Renata Sperandio| Former Director of the Istituto Italiano di Cultura of Dublin (2015-2021)

When I think about the collaborations between the Goethe-Institut Ireland and the Istituto Italiano di Cultura of Dublin during my six years in Dublin, the very first images that come to mind are not our many projects: the most vivid memories are the atmosphere of friendship, the smiling faces of Thomas Lier and Ulrike Gasser, the Directors I had the good fortune to get to know, and of their wonderful collaborators, the sense of humor that accompanied every meeting, even and especially when we could see problems more than solutions and obstacles instead of clear paths.
Creativity and realism revealed themselves as the perfect basis for lovely initiatives and although I suspect the easy association is Italian creativity and German realism, I had the feeling it could easily also be the other way around. A German word I like very much is “nichtdetsotrotzt” - practically impossible to pronounce to an Italian speaker, wonderfully “transparent” when you think of its meaning and of its being an essential condition of so many cultural endeavours, perhaps a bit stronger than “nevertheless”, more concrete than the Italian “ciononostante”. 60 years of Goethe Ireland? For at least one tenth of them, I can say that getting closer to German language and culture is a rewarding, revealing, and very fun adventure in spite of all possible obstacles. I am sure it will continue to be so for the next 60 years!