses, but also to seek dialogue with a diverse audience at round tables. In this way, concepts for a theater of tomorrow can be developed. The utopia that Bicker creates is that of the municipal theater as a prototype of social development. Whether it really remains a utopia is up to the institutions themselves.

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tag Theater Denkpause Krise als Chance
Performing Arts/ Cinema Zwischenruf

Die Buchbranche leidet und macht Verluste . Ein Virus namens Angst greift um sich
The book industry suffers and makes losses . A virus called anxiety is spreading

by Paul Jandl (17 Jul 2020)
Original source: Neue Züricher Zeitung

Even before the crisis, things did not look bright in the book industry. In recent years, the number of people who regularly buy a book has fallen steadily. The Corona crisis, during which many switched to other media and Amazon preferred to deliver toilet paper instead of books, reinforced this trend. At the end of May, the industry recorded a loss of 17.5 percent compared to the previous year. And so many publishers are reacting with a cost-cutting programme.
Just how hard the industry is struggling with its reinvention was shown by the squabbles surrounding the Frankfurt Book Fair in October. Many publishing companies have since cancelled their participation after the people in charge decided very early on to hold the Fair with an alternative concept. In Frankfurt, for example, people are now thinking about transforming the industry meeting into a creative festival where, besides literature, music, pop and gaming are also present. At the moment it is to be feared that anxiety is causing much more damage in the industry than the virus.

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tag Buchbranche Buchmesse Neustart Kultur Umsatzeinbruch zweiter Frühling
Literature/ Text Bericht

»Literatur ist ein Lebensmittel!« . Erste Lesungen nach der Corona-Krise
»Literature is a nutrient!« . First readings after the Corona crisis

by Börsenblatt Online (19 Jun 2020)
Original source: Börsenblatt

The first readings after the lockdown have found an enthusiastic audience, but the booksellers still want to wait until autumn before organising new readings, because from an economic point of view the events are a risk. Despite good sales figures at the book table and sold-out readings, large rooms have to be rented and the supervision of the event is personnel-intensive due to the hygiene concept.

tag Literatur Lesung Hygieneregeln
Literature/ Text Bericht

War’s das mit dem Wumms? . Aktionsplan und Stellungnahme des Netzwerk Autorenrechte (NAR) zum Konjunkturpaket „NEUSTART KULTUR“
That's it with the oomph? . Action plan and statement of the Network of Authors' Rights (NAR) on the economic stimulus package "NEW START CULTURE"

by Netzwerk Autorenrechte (05 Jun 2020)
Original source: Netzwerk Autorenrechte

The economic stimulus package passed by the federal government provides hardly any subsidies for the book sector. The Network of Authors' Rights (NAR) is calling for improvements in this respect so that authors and translators are not pushed into social welfare (Hartz IV). Various funding possibilities are outlined and the importance of literature not only as a source of knowledge and education, but also as an economic factor is pointed out.

tag Buchbranche Konjunkturpaket Hartz IV
Literature/ Text Statement

Kein »Zurück auf Los« für die Kultur
No »Go back to square one« for culture

by Gero Schließ (30 May 2020)
Original source: Deutsche Welle

Beside aviation, tourism and gastronomy, the pandemic has hit culture hardest. The cultural and creative industries are still waiting for the saving stimulus package that will compensate for the consequences and maintain the infrastructure. What is already foreseeable: the damage in the cultural sector is gigantic and it will have long-term effects. Part of the problem is the large number of employees who live on the edge of the subsistence level and have no reserves. This raises the fundamental cultural-political question of how to improve the situation after the crisis .

