East West Forum
FORUM OSTWEST cultural projects with Poland + its neighbors is a series of events of the Rheinisch-Bergisches Kreis in North Rhine-Westphalia , which has been carried out since 1992. In June 2013 the X. FORUM OSTWEST was organized, in 2015 the XI. FORUM.
Idea and goals
The Rheinisch-Bergische Kreis and its partners invite artists, scientists and politicians from Poland and its neighboring countries to concerts, exhibitions, discussions, workshops and other events. At the same time, the dialogue between artists from the Rheinisch-Bergisches Kreis and from Eastern Europe should be promoted . The FORUM OSTWEST appeals to a wide variety of audiences with its broad spectrum.
Partner and sponsor
Some of the partners and sponsors of the series of events have been with us since the beginning, others are involved in individual projects. The partners include the eight cities and municipalities of the district, the adult education centers, the music schools, the Thomas-More-Academy and various general education schools. Longstanding sponsors include the Kreissparkasse Köln and the Rass company. Other sponsors were or are the Robert Bosch Foundation , the German-Polish Society Cologne-Bonn and the German-Polish Youth Office .
The participants from Poland and other countries are mostly accommodated with private individuals.
X. FORUM 2013
The FORUM OSTWEST (FOW) took place for the tenth time in 2013. On the occasion of this anniversary, an exhibition about past events was on view in the district building in Bergisch Gladbach . The Thomas More Academy exhibited pictures of the Katyn massacre by the Krakow artist Aneta Küchler-Mocny in the Kardinal-Schulte-Haus .
On three days, local specialties were cooked in short cooking courses and then “table talks” were held with guests from Poland, Belarus and the Ukraine .
The composer Krzysztof Meyer brought schoolchildren closer to his work under the title “From the idea to the world premiere”.
Works by Max Bruch , Andrzej Panufnik and Krzysztof Meyer were performed at a concert in the Städtische Galerie Villa Zanders .
A chamber concert took place in Haus Maria in der Aue .
The poet and writer Artur Becker from Poland discussed his work with students in Leichlingen and Rösrath.
The Musicalische Academie zu Burscheid from 1812 performed works by various Polish composers: Frédéric Chopin , Witold Lutosławski , Ignacy Feliks Dobrzyński , Joanna Stepalska-Spix and Henryk Mikołaj Górecki .
In Odenthal , the focus was on the pictures of the Polish photographer and painter Maria Luiza Pyrlik .
Students and lecturers from the art academies in Poznań and Lodz presented their works with and on paper in the Villa Zanders.
XI. FORUM 2015
The eleventh FORUM focused on music and literature from Germany and Poland.
Students from the music schools in Leichlingen, Wermelskirchen and the Polish Tychy gave a big concert in Wermelskirchen. To get to know the more than seventy young people from Germany and Poland, there was a supporting program lasting several days, including a visit to Burg Castle .
The writer Matthias Nawrat presented his new book Unternehmer am Gymnasium in Odenthal. He was born in 1979 in Opole , Poland and now lives in Berlin.
The translator, author and publisher Adam Jaromir lives in Hanover . He was born in Bielsko-Biała in 1971 . With his book Fräulein Esther's Last Presentation - A Story from the Warsaw Ghetto , he gave children and young people in Overath and Burscheid an impression of the Holocaust. He prepared an excursion to the Jewish Museum in Warsaw with students from the secondary school in Wermelskirchen .
The crime writer Sören Bollmann , born in Duisburg in 1970, has lived in Frankfurt (Oder) since 2000 . On the other side of the river is the Polish Słubice , which is also home to a Wikipedia memorial . Bollmann presented his books Murder in Half the City and Burglary in Half the City at the vocational college in Bergisch Gladbach and at the comprehensive school in Kürten. Journalist Barbara Coellen from the Poland editorial team at Deutsche Welle and Susanne Bonenkamp from FORUM OSTWEST held a conversation with Bollmann about literature and the future in the “double city”. Bollmann's main job is the head of the Frankfurt-Słubice cooperation center. The motto of the communal German-Polish cooperation is "Investing in the future by overcoming borders."
History
The FORUM OSTWEST has been developed from the Bergisch-Schlesische Musiktage . The Musiktage had had the subtitle FORUM OST-WEST since the 1970s; they were held for the last time in 1990.
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the reunification of Germany in 1990 made this reorientation necessary. The aim of the circle was to promote German-Polish cultural exchange and dialogue. Culture and art should appeal to the largest possible audience. German partners should also be involved beyond the borders of the district. The FORUM OST-WEST, at that time still with a hyphen, continued the former main title Bergisch-Schlesische Musiktage as a subtitle in 1992, 1994 and 1996.
The EU expansion in 2004 was the reason for another name change to FORUM OSTWEST cultural projects with Poland + its neighbors . The following events then involved the neighboring countries: in 2005 and 2007 the republics of the Czech Republic and Slovakia together ; Lithuania followed in 2009 .
