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.


 

Ein Jahr ohne Werke . Was es für das Musikleben bedeutet, wenn Verlage um ihr Überleben kämpfen
A year without pieces . What it means for musical life when publishing houses fight for their survival

by Merle Krafeld (03 Feb 2021)
Original source: VAN Magazin für klassische Musik

Music publishers play an important role in the cultural ecosystem. Not only do they promote the work of composers, but they also produce well thought-out sheet music in individual parts, ensure good binding quality of the sheet music and produce new editions of historical works. To do this, they conduct study of sources and work with scientific precision. The publishers therefore generate income not only from the sale of sheet music, but above all from the lending of scores of mostly copyrighted works to orchestras and choirs. The rental fees are made up of various facto rs such as the length and instrumentation of the work, the number of performances and seats available for sale. Last year, the turnover from rental fees for music publishers collapsed by up to 80 per cent. In addition to lending fees, publishers and rights holders also lost income from distributions by the German Performing Rights Society (GEMA) and foreign collecting societies as well as the German Music Edition Society (VG Musikedition). Since royalties are usually only paid out in the following year, the loss of income will not be felt until 2021. Publishers who specialise in choral music are also particularly affected, as it is not foreseeable here when rehearsals can be resumed. In the lockdown, only the purchase of individual parts and chamber music with small ensembles boomed. Henle-Verlag, which serves this segment with an app, among other things, is the only publishing house that recorded an increase in turnover in 2020.
As long as there is no planning security in the cultural sector, the sale and rental of sheet music will not increase. The staff of the publishing houses are therefore currently on short-time work and at the same time working flat out to offer works with a small line-up.
Many publishers are currently falling through the cracks of the aid payments because they are either too small or too big. The Neustart Kultur programme can compensate for turnover losses from the rental sector, but only 30 per cent of the lost turnover from April to November 2020, against which aid already received, such as short-time allowance, must be offset. So in the end, the aid is just a drop in the ocean.

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tag Musikverlage GEMA Planungssicherheit Chormusik Leihverkehr Kurzarbeit Neustart Kultur
Music Bericht

Leipziger Buchmesse abgesagt
Leipzig Book Fair canceled

by Martin Hoferick (29 Jan 2021)
Original source: Kulturzeit

A major event is currently hardly plannable and so it is not surprising that the director of the Leipzig Book Fair, Oliver Zille, announced this week with a heavy heart the cancellation of this year's fair. Precisely because Leipzig relies on so many forms of encounter, the fair is hardly safe to hold this year. A shift to the digital is out of question for the organizers, because here the personal encounter as a central element of the Leipzig fair cannot be adequately implemented. The format itself will definitely be retained in the coming years, the situation on th e book market is good despite the cancellation. Nevertheless, Andreas Rötzer from the publishing house Matthes und Seitz demands that support for the industry must be considered if other major events are cancelled in the course of the year. A vaccination center will now be set up in the exhibition halls this far.

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tag Buchmesse Buchbranche Digitalisierung Begegnung Großveranstaltungen
Literature/ Text Bericht

»Es wurde zu viel abgesagt« . Kultur während Corona
»Too much has been cancelled« . Culture during Corona

by Axel Zibulski (26 Dec 2020)
Original source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Already after the spring lockdown, it was clear to many concert organisers of smaller events that they would be better off financially foregoing performances. The few places that could be allocated did not allow for cost-covering events. Nevertheless, many of them spared no effort to be able to offer events again, to bring artists on stage. The audience gratefully accepted the offer. The tickets for each concert were quickly sold out. Karl-Werner Joerg, who is in charge of several subscription series in the Rhine-Main region, criticises the fact that many organ isers have cancelled concerts in anticipatory obedience. Especially with the smaller concerts, hygiene concepts could be taken into account very well, which is why - unlike with a big rock concert - a cancellation did not seem necessary. This also shows the support he has received. Subscribers have largely supported him, some concerts could be made possible with special public payments or private donations.