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It is painful to have to witness this unequal treatment and, despite requests and pleas, not to be heard by the appropriate corridors of power. Anne-Sophie Mutter (20 Oct 20)

The combination of streaming services and pandemic actually presents a unique danger situation. Netflix's stock price skyrocketed while movie theatres are on artificial respiration. Andreas Busche (28 Dec 20)

Anyone who doubts, for which there are good scientific reasons, the necessity and effectiveness of the authoritarian government measures to combat the pandemic is treated as if he wants people to die. Andreas Rosenfelder (25 Apr 21)

Has the fear of the virus, in the words of Erich Fromm, long since mutated into a »fear of freedom«? René Schlott (08 Feb 21)

Instead of giving up the current season under political constraint or in anticipatory obedience, the task is to finally pull the strings again. Marco Frei, Christian Wildhagen (01 May 20)

Art is like air. When it's there and it's good, we don't perceive it. If it were gone, we would notice it. Stephanie Lexer (31 May 20)

I attach great importance to not becoming lifeless. Feridun Zaimoglu (06 May 20)

There is much debate about why this disease now? What logic is behind it, what morality? Towards the end of your book and after reading Albert Camus' »The Plague«, Matteo comes to the conclusion that there is no morality that can be drawn from such epidemics. Christoph Leibold (19 Jul 20)

I could imagine that Frankfurt would do well to think about it right now: How can this trade fair be changed? I think it would be a mistake to simply assume that you can carry on as usual. Elisabeth Ruge (13 Oct 20)

The aids that have been applied are all very unfortunate because they mostly do not apply at all to the professional model of freelance actors, freelance artists. Jochen Schölch (29 Dec 20)

I know famous accompanying musicians, who usually stand with the biggest German stars on the biggest stages of our country, who are now sitting at the supermarket checkout. Heinz Rudolf Kunze (17 Sep 20)

With little funding, a lot could be done in the freelance sector - but there is a catch: This would officially recognize that there is a two-tier system in classical music. Frederik Hanssen (16 Nov 20)

It is not new that our analog concept of the creative person around the book has become more challenging. But Corona is dramatically accelerating the development here. This poses a considerable problem for us. Ulrich Wellhöfer (02 Apr 20)

It's interesting that we keep an eye on the theatre repertoire business when we all have time for completely different artistic activities and formats. Nicolas Stemann (29 Jan 21)

I am not given enough thought about the economic consequences of these step-by-step decisions. The entire sector is insecure, paralyzed, there is no basic timetable for what is possible under what conditions and when. Julius Frack (15 May 20)

They only know entrepreneurs with employees and obviously do not know at all how we work and what we need after we have been banned from the profession. Nadine M. (07 Jun 20)

Art dealers must hope that [...] they will not already be suffering the cathartic side effects of the pandemic. This would not only be an economic damage, but also a cultural damage. Museums do not have the monopoly on the basic supply of art. Marcus Woeller (19 Apr 20)

Artists give away their work for free on the net. This reinforces the impression that this is a hobby. They like to do it and everybody is allowed to participate. Helmut Mauró (02 May 20)

This creative industry most recently achieved a value added of 253 billion euros, accounting for 4.4 percent of the EU's gross domestic product. In short, it ranks as "a European heavyweight. Stefan Weiss (26 Jan 21)

On top of all that, the Arts Council’s funding requirements now place “relevance” over “excellence” as the highest goal of British theater. Helen Lewis (12 May 20)

If it were purchases, it would be good, if it were other aids, it is at least welcome. I see it positively and also find it great that Mrs. Grütters is directing money towards galleries. But as I said, purchases would be sustainable. Rupert Pfab (27 Sep 20)

At the moment there are mainly panic reactions. I don't see any issues negotiated yet. Cornelia Fiedler (22 May 20)

Just the idea that school classes would follow mathematics lessons in the peace and quiet of a museum for months, receive social studies from Joseph Beuys and discuss history in the stalls of a [...] theater hall - what an outrageous gain. Catrin Lorch (11 Nov 20)

Being profitable would be the wrong expression. But in fact, we're getting there. We receive support from the Hamburg Department of Culture and therefore we keep afloat. Corny Littmann (13 Aug 20)

