Vassilis Papavassiliou
When the Olympic Games are over, I hope that the new government will make some semantic distinctions. For example, what intellectual confusion (or even wily politicking) permits us to use the term «culture» and «art» interchangeably? Since everything starts with language and comes back to it, this is a vitally important first step. Its gravity is in contradistinction to the consciously maintained vagueness about three fields which are shoved into the same box under the label of «culture,» and its established use or misuse. I refer to the cultural heritage, cultural pyrotechnics and artistic creation. How do they relate to or exclude each other? How is one favored over the others? These and other questions are not solely of theoretical interest. On the contrary, they are what is at stake in a political investment in so-called culture. Vassilis Papavassiliou is a composer.
