21. Oktober 2015
Praemium Imperiale 2015
Speech for Awards Ceremony by the President of the Goethe-Institute Prof. Dr. h.c. Klaus-Dieter Lehmann
Your Imperial Highnesses,
Excellencies and Distinguished Guests,
It is a great honour for me to be here in Tokyo again taking part in this grand festive occasion.
I would like to congratulate very sincerely the five award winners, Tadanori Yokoo, Wolfgang Laib, Dominique Perrault, Mitsuko Uchida and Sylvie Guillem. My congratulations also to this year's recipients of the Grant for Young Artists, the Yangon Film School from Myanmar, who were presented with this in Berlin in September.
All of them exercise a fascination with their quite different artistic creations and forms of expression. This year they have in common in particular that fact that they display a special vitality and enthusiasm. They operate in the midst of society. This is also made evident by the impressive videos that we have just seen.
I am especially gratified that one of this year's laureates is Wolfgang Laib, a German artist from the field of sculpture who has created an unmistakable plastic oeuvre from organic materials, such as pollen, milk, beeswax and rice. With its fleeting nature it symbolises the transient and contemplative, and at the same time it opens up a new dimension of perception.
Before the gates of Europe we are currently experiencing in Syria and Iraq indescribable violence against people and the extinction of cultural identity through the destruction of works of art and historic monuments. Millions of people are fleeing, some to Europe and Germany. Can art and culture have an impact in such times? I am of the view that our living together as human beings is a cultural achievement. And so we shouldn’t allow ourselves to be discouraged!
When the award-winners were announced in Berlin, Hisashi Hieda made an extraordinary gesture of assistance and support. On behalf of the Japan Art Association he handed me a cheque for 100 million yen for the Goethe-Institut’s refugee work in Germany. The intended beneficiaries are primarily children and young people, to help them achieve a rapid linguistic integration and obtain a cultural education. The Federal Chancellor and Foreign Minister have expressed their appreciation of this outstanding support a number of times. May I again express my profound gratitude. Art and culture are not a luxury or mere ornamentation, but rather they form the foundation of our societies. They are at the service of mankind in order when it change things, to question clichés, to help the politically correct to assert itself and to provide hope and perspective.
The Praemium Imperiale was never more important than it is today. It rewards the independence and strong-minded nature of artists in relation to their life’s work, and also in the endeavour to achieve peaceful co-existence in the world.
It is in this spirit that I selected the Yangon Film School from Myanmar for the Grant for Young Artists. I got to know this great institution, which is now 10 years old, when I opened the Goethe-Institut in Yangon in 2014. In the desperate situation under a harsh military regime this training facility became a source of hope. With little money and a lot of enthusiasm of the talented students, the initiative became a success story. The films produced have since won a number of international prizes and are a mirror of the rapid, sometimes terrifyingly radical change in society. This is one of the greatest civil society achievements of the Yangon Film School and played a major role in their selection for the Grant for Young Artists.
Finally I wish to thank Your Imperial Highnesses and the Japan Art Association, Mr Hieda, for honouring the remarkable artists and cultural workers of our times every year with this highly important award, thus strengthening them in their significant creative endeavours.
Thank you very much.
Es gilt das gesprochene Wort.