About us

Krise, Trojka, Schulden, Flüchtlinge, Strand und Antike: Alles vielzitierte Schlagwörter, welche im Zusammenhang mit Griechenland in den letzten sieben Jahren viel zu viel aufgetaucht sind. In oder aus welcher Blase nehmen wir das alles eigentlich wahr? Wie viel hat das noch mit der Wirklichkeit zu tun in der die Menschen vor Ort leben? Und wo positionieren sich die Künstler_innen? In einer eigenen Blase inmitten dieser Utopie-losen Zeit? 2014, zu Beginn der Vorbereitungen 14. Ausgabe von CULTURESCAPES, war Griechenland für uns ein mysteriöses Land, hin- und hergerissen zwischen dem demokratischen Erbe des Altertums, dem romantischen Erbe der „Wiege der westlichen Zivilisation“, dem glorreichen Erbe der Athener Olympischen Spiele von 2004 und den Lasten der Wirtschaftskrise von 2008. Dies war noch bevor die ersten Wellen der europäischen Flüchtlingskrise 2015 die griechischen Küsten trafen. Und all das nahmen wir aus unserer Perspektive als Aussenstehende wahr. Aber wie sah die Sache von „innen“ aus? Wie wichtig war es, dies zu erfahren und wie wichtig ist es noch jetzt, diese interne Perspektive in Erfahrung zu bringen? In welchem Masse beeinflussen politische, wirtschaftliche und kulturelle Einschränkungen die Ansichten der Griechen? Wie sehr wird die Haltung der Aussenstehenden durch Diskurse der Vorherrschaft und Normativität bestimmt?

So ist CULTURESCAPES Griechenland nicht bloss ein Festival zu Ehren Griechenlands und seiner kulturellen Landschaft, sondern vielmehr eine Suche nach den kulturellen Stereotypen auf beiden Seiten dieses Dialogs geworden. Zu einer Suche nach Entfremdungsmechanismen und zu der Herausforderung, sich selbst als den „Anderen“ zu akzeptieren. CULTURESCAPES Griechenland versucht, den Blick jenseits von Darstellungen wie der Titelseite der Zeitschrift Focus von 2010 zu lenken, die die Venus von Milo in einer schmutzigen griechischen Flagge darstellt, während sie den Mittelfinger zeigt. In die heutige griechische kulturelle Landschaft einzutauchen, erfordert die Fähigkeit, zu „verlernen“ allerdings nicht einfach im Sinne des Vergessens, der Überwindung von Stereotypen, Annahmen und des normativen Diskurses über die politische Verantwortung und die wirtschaftliche Selbstständigkeit, die mit Griechenland an sich zusammenhängen. Im Verlernen der scheinbar stabilen und sicheren Grundlagen der sogenannten westlichen Kultur, im Verlernen unserer Art zu lernen, der Art und Weise, sich selbst und den Anderen wahrzunehmen. Die Venus von Milo muss von der schmutzigen Flagge befreit werden und gehört zurück auf den Boden von Milo, wo sie von einem griechischen Bauern ausgegraben wurde, anstatt hell erleuchtet in einem Museum zu stehen. Wir präsentieren Ihnen über zwei Monate ein dichtes Programm mit Theater, Musik, Kunst, Film, Literatur und Kulinarik. Erleben Sie Griechenland, weil nur darüber zu reden, reicht nicht. Letzteres tun wir trotzdem: Vorträge, Denk-Wege, Künstlergespräche und am Ende das Symposion nach platonischem Vorbild, ein philosophisches Gastmahl zu Gunsten der Basler Hilfsorganisation Help For Refugees. Kommen Sie, seien Sie herzlich Willkommen und reichern Sie ihr Bild von Griechenland mit neuen Facetten an.

Rembert Biemond
President

Rembert Biemond was born 1958 in the Netherlands. After completing a bachelor's degree in economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam and a masters in management and organisation at Groningen University, he was the manager of a college in his home country from 1983-1987. From 1987-1997 Rembert worked at the Goetheanum, Dornach, among other things as the executive director of the Goetheanum Bühne. In 1997 he started Biemond & Partners Basel, Agents & Consultants under the roof of which PASS, Performing Art ServiceS, the predecessor to CULTURESCAPES was founded. Rembert was managing partner at Unternehmen Mitte, Basel and from 2002-2009 CEO of Lehmann Natur, Mönchengladbach.

