Goethe Medals honor artists beyond borders

The Goethe Medals mark outstanding services and achievements in promoting the German language and cultural exchange. Candidates for the Goethe Medal are nominated every year by Germany's cultural Goethe-Instituts abroad, in close collaboration with Germany's diplomatic representation offices. They are an official decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany.

The theme of this year's awards is "Culture is a very special fluid — in the network of the global community." Upon announcement of this year's winners, Christina von Braun, vice president of the Goethe-Institut and chair of the Goethe Medal Conferment Commission, said in a statement that: "For [German poet Johann Wolfgang] Goethe, blood and ink were indistinguishable substances. The flow of these two 'fluids' makes life and community possible. This year's awardees of the Goethe Medal are outstanding representatives of this imagery. Their art connects cultures, home and abroad. It bridges genders, and links past and future."

Pandemic parameters

Pointing to the challenges of the global pandemic, Carola Lentz, president of the Goethe-Institut, noted that: "In pandemic times, the international cultural exchange faces particular challenges. Digital communication offers new opportunities, yet at the same time existing inequalities are growing, for example with regard to access to cultural activities and education or gender equality.”

Furthermore, she said, "The legacy of colonial power relations and restrictions on freedom in illiberal post-colonial regimes are becoming even more palpable. This year's awardees don't shy away from these challenges. With their cultural and civil society commitment in three very different countries, they courageously lead the way and stand up with their art for an open, democratic and equal society — also across national borders."

A range of accomplishments

2021 awardee Princess Douala Manga Bell is a Cameroonian social economist and president of the cultural organisation doual'art. In selecting her, the Goethe-Institut stressed that she "is strongly committed to the reappraisal of German colonial history in Cameroon and to a constructive dialogue about the effects of colonialism up to the present day." More pointedly, "she sees the particular potential of the visual arts to initiate social change and strengthen the freedom of expression, and thus advocates a broad encouragement of artistic activity." This is reflected in the contemporary cultural centre doual'art in Cameroon's port city of Douala, which she co-founded.

Another awardee, composer Toshio Hosokawa, was born in Hiroshima in 1955 and came to Germany in 1976. He is considered one of Japan's best-known living composers and an outstanding representative of German-Japanese cultural relations. His works include operas, orchestral and solo works, chamber and film music as well as works for traditional Japanese instruments. His musical language incorporates the Zen Buddhist symbolic interpretation of nature, as well as the tension between Western avant-garde and traditional Japanese culture.

"With his compositions, Hosokawa opens up spaces and connects people all over the world. The unique sound of his music transcends and turns the concert hall into a place of global encounter," wrote the jury.

To the US, Germany and back to Beijing 

The third 2021 awardee is Wen Hui, a dancer, choreographer, documentary filmmaker and installation artist who was born in Yunnan, China in 1960. A groundbreaker in dance theater in China, she is cofounder of the Living Dance Studio, the country's first independent dance theater company. "Wen Hui stands for the independent and highly creative independent art scene in China, embodying cultural diversity and the broad spectrum of everyday stories beyond official narratives," wrote the jury. "She tells 'her' stories of China through her sensitive, closely observed dance theatre pieces, which congenially combine different media, documentary elements and poetic power."

She attended the Choreography Department of the Beijing Dance Academy in the 1980s, and was then a choreographer in the Oriental Song and Dance Ensemble of China. In the 1990s, she studied modern dance in the US and in Europe, including at the Folkwang University in Essen and with Pina Bausch's world-renowned dance company in Wuppertal, Germany. She currently lives in Beijing.

Internationally known recipients

Since it was first awarded in 1955, a total of 348 people from 65 countries have been honored with the Goethe Medal. Awardees have included the likes of conductor Daniel Barenboim, British author John le Carre, Hungarian philosopher Agnes Heller, US theater director Robert Wilson, Iranian artist and filmmaker Shirin Neshat, French stage director Ariane Mnouchkine and Japanese writer Yoko Tawada.

The ceremony celebrating the awardees of the 2021 Goethe Medals (in cooperation with Deutsche Welle) will take place via digital stream on August 28, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's birthday. Germany's most famous poet — and namesake of the Goethe institutes abroad offering classes in German language and culture — lived from 1749 to 1832.

als/db (with Goethe-Institut)