Already in the almost six weeks of the current closure time between March 11 and April 19, the Residenz Theatre will lose revenues of an estimated 650,000 euros. Tobi Müller (08 Apr 20)

In my view, there is no cultural shortage in children's rooms. A free reading by authors brings no added value to entertainment. Salah Naoura (25 Mar 20)

It's a curious situation we have right now. For example, if I live as an artist in Hamburg, then I'm lucky. If I live a few kilometres away in Lower Saxony, then I've had bad luck. Olaf Zimmermann (12 Jun 20)

Everything that is fun and innovative will then disappear. Or it will be bought up by big companies and streamlined until all events look the same. Julia Gudzent (21 Sep 20)

The Chancellor and the heads of state are obviously interested in making it really bang loudly so that even the last one understands that the summer with its freedoms is over. The theaters are only one of several pawn sacrifices. Georg Kasch (28 Oct 20)

The Corona crisis remains the great art obstacle to classical music. In the USA everything lies idle until January. In Paris, everything is falling apart anyway. In Germany a kind of classical allotment garden is blooming. Manuel Brug (20 Jun 20)

When we show up, nobody is seeing us. When we don't show up,we won't be missed. Maren Kroymann (14 May 20)

It's hard to remember a time when culture in this country was considered so dangerous that it had to be locked away and banned from public space. Roman Bucheli (30 Dec 20)

Is it inconceivable to put artists in a position to bridge the next eight, nine, maybe even twelve months without slipping into total depression because of unintentional and undeserved misery? Anne-Sophie Mutter [u.a.] (19 Apr 20)

So much creative energy has been pent up everywhere during the pandemic, and now it's time to put it to good use! Gerald Mertens (02 Feb 21)

This is a different mode, but also a chance to present art in a completely different and contemporary way to art aficionados. Wolfgang Ullrich (17 Mar 20)

It would be ironic if TV streaming services were to make lockdown millions while the very source of our acting, producing, writing and directing talent pool was allowed to die. Sam Mendes (05 Jun 20)

But if the theaters are really interested in acting as the social laboratory as which they like to see themselves, then they could use the pandemic stop as a pause for reflection to negotiate their own future. Björn Bicker (20 Jul 20)

The tone in the social networks is becoming increasingly bitter. After all, private aid initiatives have formed. Eva-Maria Magel (22 Apr 20)

Events of the ten signing Houses of Literature were attended by around 70,000 visitors last year with around 1,400 dates with approximately 3,000 contributors. Die zehn Häuser der Literatur (11 May 20)

The current chapter of the Leipzig Trade Fair: For now, a vaccination center is moving into the halls. The hope remains: There will be good times again. Martin Hoferick (29 Jan 21)

Why do we need the cinema? [...] It is about experiencing the increasingly rare protected offline space. Somewhere we have to come back to ourselves, be unreachable and relocate ourselves in our bodies, in the presence of aliveness. Edgar Reitz (04 Jun 20)

Both, we have lost many jobs. So we had an idea: There's an issue out there, we have time, we're off now. Thomas Victor (23 May 20)

The Leipzig Book Fair will be all the more sorely missed this year as a forum and a place of self-exploration for an industry whose identity crisis is becoming increasingly apparent. Helmut Böttiger (29 Jan 21)

Currently we are all experiencing a shortage of the big movies. But perhaps this is an opportunity for the European film industry, but also for Europe as a whole: to establish a new form of communication about films. Carlo Chatrian (17 Sep 20)

The infection rate that we now see going up has nothing to do with civilized events like concerts, cabaret, theater and that drives the artists crazy! Volkmar Halbleib (28 Sep 20)

The Minister for Culture and Science in NRW has warned that culture must be careful not to always demand a special treatment. The scene should not >move too far out of the social consensus,< she said. What on earth is the offense of the scene? Max Moor (08 Nov 20)