Since 2010, Rembert is living in Järna, Sweden with his wife and two children, where he is working as a cultural entrepreneur. At Kulturcentrum Järna he initiated a large-scale exhibition tetralogy under the title ‹See! Colour!›, which included vast light instalations by the american artist James Turrell.

He retains his ties to Switzerland as a board member of the Edith Maryon foundation, the Ackermannshof AG, the Evidenz foundation, as well as the Pro Denkbilder association and as co-founder and founding president of CULTURESCAPES.

Dr. André Baltensperger
Board Member

Born 1950 in Basel, Dr. André Baltensberger holds a PhD in Musicology and Economics. He was principal at the Music Academy Basel as well as delegate for the music colleges in the directorate of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Northwestern Switzerland. Before this he had been working as business economist in the printing industry and later took up a post as a reserach assistant at the Paul Sacher-Foundation in Basel. For ten years he was the general secretary at the conference of the cantonal governments in Bern as well as director of the Swiss Foundation for Federal Collaboration in Solothurn. 

The focus of his work, next to questions relating to federal government, are music of the 20th century, choruses, tropes and sequences in the High Middle Ages as well as the music history of the renaissance era. He obtained his PhD in 1987, his thesis focussing on the French-Grecian composer Iannis Xenakis. He also is a trained pianist, harpsichord player and vocalist. He is married, has one son and lives in Riehen near Basel.

Michael Braune-Krickau
Board Member

Dipl. Ing. (Industrial Engineer)

Born in Dresden in 1943, Michael moved to Basel in1989 after previously living in Zürich and Berlin.

Michael graduated in Technology and Business Administration from the Technical University Berlin and subsequently worked as a director of studies and an assistant lecturer, as well as a consultant and a manager, initially at GDI Rüschlikon and then at the WWZ Forum of the University of Basel. He is currently course coordinator und director of an MBA programme at the University of Basel.

Christian Hörack
Board Member

Born in Mannheim in 1975, Christian has lived in Switzerland since 2002. He studied Art History and History in Lausanne, Vienna, Lille and Heidelberg and has a PhD in Art History.

Curator for precious metal and ceramics of modern times at the Swiss National Museum as well as employee and program curator at Neues Kino Basel. President of Keramikfreunde der Schweiz and member of the Committee of Experts of the Jewish Museum of Switzerland. He previously worked at museums in Neuchâtel, Basel, Lausanne, Strasbourg, Vienna and Lille.

Publications on «L’argenterie Lausannoise» (2007), «Basler Goldschmiedekunst» (2013 und 2014) und «Prêt à porter. L'histoire du sac plastique et papier en Suisse» (2016).

Pius Knüsel
Board Member

Pius Knüsel, born 1957 in Cham, Switzerland, graduated from the University of Zurich in German Literature and Philosophy.

Working as a freelance journalist, he was a co-founder of a political-cultural weekly paper for Central Switzerland in 1981. He worked as the cultural editor at Swiss Television from 1985 until 1992 and as an independent music promoter. Pius was the founder, artistic and business director of the Moods Jazz Club in Zurich from 1992 until 1997, as well as a board member of the European Jazz Network.

From 1998 until 2002 Pius was the head of the department of cultural sponsoring of Credit Suisse (retail branch) and in 2002 was appointed director of Pro Helvetia, Swiss Arts Council. Since 2012 he is working in education for adults, teaching arts management and cultural policy at various universities in Switzerland and abroad.

Pius is also member of the boards of Mummenschanz Foundation, of Locarno Film Festival and of the Asociation of Swiss Adult Education Centres.

Daniela Settelen-Trees
Board Member

Born 1960 in Bern, Daniela Settelen-Trees has lived in Basel since 1989. After her studies of art history in Bern, Basel and Munich, worked as an art historian in museums, galeries and foundations.

Since 2008 she is the directior of the GGG Atelierhaus in Basel, among other mandates in cultural management, and has published several art books.

Jurriaan Cooiman
Director

Born in the Netherlands in 1966. Founder and director of CULTURESCAPES.

