UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION. Address by Mr Federico Mayor

Transcription

1 DG/94/9 Original: English UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION Address by Mr Federico Mayor Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) at the opening ceremony of the World Conference on the international style in architecture Tel Aviv, 22 May 1994

2 < The Director-General began his address in Hebrew > Peace be with all of you here today, with the world, and particularly with those peoples of the world who are suffering, whose blood has been shed and who are afflicted by misfortune. Mr Mayor of Tel Aviv, Mr Minister, Madam Minister, < The Director-General continued in English > It is both an honour and a pleasure for me, in the company of my illustrious friend the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Shimon Peres, and of so many distinguished Israeli personalities, to open this World Conference on what is known as the "international" style in architecture. It is most fitting that we should be meeting in Tel Aviv, which is a veritable shrine to 1930s and 1940s architecture. Excellencies, This meeting is taking place at an historic moment on the long and bitter road from war to peace, from oppression to freedom. The collapse of the Soviet system has given hundreds of millions of people the possibility of making a new departure in their lives, in keeping with their own vision and choices. Many countries that were living in the shadows and in silence are today launched on the path to democracy. And I am not speaking here of some institutional model of democracy but rather of the fundamental values of equity, justice, freedom and love - values to be promoted, defended and enjoyed, values that are essential to a brighter common future. "The world is fated to be one or none", warned Albert Einstein. There is an urgent need today for us to share more fairly all kinds of resources, particularly knowledge. We must also be more frugal; we must be aware that well-being does not depend primarily on material facilities but on spiritual development which ensures that our everyday behaviour - behaviour being the supreme expression of culture - is consonant with the first tenet of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "All human beings are born free and equal". We find ourselves, ladies and gentlemen, at an historic moment characterized by a decisive will for peace, which has resulted, among other things, in the agreements signed in Chapultepec, Oslo and Washington and Rome. And today, because of that will for peace, together with the commitment and farsightedness of outstanding personalities like you, Mr Shimon

3 2 Peres, we are able to live in hope, encouraged by the progress towards peace made in Namibia, Cambodia, El Salvador, Mozambique, South Africa... and the progress now being made in the Middle East, which is crucial not only for this area itself but for all the Mediterranean countries and for the world as a whole. Yet, at the same time, we are continuing to pay a high price for the Cold War. Many conflicts are now emerging as a consequence not of freedom but of dictatorship; as a consequence not of openness but of decades of living in darkness, where the right to be other, to be different was proscribed, where hatred and intolerance were rife. The powerful countries for their part are well prepared to face the old threats but not new ones. They are well equipped to cope with international conflagration, but not with intranational conflicts; with world warfare but not with national welfare. They have weapons... but most of the present-day problems are of a sociocultural nature. At this unique moment when awareness and management of the intangible in human affairs is becoming a must on the political agenda, they are accustomed to addressing the obvious, manifest problems but not to anticipating and pre-empting the essential challenges. Prevention is not visible. We must be aware of this if we really dream of change and wish to reshape our horizons and to correct present trends, since as Professor Lawn the 1987 Nobel Peace laureate said: "Only those who are able to see the invisible can do the impossible". Ministers, Mr Mayor, Excellencies, When genocide is once again being perpetrated and radio broadcasts in Kigali call for the assassination of children, I cannot remain silent. We cannot admit the inadmissible. Jawaharlal Nehru said that UNESCO - the educational, scientific and cultural organization of the UN system, founded "to construct the defences of peace in the minds of men" - was the conscience of the world. I am therefore obliged to demand - here in this country that knows better than any what genocide means, here before an illustrious audience representing many countries of the world - that the intolerable should not be tolerated any longer! In a globally transparent world, we all become accomplices when innocents are sacrificed. Do we not have the technical capabilities to halt these abominable broadcasts inciting people to infanticide? Do the military means not exist to force the blood-crazed belligerents to stop this massacre forthwith? From this Holy Land, I again appeal to all parties in conflict everywhere to stop their violence. Sit down at the table and negotiate. Keep the channels of dialogue open... You will readily understand, Ministers, ladies and gentlemen, that being in Tel-Aviv and in the presence of a peace-maker, I could not begin my address, as Director-General of UNESCO, in any other way than this.

4 3 Indeed, one of the essential missions vested in UNESCO by its founding fathers is the promotion "of international peace and (...) the common welfare of mankind". Since its inception, UNESCO has been carrying out longterm actions in all its fields of competence with the purpose of laying down the material and moral foundations of peace. The founders of our Organization realized that peace, if it was not to fail, must be based on more than political agreements, that it must be rooted in the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind. Léon Blum, at the 1945 London Conference for the establishment of UNESCO, spoke of founding "a world in which the spirit of peace shall become one of the guarantees, and perhaps the surest guarantee, of Peace". Today, in response to the great challenges and opportunities of our time and within the framework of the United Nations "Agenda for Peace", UNESCO is re-dedicating itself to the task of nurturing the roots of peace, of promoting a culture of peace in place of a culture permeated by violence and war, of encouraging vital investments in peacebuilding - the only kind of peace-keeping that is ultimately viable since it lays the foundations of peace in the hearts and minds of men and women. This was the context in which UNESCO organized in December 1993 in Granada an international meeting on the theme "Peace, the day after". At the opening meeting of the conference, Minister Shimon Peres and Chairman Yasser Arafat, who were our special guests, reaffirmed their commitment to make the peace process irreversible. Just as it had done in 1991 with President De Klerk and Nelson Mandela, UNESCO reacted very rapidly after the Washington agreements, awarding the 1993 UNESCO Felix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize to Mr Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel, Mr Shimon Peres, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Mr Yasser Arafat, President of the Executive Council of the Palestine Liberation Organization, on the recommendation of an international jury chaired by Mr Henry Kissinger. This Prize, which I shall have the honour of bestowing on you, Mr Peres, and on Mr Rabin and Mr Arafat, later this year at UNESCO Headquarters, bears the name of a great African statesman who recently departed from our midst, President Felix Houphouët-Boigny, who was also a great friend of Israel. Your talent as a negotiator and as a promoter of peace, dear Shimon Peres, is well known. I admire your patience, your humanity, your wisdom and, above all, the friendship and confidence you show towards "the Other". Here in Tel-Aviv, as long ago as December 1989, you told me that peace was the only solution. Later in September 1992 at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, you played a leading role in re-establishing goodwill and understanding between Palestinians and Israelis and, with the whole world, I applaud your outstanding dedication. The idea of organizing today's conference with Tel Aviv City Hall had been in gestation for some time. It seemed

