Speech by the Federal Minister Dr. Claudia Schmied on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition „Otto Neurath. Gypsy Urbanism“ on 3^rd November 2009 at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture in Los Angeles

(Es gilt das gesprochene Wort!)

Dear Director Noever,
dear Director Meyer (Kimberli Meyer, Director MAK LA),
dear Mr. Vossoughian! (Nader Vossoughian, Curator)
Ladies and gentlemen!

The Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen once said, “I believe that people with close ties to the future are on the right way.“
By staging the exhibition „Otto Neurath: Gypsy Urbanism“ the MAK Center for Art and Architecture in Los Angeles shows a man who presented his major works between the two World Wars and who – because of his visions, scientific achievements, and social commitment – seems to live today, or even tomorrow. And let me go even further: we very much need people like Otto Neurath to jointly change the complex social structures of our times together and to mould them into one single social entity.

The first half of the 20th century was a time of speedy, social re-construction and as such overwhelming for many. Labour organisation had progressed from small trade to major industry, accompanied by a loss of identity for all those sucked in by the „big machine“ and even more for those suddenly no longer needed and finding themselves back in the street. The shock of the First World War also created feelings of insecurity and was the reason why many became potential victims of merciless seducers.
The main issue during these eventful times was to give Enlightenment a new boost. This required a man of universal learning, such as Otto Neurath, a man able to link political economy, sociology, scientific theory, social philosophy, and communication science and who dedicated all this knowledge and his radical view to filling democracy with life and allowing participation in it.

Otto Neurath tried to connect two levels, knowledge and action. Today in the Internet era his attempt to create a „uniform language“ of science reads like a look into the future. He wanted to improve understanding amongst researchers so that in a second step better accessibility to knowledge could be achieved for everyone. According to one intellectual who tried to put science at the service of a change in society it was not metaphysics, no – but scientific language that was considered fit to curb confusion. And just as he managed to grasp what was new in contents he also managed to do the same with shape. He realised that the new technical possibilities would lead to different perception habits generating both risks and opportunities. With his pictograms he created an instrument for the better understanding of complex structures, aware that “words separate, pictures unite“, as he once put it himself.
Depicting facts, statistics, and networks in society, business, politics, and culture in clear and universally understandable form is one of Neurath’s achievements whose effects still linger on today and contribute to making reality understandable for all, as is a must in a functioning democracy. Science as practized by Otto Neurath wanted to put itself at the service of social change applying state-of-the-art methods, interdisciplinary as well as transdisciplinary in character.

A system of communicating education meant to enable people to participate in the ever more complex educational content. Neurath took the view – and as Minister of Education I can only agree, “Education is the basis for a functioning democracy.“

As Minister of Culture I wish to add and agree with Otto Neurath: education also is the basis for access to art and culture. We know that young people hailing from non-academically inclined strata of society clearly find it much harder to access culture, a fact that must be counteracted with contemporary, visionary approaches if we want to continue the great tradition of Otto Neurath with dignity.

The great humanist Albert Schweitzer once said: „Wherever there is light in man, it emanates from him.“ The light in Otto Neurath is still shining on as if it had only just been sparked. It can be a light of today if we see it as our mission to jointly use our knowledge to improve man’s living conditions and make the world a juster place.
I wish the MAK Center many interested visitors and declare the exhibition „Otto Neurath. Gypsy Urbanism“ opened.

Geändert am 09.11.2009