He studied cultural management at the University of Basel. He has been the head of Performing Arts Services, a production agency, and has worked in collaboration with, amongst others, the Od-theater, Circle X Arts, Sankai Juku, Werkbühne Berlin and Goetheanum. Since founding CULTURESCAPES in 2003, he is a main driving force and inspiration for all the festival editions. He lectures on cultural management and networking. He is a member of the European Festivals Association (EFA).

Kateryna Botanova
Co-Curator

Born 1976 in Khmelnytsky, Ukraine (then USSR). Kateryna is a curator, cultural critic, and writer with master degree in cultural studies. She was director of the Foundation Center for Contemporary Art in Kyiv, Ukraine, and a founder and editor-in-chief of Korydor, an online journal on contemporary culture.

She worked as a trainer and consultant for various programs within EU Eastern Partnership Culture Programme, dealing with cultural policy analysis, cultural industries and cultural journalism in the region. She consulted the EU National Institutes for Culture EUNIC on issues of global cultural relations and collaboration. Kateryna is a regular contributor to various media.

 

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Why did you want to work with CULTURESCAPES?
I joined the team as a curator of exhibitions in 2014. But soon I realized that as a festival, CULTURESCAPES provides a unique platform for combining many things I always valued about my work in the cultural field: multidisciplinary approach, research into local cultural landscapes of global reach and importance, and connecting a variety of artistic voices with diverse audiences. Over the years, we developed CULTURESCAPES into a platform for empowerment and awareness regarding the rising topical issues of our times. I am happy to see CULTURESCAPES as a growing space of care and mutual learning between different and distant societies and cultures with a common goal – imagining a better and more sustainable future.

What do you particularly like about CULTURESCAPES 2021 Amazonia?
As outsiders, we are easily overwhelmed by images of powerful rivers connecting the continent from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean, or the endless green masses of the rainforest. Shocking news of wildfires, or, more recently, COVID-casualties, also catch attention. With CULTURESCAPES 2021 Amazonia we want to enable voices of artists, activists, writers and researchers from different parts of the region, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to tell stories of Amazonia as a realm of the fight for environmental protection, for human and cultural rights, as an interconnected space of different kinds of knowledge and visions of human and non-human cohabitation. These stories and knowledges are of utter importance to everyone today, regardless of who we are or where we live.

Nefeli Myrodia
Production Greece

Born in Athens in 1987. Works for CULTURESCAPES since October 2015.

She studied International and European Economics and continued with Master’s degrees in International Political Economy and in Digital Arts.

Since 2012 she works in the theatre as assistant director and dramaturge and in the production of various art projects and institutions like Athens Biennale, Marina Abramovic Institute & NEON, Sound Development City and Hellas Filmbox Berlin.

Aliki Schäfer
Production

Born 1980 in Stuttgart. Works for CULTURESCAPES from August 2017.

She studied acting at the Stuttgart University of Music and Performing Arts.

Since 2008, she has been active in the field of production nationally and internationally with various engagements in film and theater, most recently from August 2013 to August 2015 as production manager and artistic administration at Theater Rampe Stuttgart. Subsequently she founded the production office SCHÆFER & SOEHNE and has been working as a freelance production manager since.

Alexa Tepen
Administration & Accounting

Born in Schopfheim (Germany) in 1976. Alexa joined CULTURESCAPES in 2012.

She studied International Culture Management in Freiburg before travelling through South America and Asia.

Alexa was responsible for communication and events at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein from 2000 to 2009. She subsequently worked as a PR specialist at the Burghof Lörrach and for the STIMMEN-Festival. Since 2014 she is the co-director of KlangBasel music festival.

Anita Vogt
Communication Assistant

Born 1987 in Laufenburg. Works for CULTURESCAPES since February 2017.

Studied literature at the University of Basel and at the University College in London.

She worked as an intern at the literature festival BuchBasel in 2015 and afterwards as a proofreader at the Institute for Educational Evaluation at the University of Zurich. Since 2016 she is a board member at Ausstellungsraum Klingental in Basel, where she does press and public relations, and is engaged in various cultural projects and festivals, among others the Day of Poetry in Basel.

Thomas Kohler
Technical Director

Born in Basel in 1965. Works for CULTURESCAPES since 2008.

Thomas worked at Kaserne Basel until 2001 before becoming a self-employed light and sound technician for various companies, such as Biennale Bern, Anna Huber Company, Christoph Marthaler, and was the technical director of the Music Festival Bern.

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