Press

Kontakt.
The Program for Arts and Civil Society of Erste Bank Group in Central Europe

In establishing Kontakt, Erste Bank, Central Europe’s largest financial services provider, is creating a platform for strengthening the structures of Civil Society
and for promoting the arts, education, and social integration in this region.

On April 23rd, Erste Bank presented „Kontakt. The Program for Arts and Civil Society of Erste Bank Group in Central Europe“ in the venues of its partner-institution Secession in Vienna. The goal of Kontakt is to bring people and ideas into contact with each other, to actively shape the process of social and cultural transformation in Central Europe and to open up possibilities for visionary perspectives.

As the Program for Arts and Civil Society of Erste Bank Group, Kontakt launches its own initiatives and enters into partnerships with institutions, initiatives and artists in Central Europe engaged in producing contemporary art, culture and theory and in carrying out educational and social projects.
Kontakt seeks to give fresh impetus for new strategies in cross-border cooperation and invites individuals, institutions and organizations to work in joint independent initiatives. In this way a socio-cultural network alongside the business network of the Erste Bank Group is forged which contributes much to mutual success and to mutual understanding in the region.

With Kontakt, Erste Bank Group is pursuing the following substantive priorities:
• Making Transformation Socially Compatible
• Support for Education and Research
• Promotion of Cultural Infrastructure and Cooperation
• Enabling Independent Creative Strategies

In the framework of Kontakt, also the collection of Erste Bank and its subsidiaries will be reconsitituted. The new collection policy focuses on contemporary art from Central Europe.

The central communications tool for and operated by Kontakt is the website www.kontakt.erstebankgroup.net. Along with a database covering the cultural, educational and social projects of the entire Erste Bank Group, an electronic magazine and a calendar of events will provide constantly updated and relevant information from and on Central Europe. In our workshops, we illuminate issues of work, and life in general, of long-term concern to us from different standpoints employing a variety of esthetic strategies.

“Erste Bank Group aspires to create not only economic assets but social ones as well and to do its unique part in shaping the future of Central Europe. Kontakt provides an independent transnational platform for this purpose, which will do its utmost to give each and every project and all projects as a whole new quality and energy“, declares Boris Marte, Head of Corporate Sponsoring of Erste Bank-Group and initiator of the program.

Please find additional information to Kontakt as well as to all the projects and initiatives on www.kontakt.erstebankgroup.net.