Announcement of the 10th awardee 2020
The 10th winner of The Power of the Arts 2020 award, “Kein Schlussstrich! Ein bundesweites Theaterprojekt zum NSU-Komplex (No closure! A nationwide theatre project on the National Socialist Underground)” by Licht ins Dunkel e.V. who has not yet been published for project-internal reasons can finally be announced.
Fifteen theaters and civil society actors have formed an alliance for the realization of the nation-wide project Kein Schlussstrich! Ein bundesweites Theaterprojekt zum NSU-Komplex. With the trans-media music format “Manifesto”, theater premieres, and a diverse supporting program, this decentralized theater project is bringing attention to the issue of racism, providing venues for debate, and sending a signal against public amnesia regarding those affected by the right-wing terrorism and racist violence.
“Kein Schlussstrich! Ein bundesweites Theaterprojekt zum NSU-Komplex embodies a courageous and necessary project that focuses on a critical issue of recent contemporary history. NSU terror affects all of us as a society. Art and culture are our only means for providing a venue to address this pain and work through the issue of racism beyond the political arena. The fact that artists from different cities and regions are coming together here is one of the special strengths this project has,” the jury states, elucidating its decision.
The cultural promotion award initiated by Philip Morris GmbH, which explicitly supports cultural projects that advocate for an open society, honors the winning project for its important contribution in the fight against right-wing extremism.
“From the outset, the idea behind The Power of the Arts has been to combine cultural promotion with social and political concerns in the interest of a more open society. The project Kein Schlussstrich! is a particularly impressive example for social engagement in these times of social upheaval,” says Elfriede Buben, Head of Corporate Responsibility at Philip Morris GmbH.
In order to provide even more support for cultural projects during these special challenges under the Corona pandemic, the cultural promotion award The Power of the Arts 2020 is awarding ten projects instead of the usual four. The further awardees were announced in November 2020.