The crisis reveals that many self-employed people do not have a business model that can cope with any change from a normal situation. [...] The attitude that crisis and old-age provision for the creative people is a problem for later has no future. Dieter Haselbach, Pius Knüsel (27 Jul 20)

The answer to the virus can only be that charity goes viral. And if that sounds too pious to someone, he simply calls it solidarity, which is contagious. Pastor Sieghard Wilm (01 Nov 20)

It is the core challenge of publishers and at the same time the magic of our work to bring the market and the art together. It is a deeply social process. Tom Kraushaar (27 Mar 20)

We are an important part of the economic cycle: we pay an unbelievable amount during the year to art shippers, art fairs, construction teams, to the Artists' Social Welfare Fund.... Rupert Pfab, Galerist (28 Apr 20)

We think all the time, what can we actually do to positively influence the situation and that is frighteningly little. Farin Urlaub, Die Ärzte (23 Oct 20)

On the other hand, the Book Fair is a place of lived freedom of opinion and publication. This is also an important pillar of the Frankfurt Book Fair and this pillar will be there. Alexander Skipis (08 Sep 20)

Nevertheless, culture is indispensable, and therein lies its paradox: it is always both a total luxury product and an elementary medium in which a community agrees on what it considers important or unimportant Dirk Peitz (05 Jun 20)

I'm really worried that when we open again, not everyone will be there because people have decided to do something else after this long stretch. Carsten Brosda (11 Feb 21)

There is no protection for workers in the United States, which is why there are mass layoffs in the art world, in galleries and museums. Vincenzo de Bellis (03 Jun 20)

The protection of life is - in the truest sense of the word - not a killer argument to legitimise arbitrary, limitless restrictions on other freedoms. Christian Hillgruber (09 Dec 20)

We don't let autumn take us away. Books are more important than ever. Joe Lendle (12 May 20)

You can fly in a full plane, travel in a bus, but people don't trust us to follow the rules and instead people celebrate in the park. Erik Kühn (02 Oct 20)

The time of simply expressing opinions is over. Peter Sloterdijk (02 May 21)

The whole discussion is mined. One can actually only make a mistake at the moment when one tries to make justified legitimate criticism of the measures. Ulrike Guérot (24 Apr 21)

Absurd. There is no meadow, no pub, no shop, no subway and no cabinet as far apart as the Philharmonie. Egbert Tholl (25 Jun 20)

We need to enter into resistance. We are going to invade churches, shopping malls, auction houses... and we will put on shows! Samuel Churin (15 Dec 20)

Perhaps the cultural shutdown also comprises some good points, in so far as one can learn to appreciate Benjamin's “unique appearance of a distance as close as it may be”. Unlike kitchen art an aura cannot be simulated by definition »simply at home«. Richard Kämmerlings (27 Apr 20)

We want to write a manifesto to the president, all of us, thousands of Marseillians, to make it clear that there is no reason at all to sacrifice culture in this situation. Benoît Payan (30 Jan 21)

This year is a complete write-off, and if it continues like this, then at least for me I can no longer work as a freelance writer, if no money comes in through book sales and readings, then I have no income. Michael Stavarič (25 Sep 20)

If so many who work in the private and publicly funded art business can currently survive only with aid packages, something is wrong with the entire system. Something has to change radically here. Iris Dressler (23 May 20)

If we want to survive this crisis reasonably in the cultural sector, then there must be additional subsidies for a specific culture fund. Olaf Zimmermann (25 May 20)

This almost sounds like a self-abandonment of classical book culture. Corona doesn't seem to be the only virus the industry is suffering from. If in the end a virus called anxiety causes even greater damage, that would be fatal. Paul Jandl (17 Jul 20)

Artists and cultural institutions have no lobby and had to serve as "soft targets" for measures that politicians had not dared to implement elsewhere. Nicolas Freund (05 Jul 20)

That's the perversion of the whole story. We are not a swimming center. It's not like we can close in one day and on December 1st we open again and the audience is back. Louwrens Langevoort (29 Oct 20)

