COVID-19: Interview on Culture, Connection and Identity
Corona on the podium
Antony Hermus on culture and identity
Hermus is one of the many performing musicians who were sidelined by the coronavirus. It doesn't suit him to sit around doing nothing. And he doesn't mince his words when it comes to politicians' approach to culture. “Culture isn't the cream on the cake, it's the flour in the dough.”
(read below for English translation)
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Connection
What I personally miss most in these times of lockdown, is the real live connection to others. For a long time everybody stayed at home. Elderly people in nursing homes were not allowed visitors, and everyone in Holland was advised not to go out. Staying connected is then a huge challenge. Hans, we are now sitting at home, both talking at a screen (Facetime). It’s great that this is possible, but on the other hand it doesn’t feel real at all. I talk to you, and you can also see what I look like, but you are not really *experiencing* me as a person until I'm sitting right there in front of you. Live. Experiencing the essence of our humanity, our energy – right now it is almost never possible. Live music functions in exactly the same way. Of course, recordings are wonderful to listen to, but in the end, they are only a surrogate for live performance and the essence of the music. A famous conductor, Sergiu Celibidache, once compared listening to a CD with "sleeping with a PHOTO of Brigitte Bardot". Quite an extreme comparison! - but I do completely agree with him. There's nothing like a live experience, a live connection. And in this respect culture is extremely important.
Culture
Music, film, theatre, literature, visual arts - all are excellent ways to connect with each other. It's all about interaction between artists and audience, the society. Because in the interaction of artists with their audience, completely new perspectives on our own lives are revealed. It helps us to have a better understanding of the past and also to look to the future in an entirely new way. This also applies to pop concerts. The Noord Nederlands Orkest and I were due to perform Beethoven's Ninth at the Lowlands Festival in August. Lowlands is super-cool, it is one of the biggest pop festivals in Benelux. Last time we had more than 10,000 music-lovers going crazy at our classical concert! But, well… Lowlands is not happening this year either. Only now are we starting to realise all the things we are missing out on.
Mowed down
Angela Merkel said it so beautifully: "The cultural sector of a country tells us something about its national identity." The Corona crisis has caused 'a deep wound' within the cultural sector, all over the world. "Many artists, professionals and amateurs, have been affected," Merkel acknowledged. That's why she promised that the German government will help artists as much as it can 'also by emphasizing how important you are to us'.
The Netherlands is also a country of culture. We can be so proud of our diversity of cultural offerings. And it would be so great if our Prime Minister Mr Rutte would also articulate this, at least once! In the Netherlands too, the Corona crisis has dealt a horrific blow to the entire cultural scene, especially to freelance artists. Of course you could say, well, it’s your own choice to be a freelance artist, you should have built up a better financial buffer. But then immediately I think back to the lawnmower that was invented a couple of years ago by our former minister of culture Halbe Zijlstra and his colleagues. He mowed our sector, I will not say mowed it down, but he did his best to get the grass as flat as possible. So there's no fat on the bones anymore at all. And as in many other sectors: if you can't work for one month as a freelance artist, okay, if you can't make music for two months, mmmm, but if you have no income for three months: aiaiai!!! And that's why it's now up to our government, together with the provinces and the Minister of Culture Mr van Engelshoven, to give our cultural life a chance and a future.
Desert island
In Paris the garbage-men once went on strike, and the effect was noticeable within three days throughout the whole city. Personally, I would like to know what effect it would have on our society if people were not allowed to hear music anymore. No radio, no cds, nothing - no music. How much dirt would accumulate in the soul of a human being!... Imagine: you ask someone what music he would take with him to a desert island, what music he loves, and immediately after that, you would prohibit him from ever hearing this beloved music ever again in his life. For me that would be certain pieces by Beethoven and Mahler, but also Bohemian Rhapsody. I always listen to this music when I'm happy, or sometimes also when I'm sad. These are pieces that I've heard at important moments in my life, pieces with which I have become fused, so to speak. Culture is not quantifiable, it is not something materialistic. But it does have an enormous qualitative, human value.
I don’t think so!
It worries me a lot what is happening at the moment in our province of Brabant, where a new coalition of CDA, VVD, Forum for Democracy and Local Brabant wants to make huge cuts in cultural funding. And there is no longer even a special Deputy for Culture. That these political parties have had the *idea* to include “Culture” under "Leisure"... Unbelievable! Art and culture are tremendously important to give colour to our society. It should be our goal that our diverse, wide cultural landscape can continue to exist even after this great crisis is over. This is an ambitious task, but an important one, especially in Brabant. If you don't have an eye for that, then in my opinion you have not understood certain essential things of humanity and society. In Brabant we have the excellent Philharmonie ZuidNederland, originally the Brabant Orchestra but then forced by Halbe Zijlstra a few years ago into a merger with the Limburg Symphony Orchestra. Do they really need to slash their budget again? At the Noord Nederlands Orkest, I am involved in starting up concerts again after the Corona-crisis, even in the coming weeks. Believe me, it is so important that live music, live culture can be experienced again soon. This will not be easy in the near future, but there are already green shoots. Once again: culture determines the identity of a nation. Churchill said it so beautifully: Cutting back on culture in order to wage war? I don’t think so! "What else are we fighting for?" Culture isn't the cream on the cake, it's the flour in the dough. Essential for connecting to others, and an element of hope for a human future of our society. More important than ever.
(interview: Hans v.d. Prijt)