Getting to meet Claude Grunitzky was quite a challenge. It took us months to set a date and a place, and once at Brussels Midi Station I had to change the location three times, with just one hour before Claude took the train to Paris. Apparently you’re not allowed to film inside the station, as the angry security people made very clear. The cafe was too noisy and also its outside terrace seemed not a good idea as constructors started sawing concrete. But then there was the Pullman hotel, and after some bureaucratic deliberations among the staff, we were able to sit down in a quiet, shiny lobby.
Claude Grunitzky
He was on my list because Grunitzky really has a unique point of view on the future of Europe. The media entrepreneur was born in Togo, but raised all over the world, in Washington, France and the UK. He holds three passports and speaks six languages, and devotes his work life on ‘transculturalism’ (more about that later), traveling all the time. Not your standard Eurobubble researcher. In fact he just came back from a trip to Brazil. ‘In emerging countries I see optimism, youth, new ideas, risk taking. I am very inspired by this. They feel they are creating their new paradigms, without being always informed by the western or European perspective.’
Claude Grunitzky is chairman and founder of TRUE, which is a New York, Paris and London-based think-tank and cultural marketing agency. He became known by setting up the TRACE Magazine, which has an explicit international approach to popular culture. His latest new business is TRUE Africa. ‘We are setting up a pan-European media company that draws into our past successes in media, culture and telecommunications.’ The goal is to ‘change the perception of Africa by integrating foreign perspectives and the voice of the diaspora.’
Nomad
‘Unfortunately, I don’t have a place called home, because I am a nomad’, he declares. ‘I am one of those people that Salman Rushdie refers to as those who live in ‘imaginary homelands.’ So I am constantly moving around, between continents and cities, but what I really feel is that there is this new cosmopolitan identity, where you can be a citizen of the world. And that is how I define myself.’
Going back to his concept of transculturalism, Grunitzky sees this as a way to shape our identities by learning and borrowing from other cultures. Whether it originates in Europe, Africa, Asia or America doesn’t matter: ‘the way that it expresses itself is through a fusion of cultures, and hybrid identities.’
![Dries van Noten]()
- Dries van Noten
Identity crisis
That is the ideal world, but not the real one. The journalist / entrepreneur has seen the tide turn in Europe, the continent is even in an identity crisis. ‘The new nationalism and populism movements are now painting the immigrant as the source of anxiety, economic stress and social disorder. They create a false perception that immigrants are taking all the jobs that were destined for actual natives.’ To fight these perceptions the self-declared cultural change agent brings ‘very positive pictures of immigrant experiences.’
Because of the economic crisis young Europeans have a very tough time. ‘They are facing a lot of hurdles and challenges, much more so than when I started my career almost twenty years ago.’ Back then, Grunitzky launched a magazine in London, based on the dream to change the perceptions of minorities through media. ‘Now I feel that a lot of Europeans are not offered the same opportunities as I was offered, and it leads to a lot of frustration and resentment.’ That brings him a new role. ‘I want to help, nurture and mentor young Europeans, to help them understand that hybrid identities are actually an advantage, as opposed to the way they are painted in the media’.
![Kader-Attia_a_image_popup-10]()
- Kader Attia
Hubs of creativity
So what can we learn from the art world? There Claude Grunitzky sees a lot of exciting examples of transcultural work. ‘I love the new collaborations that are emerging in Europe. Here in Belgium I am very excited to see the new creations of Dries van Noten, to see how inspired he is by non-European cultures in his fashion designs. In the film Blue is the warmest color (La vie d’Adèle) the director Abdellatif Kechiche manages to tell a beautiful generational story of love, without being an ethnic story per se. The artist Kader Attia has lived in France and North Africa, and is expressing himself on the world stage out of Berlin.’
These hubs of creativity though – London, Berlin, Amsterdam and others – are ‘few and far between.’ If you are ‘different’ as a person, you end up ‘gravitating towards a these metropolises because that is where you are accepted. So Grunitzky thinks there are now two Europes: an open Europe of creative hubs, and an isolated one, let’s say the rest of the continent. ‘If you look what happened in Switzerland, the polls and rise of the National Front in France, a large chunk of the populations want to stay within themselves and being around people who look like them.’
Power to a new generation
‘There is an overall lack of leadership in Europe,’ says Grunitzky, when we land at the subject of the future. ‘People are very disillusioned with their politicians. Central governments have lost a lot of credibility and approval ratings are very low. we need a new Jean Monnet, we need a new Robert Schuman who can explain in very simple terms why being together, is better than being divided.’
Change is not about communication but also about restructuring. ‘The real cultural, political and social change comes in Europe from the state. Therefore the challenge is giving the head of the Commission real power to actually enact change, as opposed to retreating into nationalistic, single-minded, selfish policies which end up hurting everyone.’ The next president of the Commission must have a lot of personality and ambition.
The only option that Grunitzky sees is further European integration. He even wholeheartedly supports the idea of a United States of Europe. ‘The federal structure in the US works really well, it works in Brazil, and I have the dream of having a United States of Africa one day.’
Who will make this revolution possible? ‘The change is going to come from younger politicians. I am very hopeful as to what happened in Italy, where the change of government with a new generation coming into power now, bodes very well for the future of that country.’ The 39-year old Matteo Renzi became prime minister in February 2014. ‘I saw it when I was in London in 1997, Tony Blair was elected, New Labour came in with a landslide, and that ended up bringing a new generation of British politicians and contributed greatly to the growth of the UK. I would like to see the same pretty much all over Europe.’
Watch the interview with Claude Grunitzky here (13 minutes):