Today, doubt is permissible, even desirable, and basically also the driving force of liberal societies to move forward by questioning what is already there. Ralf Schuler (25 Apr 21)

Now everyone is surprised that the great cheers about the reopened museums are missing. Many visitors are still sceptical. Many museums had hoped for completely different numbers than they can now present. Wolfgang Ullrich (14 Jul 20)

The bottom line is that "Neustart Kultur" [Restart Culture] is nevertheless only a small program, a drop in the ocean, on which especially private artists are threatened with thirst. Anne Sailer (24 Aug 20)

It’s hard not to feel abandoned by American society as an arts worker. Georgina Pazcoguin (23 Sep 20)

We had a certainty that concerts would take place, that trips could be made, that tours would take place [...]. All that is really really shaken, shattered, you could say. Marie König (15 Feb 21)

As soon as it becomes the rule to override fundamental constitutional rights at will with every new challenge, democracy is damaged. Dieter Hallervorden (09 Nov 20)

It was difficult to get a view, to see or to read corona-distant, even non-corona topics, but with the first easings this is slowly changing again. But now Corona literature snapshots? Gerrit Bartels (06 May 20)

[...] perhaps that will be the essence of after-pandemic criticism. More personal, more to the point, more empathetic, more open and less formulaic. Philip Kennicott (29 Nov 20)

The past few years have already seen pushback against the art world’s gross socio-economic inequities [...]. Even before Covid, it was high time for a reset. Jane Kallir (22 Jun 20)

It is true that the event industry as a whole needs urgent help, survival aid. The distress is enormous. Tom Koperek (22 Jun 20)

It is painful to have to witness this unequal treatment and, despite requests and pleas, not to be heard by the appropriate corridors of power.
Anne-Sophie Mutter (20 Oct 20)

The combination of streaming services and pandemic actually presents a unique danger situation. Netflix's stock price skyrocketed while movie theatres are on artificial respiration.
Andreas Busche (28 Dec 20)

Anyone who doubts, for which there are good scientific reasons, the necessity and effectiveness of the authoritarian government measures to combat the pandemic is treated as if he wants people to die.
Andreas Rosenfelder (25 Apr 21)

Has the fear of the virus, in the words of Erich Fromm, long since mutated into a »fear of freedom«?
René Schlott (08 Feb 21)

Instead of giving up the current season under political constraint or in anticipatory obedience, the task is to finally pull the strings again.
Marco Frei, Christian Wildhagen (01 May 20)

Art is like air. When it's there and it's good, we don't perceive it. If it were gone, we would notice it.
Stephanie Lexer (31 May 20)

I attach great importance to not becoming lifeless.
Feridun Zaimoglu (06 May 20)

There is much debate about why this disease now? What logic is behind it, what morality? Towards the end of your book and after reading Albert Camus' »The Plague«, Matteo comes to the conclusion that there is no morality that can be drawn from such epidemics.
Christoph Leibold (19 Jul 20)

I could imagine that Frankfurt would do well to think about it right now: How can this trade fair be changed? I think it would be a mistake to simply assume that you can carry on as usual.
Elisabeth Ruge (13 Oct 20)

The aids that have been applied are all very unfortunate because they mostly do not apply at all to the professional model of freelance actors, freelance artists.
Jochen Schölch (29 Dec 20)

I know famous accompanying musicians, who usually stand with the biggest German stars on the biggest stages of our country, who are now sitting at the supermarket checkout.
Heinz Rudolf Kunze (17 Sep 20)

With little funding, a lot could be done in the freelance sector - but there is a catch: This would officially recognize that there is a two-tier system in classical music.
Frederik Hanssen (16 Nov 20)

It is not new that our analog concept of the creative person around the book has become more challenging. But Corona is dramatically accelerating the development here. This poses a considerable problem for us.
Ulrich Wellhöfer (02 Apr 20)