For a freelance concert organiser who does not have his own venue, the emergency aid and bridging funds were not available during the lockdown. On the one hand, he has few fixed costs, on the other hand, he also had income from subscriptions during the lockdown, which he was, however, not allowed to use to finance the new season until the autumn.
In the current situation, he demands above all that smaller events be allowed to take place again and that the industry show more solidarity. If large spaces were opened up for smaller organisers, this would not only help them and the musicians, but would also send an important signal to the »culture industry«: As in agriculture or retail, it should be about promoting smaller initiatives so that in the end it is not only the big chains that survive.

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tag Konzertveranstalter Lockdown Planungssicherheit Solidarität Kulturindustrie
Music Bericht

Auktionshäuser sind die Gewinner in der Krise
Auction houses are the winners in the crisis

by Christian Herchenröder (17 Dec 2020)
Original source: Handelsblatt

The corona-induced shrinkage of 30 to 40 percent is distributed differently among the players in the art market. While 2020 art fairs and galleries with virtual art fairs and exhibitions were only able to score with the public to a limited extent, the auction houses recorded strong sales increases with online-only auctions. In particular, they were able to encourage first-time buyers, especially from America and China, to bid for high-priced art, especially in the contemporary sector.

tag Kunstmarkt Galerien Auktionshäuser Online-Ausstellung Kunstmesse Rezession
Visual Arts/Design Bericht

Theater in Sachsen-Anhalt bleiben dicht: »Das ist eine Katastrophe« . Corona-Beschränkungen werden verlängert
Theatres in Saxony-Anhalt remain closed: »This is a catastrophe« . Corona restrictions are extended

by Luca Deutschländer (26 Nov 2020)
Original source: MDR

Cultural workers across the country are frustrated: Lockdown light will be extended into December as well. Janek Liebetruth, independent director and artistic director as well as chairman of the State Centre for Independent Theatre in Saxony-Anhalt sums up the significance of the further closure: »This is a catastrophe«. For theatres in particular, December is the month with the highest turnover. The houses can hardly compensate for the loss of income. Actress Kerstin Dathe, who works in puppet theatre, would have had about 30 performances until Christmas. Wo rries about the future and, above all, the question of whether the state-promised aid will actually take effect are on the minds of the cultural workers. It is uncertain when they will be allowed to perform again. Optimism is increasingly difficult in this situation.
Liebetruth demands that the economic losses suffered by cultural workers be compensated. Programmes like »Neustart Kultur« have the task of preventing a cultural death by offering a perspective for the coming year. What the cultural sector also needs is planning security, because only this can alleviate the frustration somewhat.

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tag November-Lockdown Theater Planungssicherheit Advent Kultursterben Neustart Kultur
Performing Arts/ Cinema Bericht

Herbert Grönemeyer will die Reichen schröpfen
Herbert Grönemeyer wants to fleece the rich

by Rainer Hank (15 Nov 2020)
Original source: FAZ

In the business section of the FAZ, Herbert Grönemeyer's suggestion to millionaires in Germany for a solidarity contribution in the Corona crisis is critically examined. Already the reasoning does not convince the journalist Rainer Hank. To pay a contribution for the victims of the crisis solely because of family resemblance is not a conclusive argument. In addition, one has to consider, the musician is quoted as saying, that 75 percent of the previous year's turnover for the month of November is not enough to support the artists. Only a permanent monthly ba sic income can get them through the crisis.
Is an artist like Grönemeyer, who is certainly one of the Corona profiteers because of the royalties for streamed songs, allowed to rise to the position of »lawyer for the disenfranchised«? Especially since the profits are likely to continue even after the crisis. Aren't artists suffering in the pandemic rather from the fact that they cannot perform their art in front of an audience? Shouldn't we therefore stop stylizing art and artists as victims of the pandemic and ask the rich to pay for it? Doesn't this turn cultural workers into a "special-purpose and employment society of the nation", a subdivision of the public service for which the state has to provide?
Looking at the political decisions of the last few months, cultural workers are not only protected by compensation payments from Corona Aid, but also have a lobbyist in the government in the person of Monika Grütters. Tax money for culture is permanently secured. And, according to Hank's argumentation, more than 50 percent of it is borne by the rich. It is therefore not possible to ask them to pay once again.
If the creative artists claim more and more state for themselves, then they regard it as "artist's pension fund". This contradicts the idea of the artistic avant-garde, which propagated an entrepreneurial existence of the artist. For this reason, artists should do without lawyers like Herbert Grönemeyer, who, instead of emphasizing creativity, ingenuity and curiosity, degrades the creative industry to a "public fun industry".
Even though Hank is quite agreeable when he emphasizes that there are winners of the pandemic in the cultural industry as well, it should be remembered that Grönemeyer is not concerned with himself when he calls for the support of the rich. He speaks for the many cultural service providers, e.g. light, sound and event technicians, concert organizers, caterers,....., who have lost their income for months and whose reserves have been used up after 8 months of pandemic. A flourishing industry, which normally does not need any support from the state, but was robbed of its income by the prohibition to work and now needs bridging assistance.

