COURAGE

connecting collections

Substitut ist eine Berliner Produktionsfirma und Bildagentur, deren Projekte sich vorrangig mit den Sub- und Gegenkulturen der DDR befassen. Ein besonderer Schwerpunkt dabei ist der Punk.

2005 befasste sich die von Substitut organisierte Ausstellung „Too Much Future“ ausführlich mit dem Thema Punk in der DDR. Sie beleuchtete, wie sich Gegenkulturen in einer Diktatur entwickeln können, welche Einflüsse sie auch außerhalb dieser Gegenkultur ausüben und mit welchen Repressionen deren Mitglieder zu kämpfen hatten.

Aus dieser Ausstellung entwickelte sich schließlich ein Multimediaarchiv. Es umfasst private und professionelle Dokumente, vorwiegend aus den 80er Jahren. Dazu gehören Musik- und Filmaufnahmen sowie Akten der Staatssicherheit. Genauso ist umfangreiches Bildmaterial vorhanden, das Poster, Flyer, Fotografien und Malereien einschließt. 

Summa Artium was established at the end of 2003 by the Soros Foundation with the aim of boosting sponsorship and support for the arts from the corporate and private sector and to promote the cause of arts and business partnerships and private support for the arts in general. In Hungary, profitable companies are legally permitted to devote up to 80 percent of the taxes on their profits to theatres and orchestras, paying only the remaining part to the state. Summa Artium mediates between the business sector and the art sector for 5 percent of the amount of the support given. The non-profit Foundation originally was meant to fill the gap the Soros Foundation left when it had ceased operating in Hungary.

In 2003, when Soros practically terminated the Hungarian Soros Foundation, András Török was a member of the board of curators. Soros then expressed his desire to keep a spinoff organization of the Foundation, and he provided a relatively modest sum for its launch. There was no one, however, with a plan to lead this organization until Török came up with an idea inspired by the London-based charitable organization Arts & Business, which mediates between the cultural scene and the private sector. Though Soros was skeptical about the model, he let it launch. The original budget was quickly spent, but the non-profit foundation manages to operate from market incomes.

In Török’s assessment, in a world in which the slogan "Big is Beautiful" was the defining paradigm, launching a non-profit foundation in order to help smaller projects survive demanded a nonconformist attitude. Summa Artium never received any state support, and Török is proud of this, as in Eastern Europe state involvement often involves symbolic or actual corruption. The Foundation is currently looking at possibilities to enhance community funding of the cultural sphere.

The Department of Manuscripts and Textual Studies was founded in 1926, concurrently with the T.H. Shevchenko Institute of Literature of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Many outstanding Ukrainian scholars have worked during the Soviet period and after independence in 1991, including Jeremiah Izenshtok, Agapy Shamray, Sergy Zubkov, Mykola Syvachenko, Fedir Pogrebennik, Mykhaylyna Kotsubynska, and others. Research in the department focuses on working with manuscripts that are kept in the institute’s repository. The Department of Manuscripts and Textual Studies collects manuscripts and archives of Ukrainian writers, catalogues them, and sometimes prepares these materials for publication. At the moment, the department has the biggest special collection of materials on Ukrainian literature. In 1999, the institute published a finding aid of its collections, and publishes annually a list of processed materials that updates the institute’s holdings. This institution has the status of a national heritage repository, and thus receives funds from the state to ensure its facilities are up to date.

Trampské združenie Severka [Tramp association Severka] was officially founded in January 1991, but it began releasing the tramp magazine Severka two years earlier, in 1989. The association's objective is to preserve and support original tramp culture while documenting the history of the movement both in Slovakia and abroad. The association organises cultural, educational and sporting events, issues books and periodicals, releases audiovisual media, initiates nature and environmental conservation activities, and cultivates the image and awareness of the tramp subculture and its history in both online and printed media.

Tramps still maintain their identity today as a subculture. In the past, adapting to changes in the social, economic, and political environment was necessary. During the communist era, both before the Prague Spring and after the arrival of Soviet troops in 1968, tramps were subject to surveillance and bullying by the state police. Nevertheless, thanks to the open and flexible character of the subculture, they still managed to maintain independence and avoid being banned, unlike the Scout Movement. Tramping never turned into an organisation supported or controlled by state. It is made up of individuals and “osady” [settlements], the latter representing groups of at least three tramps. There is no hierarchy or stable structure designating relations among them. All activities and programs of “osady” or tramps-loners are chosen freely and independently.