SHORT DESCRIPTION:

The World Culture Forum sees itself as an institution within an international communication-network aiming at putting back the necessity of cultural diversity into public consciousness. Starting point of the considerations for a World Culture Forum is a holistic approach towards culture: art, politics, religion, business, science etc. are fundamental components of culture. Each of these elements has its own value, and none should be pushed aside or repressed by one of the others.

European Congress for a World Culture Forum 2009

After a Founding Symposium for a World Culture Forum in 2007, the European Congress for a World Culture Forum will take place from 26th February to 1st March 2009 in Dresden / Germany. Subsequent to the European Congress for a World Culture Forum 2009 we are aiming at establishing the World Culture Forum as a regular international event. The first World Culture Forum is planned to take place in autumn 2010 with representatives and guests from all over the world.
The focus of our reflections during the conference continues to be the discussion on the issue that economy has developed into the determinant feature of our Western culture. The topic of the European Congress 2009 will be: “Culture is more – Europe in the mirror of its cities".
In today’s Europe cities are undoubtedly “the main engines of economic development” (see: State of European Cities Report. European Commission, DG Regional Policy, May 2007, p.II). One aim is to discover, what ideally characterizes the European city. On the basis of these findings a model of a city viable for the future will be sketched out. Yet, the central concern will be to find out and discuss, whether culture in its entirety will Europe-wide be able to increasingly engage in an intra-cultural dialogue with its various elements. This analysis will be undertaken using different European cities as an example. So far Athens, Istanbul, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Paris, Rome, Venice and Vienna are short-listed. Decisive, however, is that the cities chosen are representative for societal conditions and social realities. The city stands hereby as synonym for the concentration of societal processes since as a microcosm of a society it includes all areas of culture such as the arts, politics, religion, science, business and many more. At the same time cities give us the opportunity to clearly illustrate contemporary conflicts due to the fact that within them historical, political, economical and aesthetic aspects are inextricably intertwined.
The aim is to welcome 500 international participants from the field of art, politics, religion, business and science to the European Conference for a World Culture Forum and to engage with them into an intra-cultural dialogue. The panels will include topics that address and appeal to older and younger guests likewise.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

Website: wcf-dresden.com