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tag Novemberhilfe Millionäre Tantieme Corona-Gewinner Herbert Grönemeyer
All sections Kommentar

Lockdown mit Nebenwirkungen . Kultur auf Abtand
Lockdown with side effects . Culture at bay

by Claudia Kuhland, Marion Ammicht (08 Nov 2020)
Original source: ttt - titel themen tempramente

After a week of lockdown for the arts, the ARD cultural magazine provides an overview of the reactions of cultural workers to the closure of the institutions. The opening quote by the Minister for Culture and Science in NRW, Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen, is symptomatic of the way the scene is handled. Culture is accused of violating the social consensus; the existential needs of many freelance artists, but also of the many companies dependent on the industry and solo self-employed are hardly heard. It is therefore not surprising that theater directors, museum directors, and managers of concert halls are now harshly criticizing political decisions - especially since offers of discussion are not heard from their side. The fact that especially in »our attacked democracy« the voice of art and culture must not be overheard is something that theatre director Karin Beier, for example, warns against, and perhaps implicitly gives a reason why Germans currently prefer to be sent shopping rather than to the theater or museum.

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tag November-Lockdown #AlarmstufeRot #sangundklanglos Solidarität Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen
All sections Bericht

Geld ist im Übermaß vorhanden . Corona-Hilfen für Künstler
Money is available in abundance . Corona aids for artists

by Herbert Grönemeyer (04 Nov 2020)
Original source: Zeit

The musician Herbert Grönemeyer reevaluates the »Unterhaltung« as German expression for entertainment,  interpreting  the term as "holding from below". Here people find help and confidence when they are sad or frustrated. But they can also express their joy. Due to the absence of live performances, the audience is deprived of this valve. No more refuge or substitute world. Reality remains and with it spaces for stupidity and crude theories. The soul of the society is endangered and consequently the social cohesion as a whole. The impa ct on the existence of the many workers who make live events possible in the first place is in this understanding only a symptom of the erosion of society. How to counteract this process? How to ensure that live events are possible again after the crisis? This is where Grönemeyer now becomes very concrete: These people must not be forced to touch their old-age provision. Help must be available to them quickly and without complications.
But how could this help look like? In this case Grönemeyer is not asking the state to help, but is suggesting an alternative: Just as in a natural catastrophe the family helps a person affected, so in the current crisis a sign of solidarity is needed. According to the musician, this should come from the 1.8 million millionaires in Germany.This gesture would not only help the cultural workers whose existence is threatened, but it would also strengthen social cohesion and counteract the division that has been observed for decades.
Interestingly, Grönemeyer's statement lacks a convincing argument: He would have to set a shining example of solidarity by making a generous donation - he too is one of Germany's millionaires....

