Amsterdam, 2 February 2017
On Europe Day (9 May 2017), the European Cultural Foundation will present four outstanding laureates with the 2017 ECF Princess Margriet Award for Culture: writer and journalist Aslı Erdoğan (Turkey), writer and scholar Navid Kermani (Germany), musician Luc Mishalle (Belgium), and visual artist Marina Naprushkina (Germany).
The Award is conferred on artists and thinkers who inspire change in the way people shape the societies in which they live, underlining the European Cultural Foundation’s belief that artistic and cultural engagement form an integral part of political and social change. The Award ceremony will take place at Paradiso cultural centre, Amsterdam, on 9 May 2017 (Europe Day).
Aslı Erdoğan, Istanbul (b 1967)
Novelist, human rights and feminist activist and political essayist. Since the publication of her first novel, The Sea-Shell Man in 1994, Aslı Erdoğan has written several novels, collections of short stories and poetic prose, as well as political essays. Erdoğan’s defiant voice as a literary writer in Turkey contributes to a vision of a twenty-first-century society with political and cultural inclusivity at its centre. She has worked as a columnist and journalist since 1998 , mostly for RADİKAL newspaper and as a columnist for Özgür Gündem [Free Agenda], a bilingual pro-Kurdish daily, for which she was writing until her arrest on 16 August 2016. She was released from custody in January, but is unable to leave Turkey as her trial continues.
Navid Kermani, Cologne (b 1967)
Writer, orientalist scholar, journalist, and one of Germany’s leading public intellectuals. In his work, Kermani shows the intertwined foundation of European and Islamic cultures. He explicitly forges connections between the world of Islamic and European philosophy, showing how Islamic cultures and progressive European Enlightenment thinking are bound together. In his fiction Kermani touches on existential subjects such as death, rapture and art. Kermani challenges an increasingly extremist narrative of discrimination and racism. Instead he brings positive messages to counter the politics of fragmentation and fear of migrants and refugees.
Luc Mishalle, Brussels (b 1953)
Saxophonist, composer and curator who designs and leads participatory intercultural music projects that bring together different groups in the community. Mishalle is artistic director of MET-X, a Brussels-based house of music makers. Together with professional and amateur musicians and a small, flexible team, he is the driving force behind a wide array of music projects and educational processes, which warmly invite the participation of musicians from all generations of immigrants. Mishalle has the ability to tap into feelings of belonging and inclusion. By doing so he gives shape to the new social composition of Europe in a musical way.
Marina Naprushkina, Berlin (b 1981)
Is a Berlin-based artist whose multi-media projects, including video, installation and newspapers, have been organized since 2007 under the imaginary Office for Anti-Propaganda. Informed by her own experience growing up in Belarus, Naprushkina examines the structure of authoritarian systems to determine the role of art and creative activism in changing the political status quo. Naprushkina was nominated with special reference to her project Neue Nachbarschaft/Moabit, a self-organizing community in Moabit with self-empowerment at its heart. It is here that old and new Berliners are finding collaborative ways of living together, opening up art’s potential to contribute to Europe’s common future.
About the European Cultural Foundation (ECF)
The ECF has been a staunch supporter of culture in Europe since 1954. We believe that culture is what shapes ways of living together and strengthens the bonds of European solidarity. It can help bridge divides and connect people on a fundamental level. It is therefore the ECF’s mission to enable culture-makers to express themselves on contemporary challenges in Europe, to connect them across borders and with new groups and audiences, and to help amplify their message, in order to create a more open and inclusive Europe. In her capacity as ECF President, HRH Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands is an active advocate of the ECF’s mission.
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