Annual report 2020

Preface by Charles Beer, Chairman of the Board of Trustees

Between resistance and resilience, cultural actors are adapting and innovating to cope with the pandemic. Coronavirus left its mark on the world in 2020 and also shook cultural life in all its dimensions, foremost by suspending public gatherings, which resulted in a cessation of activities and the dramatic rise of precarious conditions.

Culture is not simply another economic sector. It is highly complex and offers little social protection to those who shape it. Culture is not simply a good like any other as the different lockdown phases across the world have explicitly illustrated: in fact, culture is essential to life, a condition of survival and constitutive of our humanity.

Culture is a fundamental pillar of today’s societies and above all of our democracies. It provides care, social ties and meaning. Political debate and public addresses have repeatedly highlighted this, emphasising the need for a paradigm shift in the way we operate, a break with the rationale and short-term profits characterising contemporary globalisation.

Action must follow words. We cannot be guided by nostalgia. We need to paint a different future, one that breaks with the multiple logics of domination. In this respect, culture will also have to rethink some of its functions. And it may do so by critically questioning facts and circumstances, by developing new formats and deepening its engagement. Pro Helvetia contributes to this process, through its history, marked by continuity and adaptation, and through its expertise and the support it both receives and provides. It fulfils its mission and adapts its measures to meet the demands of the times. For us, too, it is a matter of reaching beyond a short-term vision to strengthen the social protection of cultural practitioners and to place our actions in a structuring perspective, such that the fertile common path of the cultural community and the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia may long continue.

On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I wish to extend our profound gratitude to the directorate and staff of Pro Helvetia worldwide, as well as to all artists and cultural practitioners. Thank you for your commitment, trust and support.

Preface by Philippe Bischof, Director

The year 2020 was not only exceptional, but arguably a turning point. Even now, we remain caught up in the pandemic and its effects. We are aware that the world — and of course the cultural sector — will look different in the future than before the outbreak of coronavirus. How – remains uncertain. Perhaps you too have been startled, while reading a recently published book or looking at older pictures and photographs, by scenes taken for granted before Covid-19: embraces, nights out dancing, cooking with friends or simply setting off on holiday to a faraway country. The new circumstances — of proximity and distance, the hybrid state of physical and virtual reality — are beginning to displace the familiar. They are leaving mental traces and could permanently change previous ways of functioning.

The brutal effect of the pandemic, which reflects the previous flaws in our system, became evident — no sooner did the global cultural machine begin stuttering — in the fragile and precarious working and living conditions of cultural practitioners and cultural institutions. What we experienced in the cultural sector in Switzerland and in all our partner countries last year moved and shook us. Seldom had the political task of supporting and promoting culture made so much sense and taken on such urgency as in 2020, triggering fundamental questions worldwide. For the Swiss Arts Council, this means a tremendous obligation, which we have fulfilled and will continue to fulfil with tireless commitment. With all the means at our disposal, we will contribute to focusing attention on the future beyond these difficult times. Because ultimately it is a matter of preparing the future, for which we all bear responsibility, creatively and lastingly.

At the onset of Covid-19, premature claims were heard that the pandemic would affect everyone equally. All too soon, however, it became painfully clear that coronavirus would have profound, at times even irreparable societal effects that would further exacerbate existing inequalities. Covid-19 has highlighted, besides causing personal and family suffering, societal tensions as well as geographical and political differences that are too often overlooked. We are therefore particularly concerned about all those who are socially, economically and politically disadvantaged — which, unfortunately, includes many partners of Swiss cultural practitioners across the world, not least in regions where Pro Helvetia has offices abroad. We are closely monitoring developments in our partner regions, with which many Swiss cultural practitioners maintain working relationships. Alas, we must fear losing valuable partner institutions, long-standing and important places of cultural exchange and artistic experimentation. And yet, we know that cultural practitioners across the world will continue to create and develop new works and projects thanks to their strength, creative spirit and commitment. New formats can now emerge, as well as new forms of collaboration and exchange that will extend far beyond the pandemic.

We find ourselves in a time of transition and transformation with an uncertain outcome that we are all trying to better understand and navigate. The cultural landscape is changed and changing. Our core task is to recognise those paths emerging amid the new cultural topographies that will lead cultural practitioners forward. We will do everything to master this task — here in Switzerland as well as in our wider global network.