Euronews Culture sat down with Joe Chialo, Berlin's Minister for Culture and Social Cohesion, to discuss the German capital’s vibrant cultural scene and the future challenges facing the city.
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00:00 [Music]
00:17 Berlin is one of the most exciting, exciting, creative metropolises in the world.
00:24 Why? We have an incredible amount of culture here.
00:27 We have four world-class operas.
00:31 We have countless clubs, where we are always happy to welcome guests from all over Europe and the world.
00:38 We have galleries, over 170 galleries.
00:42 We have over 200 museums.
00:44 So, this is a vibrant place to be for a city like Berlin, also with its history.
00:52 Do you also go to opera or techno clubs or concerts, for example?
00:56 Yes, of course. I was recently in Kunstwerke.
00:59 I was recently in Berghain.
01:02 I also go to the Neue Nationalgalerie by Klaus Biesenbach, but also to many, many other cultural centers here in Berlin.
01:10 And I am also happy that it is not only the high culture, but also the free culture and the club culture,
01:18 which make this city a very special city worldwide.
01:21 And how did you find Berghain?
01:23 I have been to Berghain many times.
01:26 And of course, this is a place where you forget about time.
01:30 Are there other cities besides Berlin that you find impressive?
01:35 Yes, of course.
01:37 First of all, I think of London, an incredibly exciting city.
01:41 Paris, but also Milan, Rome, Barcelona, Madrid.
01:46 These are also cities, I think of Warsaw, an incredibly great city that has an incredible power.
01:53 And also other cities that were once secret places, now unfortunately perhaps under the current circumstances, a little sad.
01:58 Kiev, that was a city that meant a lot with Berlin, we are here on partner cities, especially in club culture.
02:06 Yes, there are many cities in Europe that could of course claim a uniqueness for themselves.
02:12 But Berlin is a special place among all these unique cities.
02:17 And do you think that Berlin is diverse enough?
02:21 We have more than 25% of the population in Berlin.
02:26 This is already a clear sign of the growth of the city.
02:34 Do we have enough space to improve this?
02:37 I think so, and we will use it.
02:40 But I would still say that one thing that has always shaped Berlin, and that was freedom.
02:45 And this idea of freedom attracts people.
02:47 And that's why Berlin is already, in my opinion, far ahead.
02:50 How do you get the diversity of Berlin married to each other?
02:54 Then I think that it is already biographically related to my own person.
03:00 I was born in Germany, my parents come from Tanzania, I came to the boarding school at the age of nine.
03:05 That means I started learning German and I found my way here in Germany.
03:10 I did my high school, I did my training, I was an entrepreneur.
03:13 And that's how I got to know the different aspects of life here in Berlin, in Germany.
03:18 I see the challenge, and I think we can only overcome it by being aware of diversity.
03:25 And by making it clear to ourselves that it is about co-existence and not about forcing one another.
03:33 People want to be seen in their diversity, and diversity doesn't just mean progressive diversity.
03:38 Diversity also means traditional values.
03:41 And this negotiation with each other, how to achieve co-existence,
03:46 is one of the biggest challenges we have today.
03:49 We introduced an antidiscrimination clause because it was important to us
03:54 that when the financial resources are used up,
03:57 that it is ensured that the hard-earned money of taxpayers
04:01 of course benefits the institutions and people who accept democratic basic rules.
04:07 As you probably know, we live in a very, very polarized world.
04:11 Very, very disputed, fragmented echo chambers.
04:15 And I think it is important that when these resources are used up,
04:19 that it is done on a legal basis, and that's what we wanted to achieve.
04:24 This antidiscrimination clause included racism, classism, Ableism, and anti-Semitism.
04:34 It also included Islamophobia.
04:36 The whole debate has perhaps also been very strongly charged with the concept of anti-Semitism.
04:43 Is there a final point you would like to add or say?
04:47 I have a favourite topic, if I may say so, that accompanies me in my evening time.
04:52 On the one hand, I mentioned social cohesion.
04:57 But the second is that we are not yet really capable of thinking in politics
05:04 when it comes to artificial intelligence.
05:07 Artificial intelligence is a large, wide field that we will work on in Berlin in the future.
05:17 We will talk about how artificial intelligence works in a city like Berlin,
05:24 economically, ethically, legally.
05:27 To ask what art and culture actually mean in a time when the voice that sounds like Joe Cocker is not even from Joe Cocker.
05:37 Who owns the voice?
05:38 What does it mean, for example, if it has been artificially produced in a track, in terms of the compensation?
05:45 What does it mean ethically and morally?
05:48 And we want to work on all these questions, because it concerns so many areas.
05:52 It concerns film.
05:54 Films are produced by artificial intelligence that follow a certain success logic.
06:00 What does that mean for creativity, for progressive thinking?
06:03 On the one hand, it is very practical.
06:07 If you are an artist in the studio and he has failed, you don't have to ask him to come back the next day.
06:12 You can explain that, because artificial intelligence helps.
06:15 On the other hand, we are moving into a very, very dangerous framework if we don't define it.
06:20 We recently saw that artists have opposed it.
06:23 We want to work on all this here in Berlin to strengthen this culture sustainably.
06:29 I'm sure we'll have a great time.
06:31 - I'm so sad.
06:32 [MUSIC]