5 4 important, at such an historic moment, that UNESCO should take the initiative of organizing this World Conference, which will be retracing the heroic origins of the construction of the city of Tel Aviv and of this architectural treasure called "the white city", and studying how best to conserve and restore the site. Allow me to extend my warmest thanks to the principal partners who assisted UNESCO with the material and financial preparation of this unique event: Tel Aviv City Hall, and in particular the Mayor, Mr Roni Milo, who immediately expressed great enthusiasm for this project on which we had already been working for two years with his predecessor, Mr Shlomo Lahat. The holding of this conference in Tel Aviv testifies to the way in which relations between UNESCO and Israel have developed in recent years in all the Organization's fields of competence, especially in science and technology, but also in the educational field. In this respect, I should like to thank the Israeli Ambassador to UNESCO, Mr Eliezer Palmor, for his considerable efforts within UNESCO to establish a constructive dialogue between Israel and the other Member States. I should also like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the efforts of the sculptor and friend of UNESCO, Dani Karavan, our consultant for the organization of this conference. I shall have the pleasure of awarding him the UNESCO Picasso medal in tribute to his contribution, as an artist, to the furtherance of the spirit of peace among men. My thanks also go to Mr Michael Levin, art and architecture historian and scientific adviser to our conference, to Mr Shamay Assif, Chairman of the conference organising committee, and to Mr Dan Darin, Deputy Mayor of Tel Aviv, without whom our conference would probably never have taken place. I should like also to extend my warmest thanks to the Tel Aviv Foundation, which is one of our financial partners, and to all those who have contributed to the organization of this conference. The Bauhaus School was founded on the principles of liberty, tolerance and equality, the spirit that was to unite the artists and intellectuals who cried out against the atrocities of the First World War. Its aim was to devise forms of art, architecture and urban planning that would forge a new alliance between human creativity and modern technology and, in the process, promote communication between people and help to banish hatred and barbarity. Alas, as we know, the Bauhaus School was destined to be banned, and all that remains of it today are its buildings and its houses, like this "white city" that must be restored in testimony to its mission.

6 5 All the German architects whose memory we shall be saluting, and who came to settle in Palestine in the 1920s and 1930s, brought with them, in their hearts and in their minds, the teaching given by the Bauhaus, leaving us a priceless legacy which we shall be discussing at this conference, comparing the styles in the different countries where it developed. The teaching of Le Corbusier and his friends in France is also very present in the international-style architecture of the 1930s and 1940s. We are fortunate enough to have in our midst numerous leading architects and historians of architecture who will be giving us an insight in the next few days into the contributions of different schools to the international style in the different cities of Israel. In this respect, of course, the city of Tel Aviv is particularly privileged since it has a very large number of houses and buildings, estimated at about 4,000 in all, in the international style. It was no mere chance that this style of architecture, inspired partly by the Bauhaus School and partly by the functionalism of Le Corbusier, and heralding a new conceptual and practical approach to architecture, was called the "international style". True, all the major styles of history are international insofar as they were practised in several countries. But if - to remain in the architectural sphere - we take as our examples the Gothic, Baroque or Rococo, we find that none of these great styles resulted from a simultaneous synthesis of different national styles, but that on the contrary they all owe their existence to the genius of a single country, which radiated far and wide. The international style, on the other hand, although formulated in France and Germany, developed thanks to the ways in which it was interpreted by Israeli, American, Czech, Moroccan, Turkish and Egyptian architects as well as architects from other countries. We have as yet little historical perspective from which to view the place of the international style in modern history. But this conference is concerned less with that question, which we shall leave for future generations to judge, than with the actual characteristics of the international style, and in particular the different forms it takes in different parts of the world. Examining the international style, what it was, the ideas behind it, and its spiritual and human dimension, is necessarily to look back into the past and to give thought to those extremely progressive ideals that were formulated at the time by innovative and responsible minds. I hope indeed that this World Conference will rekindle interest and enthusiasm not only in this fascinating architectural period but also in the principles of liberty, tolerance and equality which inspired those who created it. It remains for me to thank you very sincerely, ladies and gentlemen, for accepting our invitation to take part in this Conference. I know you will be very busy for the next few days,

7 but those of you who have never been here before will go home with the feeling that you have discovered a friendly and cordial country whose hospitality is legendary, and where everyone can feel at home. I should like, on behalf of you all, to thank our Israeli hosts for their welcome and for all the care they have taken to make this Conference a success. Let us all wish the country every success in the new start it has decided to offer its younger generations. They will, I am sure, be concerned to preserve the heritage they receive. And they will hopefully remember that, at an historic juncture, we their predecessors decided not to admit the inadmissible any longer and not to allow the reason of force to prevail over the force of reason, will remember that we were untiring in our efforts to promote the transition from a culture of war to a culture of peace.