1989+20 festival
A short report
In the course of the by EUNIC Netherlands organized festival-series
“1989+20, which took place from October to December 2009, there were a
number of events being held in e Hague and Amsterdam.
e festival started in Nutshuis in e Hague with the opening of the
exhibition “1989 End of an Area”, an exhibition of newspapers from all over
Europe dated back to 1989, together with political cartoons of, among others,
Fritz Behrendt and Frits Müller. ose newspapers provide the generations of
today with a highly significant and interesting documentation of the Fall of
the Iron Curtain and the consequent opening of Europe – including the first
free elections in Poland, the unrestricted border crossing from Hungary to
Austria and the execution of Ceausescu. In most of the cases originals of the
different newspapers could be examined – in combination with the necessary
translations. ere were also timetables in the exhibition that informed the
visitors of the chronology of events in the different Eastern European
countries.
Besides the exhibition, Nutshuis also hosted two debates about the
changes that 1989 brought about. In the first debate, which took place on the
day of the exhibition opening, two Dutch journalists, one German journalist
and one Czech journalist, namely the dissident Jan Urban, discussed the role
and the possibilities of journalism in Central and Eastern Europe before and
around 1989.
Another discussion with the Dutch state secretary for European affairs,
Frans Timmermans, the publicist and university professor Paul Scheffer and
Nausicaa Marbe, a Dutch author being raised in Rumania, was centered
around the topic “1989 and the West”. Professor Dr. André Gerrits led the
debate, which was proceeded on the 4th of November.
Parallel to the last week of the 1989-newspaper exhibition in e
Hague, the Nuitshuis was also location of a series of film showings –
consisting of documentaries.
e following seven documentary movies that talk about the changes
triggered off by the Fall of the Iron Curtain were shown:
“Constantin and Elena” (Romania, director: Andrei Dascalescu), “Situation
of the street, or the Czech sea in eighteen tidal waves” (Czech republic,
director: Jan Gogola), “Here we are” (Slovakia, director: Jaro Vojtek), “e
end of the road” (Hungary, director: Tamás Almási), “We’ll keeping
on” (Germany, director: Wolfgang Ettlich), “How it’s done” (Poland, director:
Marcel Łozi´nski) , “Sasha” (Lithuania, director: Romas Lileikis).
Moreover, seven outstanding feature films, dealing with the events of
1989 and the present situation in the West and East, could be viewed in the
Filmhuis Den Haag one week aer the documentary festival:
“Somers Town” (Great-Britain, director: Shane Meadows), “Eeny
Meeny” (Czech republic, director: Alice Nellis), “Outside time” (Germany,
director: Andreas Kleinert), “Import.Export” (Austria, director: Ulrich
Seidl), “Ode to joy” (Poland, directors: Anna Kazejak-Dawid, Jan Komasa &
Maciej Migas), “12:08 East of Bucharest” (Romania, director: Corneliu
Porumboiu), “Bolshe vita” (Hungary, director: Ibolya Fekete).
At a college in e Hague together with the European Movement a
debate about “Freedom without the Wall – What does ‘1989’ mean for
students in today’s Europe?” was organized. e two speakers – Dutch
correspondents in Berlin and Vienna – involved young students from
different European countries in a discussion about the collective memory
and their own experiences with the significant changes of 1989. e
participating students have had designed a European Picture-Wall
beforehand.
Also in Amsterdam a series of events were arranged by EUNIC in regard to
the 1989+20 festival activities.
ree debates with the titles “Economic lessons of 1989”, “e Borders
of Europe” and “Europe since 1989-return of the political” were held.
In the debate “Economic lessons of 1989”, which took place on the 7th of
October in the Amsterdam University Library, questions about the hopes and
expectations of former Soviet countries concerning their economic
development, about the economic reality of today and about how the current
worldwide economic crisis in the age of liberal market economy were
examined by academics and economic experts.
Moreover, in another debate named “e Borders of Europe”, which was hold
in the Amsterdam University on the 19th of November, rather dealt with the
future of the European Union and the limits of EU-enlargement. Several
specialists from the scientific and political department were invited to
“explore the borders of Europe” throughout the discussion.
Lastly, Spui 25 also hosted a debate called “Europe since 1989. Return of the
Political”, where André Gerrits (European Studies, Amsterdam University),
Luuk van Middelaar (historian and philosopher), Andreas Oplatka (historian
and journalist) and Henne Schuwer (Director of the NATO Private Office)
talked about in how far Europe has really overcome the historical divisions
between East and West.
In connection with those discussion evenings, a series of documentary
movies could be viewed in the Maison Descartes in Amsterdam and in the
Goethe Institutes in Rotterdam and Amsterdam. In the aermath of the
movie showings, some of the directors were present and initiated discussions
with the audience.
To add to that, the festival participants could also go to see two
exhibitions in Amsterdam, which were related to the events of 1989.
On the one hand there was the exhibition “Behind Walls. Eastern Europe
Before and Beyond 1989” showing a wide range of photography from Central
and Eastern Europe in order to document life under Communism and
investigate the enormous changes the former Eastern bloc countries have
experienced since 1989.
On the other hand in the Press museum the exhibition “1989 End of an Area”
was shown another time.
e by EUNIC Netherlands organized 1989+20-festival was a big success
regarding the variety of events that took place on one hand and in regard to
the great number of participating countries on the other hand. e events of
1989 changed the life of all Europeans – not only those living in former
Eastern European countries. Aer the accession of 10 Eastern European
countries in 2004, we can clearly speak of the year of 1989 as a European
phenomenon that changed the future of the whole continent. Now, 20 years
aer the Fall of the Iron Curtain, it is fascinating to examine in how far
differences between West and East still exist. erefore, the 1989+20 festival
series offered the audience a range of possibilities to rethink the challenging
events of 1989 and examine the present situation of Europe and the European
Union.