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tag Kulturbetrieb Solidarität Millionäre Seele der Gesellschaft Zusammenhalt Liveevent Quo vadis ars
All sections Kommentar

Kultur ist nicht für alle da . Corona-Maßnahmen und Kultur
Culture is not there for everyone . Corona measures and culture

by Tobi Müller (29 Oct 2020)
Original source: Zeit

With Till Brönner and the band 'Die Ärzte', prominent representatives of the music industry issued statements talking about the existential needs of many musicians, but also of the workers important to the industry, from event technology to gastronomy.  In his contribution, Tobi Müller is right to criticizes the wrong figures and thus the economic power that the players in the industry are referring to. However, his comparison with employees, who would also be in a bad way, is misleading. After all, these employees may receive short-time compe nsation and, in the worst case, unemployment benefits. The solo self-employed person may request however directly social welfare assistance Hartz IV.
But Müller also complains that the statements conceal the fact that there are areas in the cultural industry that are affected more and which less. Music is undoubtedly one of the hardest hit economic sectors. However - according to Müller's central argument - the culture Brönner is talking about is that of the upper middle class, which can loudly stand up for the rights of artists. Especially in view of the fact that the punk band 'Die Ärzte' has ventured into the 'Tagesthemen' to raise its voice, the concept of culture that Müller represents in his contribution is remarkable. It is based primarily on concert halls, stages and museums, for which the jazz trumpeter Till Brönner is a symbolic figure, and not on the areas of culture such as folk music, hits or punk.
The suggestion that Tobi Müller has for the industry looks in the current situation rather strange: Not to always only bale the state into responsibility, but to show solidarity with one another.  Why not open the large theater halls for concerts or enter into cooperation with museums, which usually have large, airy rooms. And as a sign of charity, churches could also offer the doors for theater and music professionals.

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tag Musikbranche Till Brönner Die Ärzte Solidarität Wirtschaftsfaktor Staat Publikum Hartz IV Kulturbegriff
Music Kommentar

Bildet Banden! . Warum der zweite Lockdown für Theater und Künstler*innen wie eine Ohrfeige wirkt
Create gangs! . Why the second lockdown is like a slap in the face for theater and artists

by Georg Kasch (28 Oct 2020)
Original source: Nachtkritik

The location of the theaters is desperate. Not only is a second lockdown imposed on them, they are also classified as "entertainment«, are in a row with gyms, betting shops and brothels. And this despite the fact that the theaters behaved so exemplarily during the lockdown. With streamings they entertained their audience, developed hygiene concepts, and replanned the new season three times. And now?, asks Gerog Kasch in his commentary. The houses have to close their doors again, although even virologists do not consider this step necessary. Can the closure rea lly be justified by the fact that the audience, after the consequent separation, meets in the stalls after the performance to discuss the evening?
If culture, unlike many other branches of the economy, is now being sacrificed as a pawn, then politics should pay for the industry's continued existence. Intendants, organizers and all those involved must insist on this. An appropriate financial compensation for the houses and a kind of basic income for the solo self-employed with loss of earnings should save the industry from the crisis.
In the meantime, however, the cultural workers should not sit back and relax, but rather tackle what was neglected in the spring: joining forces with others to raise the voice for culture together. Streaming, because those who are not visible are forgotten. However, we must not make the mistake of offering everything for free; intelligent payment concepts must be developed. His final appeal is directly addressed to the theater industry: Design the theater of tomorrow! If the experiences of the last few months are productively used for a new conception, then the lockdown makes sense for the arts.

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tag November-Lockdown Unterhaltung Hygienekonzepte Bestandssicherung Grundeinkommen Bauernopfer Krise als Chance Streaming
Performing Arts/ Cinema Kommentar

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Facing arts is a non-profi project. Feel free to support it and get in touch with us!

The Team

Facing arts is a projet by STORM.

STORM is an acronym playing with the initials by Miriam Seidler & Tim Otto Roth, who are hit both by the Corona crisis. Dr. Miriam Seidler is a scholar in German literature and currently works as specialist in public relations. Dr. Tim Otto Roth is a scholar in art and science history and works as a conceptual artist and composer. He is known for his huge projects in public space, cooperations with leading scientific institutions and his immersive sound and light installations. Miriam and Tim collaborate regularly for years. With facing arts they reaslize their first common art project.
You find more informatin on both initiators on www.miriamseidler.de and www.imachination.net.

Special thanks to Paco Croket for the tag cloud programming!

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