It's interesting that we keep an eye on the theatre repertoire business when we all have time for completely different artistic activities and formats.
Nicolas Stemann (29 Jan 21)

I am not given enough thought about the economic consequences of these step-by-step decisions. The entire sector is insecure, paralyzed, there is no basic timetable for what is possible under what conditions and when.
Julius Frack (15 May 20)

They only know entrepreneurs with employees and obviously do not know at all how we work and what we need after we have been banned from the profession.
Nadine M. (07 Jun 20)

Art dealers must hope that [...] they will not already be suffering the cathartic side effects of the pandemic. This would not only be an economic damage, but also a cultural damage. Museums do not have the monopoly on the basic supply of art.
Marcus Woeller (19 Apr 20)

Artists give away their work for free on the net. This reinforces the impression that this is a hobby. They like to do it and everybody is allowed to participate.
Helmut Mauró (02 May 20)

This creative industry most recently achieved a value added of 253 billion euros, accounting for 4.4 percent of the EU's gross domestic product. In short, it ranks as "a European heavyweight.
Stefan Weiss (26 Jan 21)

On top of all that, the Arts Council’s funding requirements now place “relevance” over “excellence” as the highest goal of British theater.
Helen Lewis (12 May 20)

If it were purchases, it would be good, if it were other aids, it is at least welcome. I see it positively and also find it great that Mrs. Grütters is directing money towards galleries. But as I said, purchases would be sustainable.
Rupert Pfab (27 Sep 20)

At the moment there are mainly panic reactions. I don't see any issues negotiated yet.
Cornelia Fiedler (22 May 20)

Just the idea that school classes would follow mathematics lessons in the peace and quiet of a museum for months, receive social studies from Joseph Beuys and discuss history in the stalls of a [...] theater hall - what an outrageous gain.
Catrin Lorch (11 Nov 20)

Being profitable would be the wrong expression. But in fact, we're getting there. We receive support from the Hamburg Department of Culture and therefore we keep afloat.
Corny Littmann (13 Aug 20)

Already in the almost six weeks of the current closure time between March 11 and April 19, the Residenz Theatre will lose revenues of an estimated 650,000 euros.
Tobi Müller (08 Apr 20)

In my view, there is no cultural shortage in children's rooms. A free reading by authors brings no added value to entertainment.
Salah Naoura (25 Mar 20)

It's a curious situation we have right now. For example, if I live as an artist in Hamburg, then I'm lucky. If I live a few kilometres away in Lower Saxony, then I've had bad luck.
Olaf Zimmermann (12 Jun 20)

Everything that is fun and innovative will then disappear. Or it will be bought up by big companies and streamlined until all events look the same.
Julia Gudzent (21 Sep 20)

The Chancellor and the heads of state are obviously interested in making it really bang loudly so that even the last one understands that the summer with its freedoms is over. The theaters are only one of several pawn sacrifices.
Georg Kasch (28 Oct 20)

The Corona crisis remains the great art obstacle to classical music. In the USA everything lies idle until January. In Paris, everything is falling apart anyway. In Germany a kind of classical allotment garden is blooming.
Manuel Brug (20 Jun 20)

When we show up, nobody is seeing us. When we don't show up,we won't be missed.
Maren Kroymann (14 May 20)

It's hard to remember a time when culture in this country was considered so dangerous that it had to be locked away and banned from public space.
Roman Bucheli (30 Dec 20)

Is it inconceivable to put artists in a position to bridge the next eight, nine, maybe even twelve months without slipping into total depression because of unintentional and undeserved misery?
Anne-Sophie Mutter [u.a.] (19 Apr 20)

So much creative energy has been pent up everywhere during the pandemic, and now it's time to put it to good use!
Gerald Mertens (02 Feb 21)

This is a different mode, but also a chance to present art in a completely different and contemporary way to art aficionados.
Wolfgang Ullrich (17 Mar 20)

