Heads up – Embassy 28– September 2010

Cultural crossroads

Visiting the Austrian Embassy is like entering a time capsule. As Austria’s only surviving Embassy dating back to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it’s a valuable cultural resource for the country’s new Ambassador to London, Emil Brix – a diplomat, historian, writer and one of the country’s most eminent commentators on culture.

Grand portraits of Habsburg monarchs adorn the walls of the Residence, while the Ambassador’s collection is more eclectic – a mix of works drawn from Austria’s more recent past, among them a landscape of the border with the Czech Republic, depicting where the Iron Curtain once fell; a portrait of Austria’s pre-World War II Ambassador Sir George Franckenstein, who is said to have thrown the Embassy’s keys into the Thames, instead of handing them over to the Nazis (the only time when the Embassy was not under Austrian control); and a contemporary abstract by a Slovene artist passionately interested in Freud.

“Culture is very important to the self-image of Austrians; we don’t have our own language or continuous territory, so it is part of how we see ourselves,” says the Ambassador, who was former Director-General of Cultural Policies at the Foreign Ministry and a one-time head of the Austrian Cultural Institute in London.

Of course culture has its dangerous side too. Austria’s brush with totalitarianism in the 20th century did leave “some black marks,” admits the Ambassador. He smiles ruefully, recalling his “five minutes of fame” when he was quoted in newspapers across the globe in reaction to comedian Sacha Baron-Cohen’s movie, Bruno, which caricatured Austria’s darker side.

Situated on the crossroads between east and west Europe, Austrians have always understood the dualistic nature of culture and why it forms such an important tool of diplomacy.

In fact, the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna was established as far back as 1754 to better understand the culture of the Ottoman Empire.

Today’s foreign policy makers – particularly those in the EU – ignore cultural differences at their peril, says the Ambassador.

“Superficially culture is sometimes used in the EU to paper over differences – but creating an illusion of one big happy family won’t solve the problem. That is a basic flaw in the European integration project.”

The mismanagement of the plural cultures of the Austro-Hungarian Empire led to its collapse, warns the Ambassador. Yet an openness to cultural differences – such as in Vienna at the turn of the 20th century – led to a groundswell of some of the most important thinkers of the last century.

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Ambassador Brix has noticed a revival of that spirit in contemporary Vienna which now attracts talent from around Central and Eastern Europe. In celebration of the centenary of this cultural golden age, the Ambassador is hoping to host an exhibition with the Royal Academy in 2014.

Cultural affinities from the past can help in the future too. The Ambassador suggests this is a reason why Austrian banks and businesses were the first to venture into the Eastern Bloc nations, bringing with them a combination of tradition and innovation. “It was quite a risk but it paid off.”

At the end of 1989 Brix himself was posted to Krakow, which despite being behind the Iron Curtain for so long, felt almost like home to him. By searching through the Austrian archives, he helped the new local authorities rediscover Krakow’s glorious history.

The resurfacing of history had a tragic outcome in the Balkans, however. But following the Balkan wars, the Austrians have again been active in the region. The Ambassador initiated the Good Morning Balkans project – a touring art exhibition featuring artists from the Balkans who have been living and working in Vienna – to explore the new cultural context of the post-War Balkans.

Part of the Ambassador’s work in London will be to work with the EBRD to help revive the economy of the region, while cooperating with the UK authorities to promote the reintegration of the Western Balkans into the European family, politically and culturally.

For now, EU enlargement to include Turkey may be a stretch too far, he says. “Austrians and Germans believe this will upset the balance in Europe. Enlarging the union is not simply based on economics or geography; we are also committed to certain values, history, culture. To ignore this is short-sighted.”

The influx of people from Central and Eastern Europe to Austria, while culturally enriching, also created tensions that have seen right-wing parties make gains in Austria. “The strength of the populists stems from a crisis in Liberal Democracy where people feel their views have not being listened to,” says Brix. “It is a problem we are all dealing with in Europe but I think there may be something in Prime Minister David Cameron’s so-called Big Society. How one encourages participation in civil society will be the big story of our time.”

That’s a lot to ponder – but working in such a historic embassy means he won’t be short of inspiration...