A public event in the series Europe talks to Europe
A Polylogue on Culture and Politics
The critical divide. Marxism: radical alternative or totalitarian relic?
Benedict Seymour (London) and Jiří Pehe (Prague)

Chair: Marek Seckar (HOST)
Introduction: Carl Henrik Fredriksson (Eurozine)
Language: English
Time: Tuesday 18 May, 6 p.m.

While an historical-materialist approach to both culture and society has strong critical potential in western Europe, many eastern European intellectuals regard it sceptically. After 1989, Marxist ideas and theories were tainted by their connection to state socialism, and are still linked with totalitarianism. Does Marxism – or even leftist politics – mean one thing in the West and another in the East? The Brno debate provides the opportunity for a dialogue between western and eastern European intellectual traditions, at the same time challenging exactly these stereotypes.

The Brno debate, part of the series "Europe talks to Europe", is a cooperation between Eurozine and the ERSTE Foundation, realised together with HOST and The Brno House of Arts.

Further information: www.eurozine.com

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Benedict Seymour is a writer, filmmaker and a contributing editor of Mute magazine. He has written and made films about urban regeneration and gentrification with the research group The London Particular, and explored the links between financialization and cultural-social contraction in a number of articles and essays, including "Drowning by Numbers: The Non-Reproduction of New Orleans". He is currently working on a film about the origins of the financial crisis in the obsolescence of the value-form -- working title, "The Price of Everything". He holds the position of Lecturer in Fine Art on the MFA at Goldsmiths College London.

Jiří Pehe is the Director of New York University in Prague. At the end of the 1990s, he was Director of the Political Department of Czech President Vaclav Havel and has also worked as an analyst of Central European affairs and later as Director of Central European Research at the Research Institute of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Munich, Germany. After receiving a doctorate in law from the School of Law of Charles University, he fled from Czechoslovakia in 1981 and later graduated from the School of International Affairs at Columbia University in New York. He is a regular contributor to theCzech and international press and is a commentor for Czech Television and Radio.

EUROPE TALKS TO EUROPE – A POLYLOGUE ON CULTURE AND POLITICS
The series "Europe talks to Europe" is a cooperation of Eurozine with the ERSTE Foundation. From Autumn 2009 to Spring 2011, Eurozine organizes a series of high-profile debates in different central and eastern European cities, including Budapest, Bratislava, Brno, Bucharest, Ljubljana, Sofia, Warsaw and Vienna in collaboration with selected partners in the Eurozine network. Making use of a well-established media platform and a wide-ranging network of editors, authors and intellectuals, the debates will make a substantial contribution to cross-border discussion on cultural identities and the European integration project.

With the financial support of the ERSTE Foundation and the Culture 2007–2013 programme of the European Commision
[Logos: ERSTE Foundation and Culture 2007–2013 programme of the European Commission]
[Further logos: Eurozine and HOST + possibly further cooperation partner (venue)]

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Eurozine is a network of European cultural journals, linking up 80 partner journals and just as many associated magazines and institutions from nearly all European countries. Eurozine is also a netmagazine which publishes outstanding articles from its partner journals with additional translations into one of the major European languages. www.eurozine.com

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