It would be ironic if TV streaming services were to make lockdown millions while the very source of our acting, producing, writing and directing talent pool was allowed to die.
Sam Mendes (05 Jun 20)

But if the theaters are really interested in acting as the social laboratory as which they like to see themselves, then they could use the pandemic stop as a pause for reflection to negotiate their own future.
Björn Bicker (20 Jul 20)

The tone in the social networks is becoming increasingly bitter. After all, private aid initiatives have formed.
Eva-Maria Magel (22 Apr 20)

Events of the ten signing Houses of Literature were attended by around 70,000 visitors last year with around 1,400 dates with approximately 3,000 contributors.
Die zehn Häuser der Literatur (11 May 20)

The current chapter of the Leipzig Trade Fair: For now, a vaccination center is moving into the halls. The hope remains: There will be good times again.
Martin Hoferick (29 Jan 21)

Why do we need the cinema? [...] It is about experiencing the increasingly rare protected offline space. Somewhere we have to come back to ourselves, be unreachable and relocate ourselves in our bodies, in the presence of aliveness.
Edgar Reitz (04 Jun 20)

Both, we have lost many jobs. So we had an idea: There's an issue out there, we have time, we're off now.
Thomas Victor (23 May 20)

The Leipzig Book Fair will be all the more sorely missed this year as a forum and a place of self-exploration for an industry whose identity crisis is becoming increasingly apparent.
Helmut Böttiger (29 Jan 21)

Currently we are all experiencing a shortage of the big movies. But perhaps this is an opportunity for the European film industry, but also for Europe as a whole: to establish a new form of communication about films.
Carlo Chatrian (17 Sep 20)

The infection rate that we now see going up has nothing to do with civilized events like concerts, cabaret, theater and that drives the artists crazy!
Volkmar Halbleib (28 Sep 20)

The Minister for Culture and Science in NRW has warned that culture must be careful not to always demand a special treatment. The scene should not >move too far out of the social consensus,< she said. What on earth is the offense of the scene?
Max Moor (08 Nov 20)

The crisis reveals that many self-employed people do not have a business model that can cope with any change from a normal situation. [...] The attitude that crisis and old-age provision for the creative people is a problem for later has no future.
Dieter Haselbach, Pius Knüsel (27 Jul 20)

The answer to the virus can only be that charity goes viral. And if that sounds too pious to someone, he simply calls it solidarity, which is contagious.
Pastor Sieghard Wilm (01 Nov 20)

It is the core challenge of publishers and at the same time the magic of our work to bring the market and the art together. It is a deeply social process.
Tom Kraushaar (27 Mar 20)

We are an important part of the economic cycle: we pay an unbelievable amount during the year to art shippers, art fairs, construction teams, to the Artists' Social Welfare Fund....
Rupert Pfab, Galerist (28 Apr 20)

We think all the time, what can we actually do to positively influence the situation and that is frighteningly little.
Farin Urlaub, Die Ärzte (23 Oct 20)

On the other hand, the Book Fair is a place of lived freedom of opinion and publication. This is also an important pillar of the Frankfurt Book Fair and this pillar will be there.
Alexander Skipis (08 Sep 20)

Nevertheless, culture is indispensable, and therein lies its paradox: it is always both a total luxury product and an elementary medium in which a community agrees on what it considers important or unimportant
Dirk Peitz (05 Jun 20)

I'm really worried that when we open again, not everyone will be there because people have decided to do something else after this long stretch.
Carsten Brosda (11 Feb 21)

There is no protection for workers in the United States, which is why there are mass layoffs in the art world, in galleries and museums.
Vincenzo de Bellis (03 Jun 20)

The protection of life is - in the truest sense of the word - not a killer argument to legitimise arbitrary, limitless restrictions on other freedoms.
Christian Hillgruber (09 Dec 20)

