2023-08-28 17:18:00
On the birthday of the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe), August 28, a solemn ceremony will be held in the city castle of the German city of Weimar, where Goethe medals will be awarded – the official honorary badge of the Federal Republic of Germany, which is awarded to figures who “have made a special contribution to world cultural exchange or the teaching of the German language”.
Who received the Goethe medal
In 2023, Georgian film manager Gaga Chkheidze, curator and playwright Yi-Wei Keng from Taiwan, and the Hungarian curatorial team of the OFF Biennale will receive medals. As Karola Lenz, President of the Goethe-Institut, said, this year’s prize winners “are inspiring facilitators and facilitators and create places for meeting and diversity of perspectives. They make a significant contribution to cultural understanding, global exchange and freedom of expression and art.”
The awarding of one of the prize winners threatens, if not to turn into a political scandal, then at least to complicate relations between Germany and Georgia. After all, Gaga Chkheidze, who until March 2022 headed the National Center for Cinematography of Georgia, is currently a kind of “persona non grata” for official Tbilisi and the ruling Georgian Dream party in the country. After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he publicly criticized the Georgian government for not sufficiently distancing itself from Moscow, drawing official Tbilisi’s sharp displeasure.
Goethe-Institut President Karola Lenz presenting the award to Gaga ChkheidzePhoto: Bodo Schackow/dpa/picture alliance
This position cost him the post of head of the National Cinema Center: on March 18, 2022, Chkheidze was fired from his post. Some in Georgia call this revenge for disloyalty to the ruling party on the part of the country’s Minister of Culture Tei Tsulukiani, who also fired dozens of employees of museums, theaters and various departments that are part of the Ministry of Culture. Chkheidze’s dismissal was followed by funding cuts, structural reorganization and a series of layoffs at the cinema center.
“Friend of Germany and builder of cultural bridges”
Born in 1957, Gaga Chkheidze has always been considered a friend of Germany and a “builder of cultural bridges” not only between the two countries. From 1976-1980 he studied at the University of Jena in the federal state of Thuringia. In the 1980s, he served as director of a German school in Tbilisi and taught German literature at the Ilya State University in the Georgian capital.
In 1988, Chkheidze organized a retrospective of Georgian films at Berlin’s Arsenal cinema, for which he even smuggled films across the Soviet border in his car. In the 1990s, Gaga Chkheidze was a translator and program coordinator for the Young Film Forum at the Berlin International Film Festival, and in 2000 he founded the Tbilisi International Film Festival in Georgia, which he headed until 2016.
Creation of a film festival and preservation of the film heritage of Georgia
Almost simultaneously with the creation of the National Center of Georgian Cinematography in 2001, Georgian cinema received a new impetus to development. The film promotion budget has tripled, new theaters have arrived, and more films are entering international festivals from Berlin to Toronto. The concept of the film festival founded by Gaga Chkheidze appealed to both filmmakers and viewers. Soon the Tbilisi Film Festival became a meeting place for international filmmakers. Georgian cinema has approached the European film market.
The Goethe Medal is the official badge of honor of the Federal Republic of GermanyPhoto: arifoto UG/dpa/picture alliance
As director of the National Cinema Center of Georgia, Chkheidze made a lot of efforts to preserve the Georgian cinematic heritage: it was under him that Georgian films shot during the Soviet period were digitized and restored. “Gaga Chkheidze’s commitment to cinema is crucial for Georgia’s links with European and international institutions and programmes, film markets and festivals,” said the jury awarding the Goethe medal.
“On the front line between democracy and autocracy”
Russia’s full-scale military invasion of Ukraine has also affected Georgia. The National Cinematography Center of Georgia has begun to displease the authorities, and the expulsion of its director is just one of the signs of pressure on the center. “Unfortunately, here in Georgia we are on the front line between democracy and autocracy,” Gaga Chkheidze recently said in an interview with Deutschlandradio.
According to him, there are many signs in the political development of Georgia that the state is moving in the wrong direction. “It is drifting more and more towards authoritarianism. I don’t want to say ‘dictatorship’, but totalitarianism, which we already had in Soviet times. Nobody in Georgia wants this anymore. But the danger is real,” said the newly minted winner of the German Goethe medal.
Two Goethe medals go to Taiwan and Hungary
Another Goethe medal is going to Taiwan this year. It was awarded to the curator, playwright and translator Yi-Wei Keng. According to the jury of the Goethe Institute, he brought important impulses to the development of the Taiwanese theater scene, including experimental theater, children’s theater and theater for people with disabilities. “One of the most important initiators of cultural exchange in Taiwan, especially in the field of establishing links with the German theater scene,” said Yi-Wei Keng, President of the Goethe Institute Carola Lenz.
Taiwanese playwright and festival curator Yi-Wei KengPhoto: Willie Schumann/Goethe Institut/DW
Yi-Wei Keng was born in 1969 in Taiwan and studied philosophy and then non-verbal theater in Prague. Since 2012, he has been Artistic Director of the Taipei Arts Festival. He has repeatedly brought German theatrical productions to Taiwan, in particular, the German Theater Berlin, the Rimini Protokoll group or Raumlabor Berlin.
Finally, the Hungarian curatorial team of the OFF Biennial Budapest was awarded the third Goethe medal. Founded in 2014 as the Garage Biennale, this exhibition has grown into an independent platform for artists and art lovers. The OFF Biennale team, consisting of six curators, refuses state subsidies, as well as cooperation with state art institutions. Already in the first year of its existence, the exhibition attracted a lot of attention abroad. So far, three biennials have been held – in 2015, 2017 and 2021 – and OFF Biennial Budapest is considered an international event.
One of the highest German awards in the field of culture
The Goethe Medal, which is considered one of the highest awards in the field of Germany in the field of culture, is awarded annually for special merits in promoting the German language and promoting international cultural exchange. Established in 1954, the Goethe medal acquired the status of an order of the FRG in 1975. To date, it has been awarded to more than 340 writers, composers, performers, including Kazakh director Bolat Atabaev, Russian composer Sofia Gubaidullina, Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim and many others. Last year, the Ukrainian writer Yury Andrukhovych became a laureate of the Goethe medal.
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