Martin Buber - Stichting Euriade

4
Preface
EPIPHANY: EURIADE or the OTHER Festival
EURIADE, the International Culture and Science Festival,
intends to offer people inviting oases in this desert which is
characterized by merely commercial and material attractions
– oases where contemplation and discovering your innermost
self are possible – in a fruitful confrontation with
culture and science.
It is a festival of meeting other people, a festival that helps
us to get to know and to understand the OTHER in a better
way – in the encouraging atmosphere of music, literature,
philosophy and sculpture. This does not result in merely
passive satisfaction, but the OTHER – asking and demanding
– helps us to find out who we really are.
Beyond the sphere of the senses these oases and moments
of peace appeal to our hearts and minds and thus we find
the way to our deepest and inner-most self: to our SOUL.
Accordingly the EURIADE topics are always related to this
encounter with you yourself and the OTHER – in the true
meaning of the Hebrew/ Greek word “ereb/odos”: the way
to the OTHER, also the way to the stranger within yourself.
This year the title word is EPIPHANY. It means: what was
born and has come out of the centre, out of the core, out of
the depth of the soul.
On this philosophical background we organize the awarding
ceremony of the Martin-Buber-Award as the annual
highlight of the EURIADE season. On this day our guests live
and experience Martin Buber’s “dialogical principle” –
together with the Award holder. It is characterized by the
idea of living a “connected life” – as understood and
represented by Irene van Lippe-Biesterfeld.
On the way to this objective dialogue is the all-important
element, because only this well-understood way of dealing
and communicating with people will result in recognizing
and appreciating the value and uniqueness of the OTHER.
In this dialogical spirit – from october 3 until december 11,
2010 – EURIADE offers adults and especially young people
from all over the world the chance of meeting the OTHER in
comprehension and solidarity.
Another example of this mental and emotional challenge is
the project “Youth in Dialogue”. What young people
experience at this “pond” of togetherness, will shape their
characters for life. Evidence of this cannot only be found in
the conversations with them, but also in their evaluative
reports published as “Reviews and Outlooks” after the
Festival. These texts reveal “permanently inspired people”.
Werner Janssen
Festival Director