We don't let autumn take us away. Books are more important than ever.
Joe Lendle (12 May 20)

You can fly in a full plane, travel in a bus, but people don't trust us to follow the rules and instead people celebrate in the park.
Erik Kühn (02 Oct 20)

The time of simply expressing opinions is over.
Peter Sloterdijk (02 May 21)

The whole discussion is mined. One can actually only make a mistake at the moment when one tries to make justified legitimate criticism of the measures.
Ulrike Guérot (24 Apr 21)

Absurd. There is no meadow, no pub, no shop, no subway and no cabinet as far apart as the Philharmonie.
Egbert Tholl (25 Jun 20)

We need to enter into resistance. We are going to invade churches, shopping malls, auction houses... and we will put on shows!
Samuel Churin (15 Dec 20)

Perhaps the cultural shutdown also comprises some good points, in so far as one can learn to appreciate Benjamin's “unique appearance of a distance as close as it may be”. Unlike kitchen art an aura cannot be simulated by definition »simply at home«.
Richard Kämmerlings (27 Apr 20)

We want to write a manifesto to the president, all of us, thousands of Marseillians, to make it clear that there is no reason at all to sacrifice culture in this situation.
Benoît Payan (30 Jan 21)

This year is a complete write-off, and if it continues like this, then at least for me I can no longer work as a freelance writer, if no money comes in through book sales and readings, then I have no income.
Michael Stavarič (25 Sep 20)

If so many who work in the private and publicly funded art business can currently survive only with aid packages, something is wrong with the entire system. Something has to change radically here.
Iris Dressler (23 May 20)

If we want to survive this crisis reasonably in the cultural sector, then there must be additional subsidies for a specific culture fund.
Olaf Zimmermann (25 May 20)

This almost sounds like a self-abandonment of classical book culture. Corona doesn't seem to be the only virus the industry is suffering from. If in the end a virus called anxiety causes even greater damage, that would be fatal.
Paul Jandl (17 Jul 20)

Artists and cultural institutions have no lobby and had to serve as "soft targets" for measures that politicians had not dared to implement elsewhere.
Nicolas Freund (05 Jul 20)

That's the perversion of the whole story. We are not a swimming center. It's not like we can close in one day and on December 1st we open again and the audience is back.
Louwrens Langevoort (29 Oct 20)

Today, doubt is permissible, even desirable, and basically also the driving force of liberal societies to move forward by questioning what is already there.
Ralf Schuler (25 Apr 21)

Now everyone is surprised that the great cheers about the reopened museums are missing. Many visitors are still sceptical. Many museums had hoped for completely different numbers than they can now present.
Wolfgang Ullrich (14 Jul 20)

The bottom line is that "Neustart Kultur" [Restart Culture] is nevertheless only a small program, a drop in the ocean, on which especially private artists are threatened with thirst.
Anne Sailer (24 Aug 20)

It’s hard not to feel abandoned by American society as an arts worker.
Georgina Pazcoguin (23 Sep 20)

We had a certainty that concerts would take place, that trips could be made, that tours would take place [...]. All that is really really shaken, shattered, you could say.
Marie König (15 Feb 21)

As soon as it becomes the rule to override fundamental constitutional rights at will with every new challenge, democracy is damaged.
Dieter Hallervorden (09 Nov 20)

It was difficult to get a view, to see or to read corona-distant, even non-corona topics, but with the first easings this is slowly changing again. But now Corona literature snapshots?
Gerrit Bartels (06 May 20)

[...] perhaps that will be the essence of after-pandemic criticism. More personal, more to the point, more empathetic, more open and less formulaic.
Philip Kennicott (29 Nov 20)

The past few years have already seen pushback against the art world’s gross socio-economic inequities [...]. Even before Covid, it was high time for a reset.
Jane Kallir (22 Jun 20)

It is true that the event industry as a whole needs urgent help, survival aid. The distress is enormous.
Tom Koperek (22 Jun 20)