Cultura21 bears roots in the experience of another German Network: Kulturattac. Kulturattac was the cultural network of the NGO Attac Germany between May 2003 and October 2004. 300 artists from different cultural sectors (literature, film, theatre…) wanted to support social and ecological goals and to raise awareness of the existential role of culture in society.
The most important project of Kulturattac was launched in 2002 with the coordination of a front of 120 bands and musicians against the threats of war in Iraq. The bands came from different countries. With the best songs Kulturattac produced two music CDs (a pop/rock and a punk-version), that were published 2003 with the name “Peace Attack” by the label Inpact Records, Duisburg.
In June 2003 Kulturattac celebrated itself with the “Festival of Culture for another World“, that took place in Düsseldorf with a concert of ten bands.
The network of Kulturattac was organised in local groups (Düsseldorf, Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich) and in thematic groups (Literature, visual arts, theatre, philosophy, cultural politics…).
In September 2003 Kulturattac started a cooperation with the German Cultural Council (Kulturrat), that represents several arts and culture organizations in Germany. The common goal was to inform about and protest against the agenda of the WTO-Conference in Cancun (Mexico), that concerned also the free trade of cultural goods. “Culture is not a commodity” was the slogan of Kulturattac.
Kulturattac organised some art-expositions (for example in Aachen) and published an alternative newsletter every two weeks (Kulturattac-TV) with social, ecological and cultural programme- recommendations.
For Kulturattac, it was very important, that the relationship between political and cultural movements didn’t become an instrumental one, but remained a relationship between equal partners. It was the condition for new inputs from the arts to the political movement. In 2004 a hard conflict about the autonomy of Kulturattac burst out with the national coordination of Attac and lead to the dissolution of Kulturattac. Some members of Kulturattac founded at the beginning of 2005 a new initiative: Cultura21.
