Damien Hirst
Artist
Guest of the Artists-in-Berlin Programme 1993/1994

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"I live in Berlin and try to escape publicity."

Douglas Gordon
Video Artist
Guest of the Artists-in-Berlin Programme 1998

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"We need stars in the 21st Century so that we can reflect ourselves in these."

Ilya Kabakov
Painter and Conceptual Artist
Guest of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Programme 1989/1990

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"I'd like to tell the West how I felt back home and what ideas I've developed in recent years."

Peter Eötvös
Conductor and Composer
One-year Scholarship 1966, Cologne University of Music

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"Composing music is only the one side. It only comes to the fore when it is also played. This is why there should be a lot more communication between composers and conductors."

Marek Prawda
Ambassador of the Republic of Poland in Germany
One-year scholarship, 1975 to 1979, University of Leipzig, and o ne-year scholarship, 1987 to 1989, University of Hamburg

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"Germany and Poland — I call that a mature partnership, as a goal to aim for."

Iveta Apkalna
Organist
One-year-scholarship, 2000–2003, Stuttgart State School of Music and the Performing Arts
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"I want to demonstrate that, in addition to church music, there is wonderful organ music for the concert hall."

Angelo Bolaffi
Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Berlin
One-year scholarship, 1971–1972, Freie Universität Berlin

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"I want to present an image of Italy that is free of all prejudices and all conventional, simplistic readings."

Wassilios Emmanuel Fthenakis
Educational Scientist, Psychologist and Anthropologist, Professor of Development Psychology and Anthropology at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
One-Year Scholarship 1963-65, Ludwig Maximilian University Munich
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"Children have a right to the very best education"

Anna Benaki-Psarouda
President of the Greek Parliament since 2004
DAAD One-Year Scholarship 1957-1960, Bonn University

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"We thank the Germans for the Greek nation's transformation into a modern state"

Tristan Hughes
British Writer
Picador Visiting Professor, Leipzig 2007
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"The modern world and its mobility options simultaneously evoke a desire for regional identity"

Luca Lombardi
Italian composer
DAAD One-Year Scholarship 1968-1972, Cologne University of Music
Guest of the Berlin Artists-in-Residence Programme 1998-1999

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"It was in Cologne that my life actually started to take shape, as a composer and as a person. My artistic interests became more precise, and I entered a new stage in life."

Krzysztof Penderecki
Polish Composer and Conductor
DAAD One-Year Scholarship 1968-1970, Berlin
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"I tried to escape dry sound, I found it too confined"

Yuri Andrukhovych
Writer, Poet, Essayist and Translator, Vice President of the Association of Ukrainian Writers
Guest of the Berlin Artists-in-Residence Programme in 2005/2006

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"I am my own line of defence, and I have no other choice than to defend this strip, this spot, these patches which are falling apart in all directionss"

Norman Manea
Romanian Author, Professor of European Cultural Studies at Bard College, New York/USA
Guest of the Artists-in-Berlin Programme 1987
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"After these four years of instability, I never again felt secure. But that's why I fought and eventually found a home in the language"

Violeta Dinescu
Composer and Professor of Applied Composition at the University of Oldenburg
Doctoral Studies Grant 1982-84, University of Heidelberg

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"My doctoral supervisor told me: Go and compose your opera, that's more important, because theatre doesn't wait"

Mark Wallinger
British Sculptor and Performance Artist
Guest of the Artists-in-Berlin Programme 2001
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"I see Germany as the land of bears. I wanted to be a bear there just once"

Vassilios Skouris
President of the Court of Justice of the European Communities (ECJ) in Luxembourg
One-year Scholarship 1965-1972 at the FU Berlin and the University of Hamburg

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"The German doctorate is certainly an advantage for your later career path"

Hugo Hamilton
Writer
Guest of the Artists-in-Berlin Programme 2001-2002
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"You can find clarity in writing. You can create your own land in your imagination"

Herta Müller
Romanian Author
DAAD Visiting Lecturer in Warwick, England, 1993 and in Lisbon, Portugal, 1995

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"Literary places are inner places, far away from geography"

George Tabori
Playwright and Director
Guest of the Artists-in-Berlin Programme 1971-72
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"Theatre is the only home"

Leoluca Orlando
Member of the European Parliament and former Mayor of Palermo
One-year Scholarship 1969-1970, Heidelberg University
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"The only way to beat corruption and terror is to have the courage to stand by your principles"

Otar Iosseliani
Film Director
Guest of the Artists-in-Berlin Programme 1988/89
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"We Georgians are stubborn and endure everything until we fall over"

Riina Kionka
Former Estonian Ambassador to Germany
One-year Scholarship, 1988 University of Bonn
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"Estonia is small, but full of quality, innovation and progress – a hip, happening little country!"

Cees Nooteboom
Author
Award holder in the Artists-in-Berlin Programme 1988/89
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"I am a master of the provisional. And it is precisely this that connects me with Berlin"

Aris Fioretos
Swedish Writer and Cultural Attaché at the Swedish Embassy in Berlin

Guest of the Artists-in-Berlin programme 1997-1998
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"Literature is the archaeology of the soul"

György Konrád
Writer
President of the Berlin Academy of Arts 1997-2003
Guest of the Artists-in-Berlin Programme 1977/78
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"As President of the Academy, I had the opportunity to set the dialogue between intellectuals in West and East in motion"

Imre Kertész
Nobel Laureate for Literature 2002

Guest of the Artists-in-Berlin Programme 1993
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"The Holocaust is a state that has not yet come to an end"

Goran Rafajlovski
Ambassador of the Republic of Macedonia
One-year Scholarship 1992/93 University of Erlangen
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"With German support we quickly want to leave the crisis and develop a dynamic economy"

Gergely Pröhle
former Embassador in Berlin
currently ungarian Embassador in Bern
One-year Scholarship 1986 University of Hamburg
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"I learnt German from the age of six onwards"

Halina Szulc
Research Scientist
One-year scholarship 1958 Münster
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"In 1958 I was the first Polish DAAD scholarship holder to travel to Germany"

Wladyslaw Bartoszewski
Historian, Publicist, Former Polish Foreign Minister
1982 DAAD Scholarship at the Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin
(Institute for Advanced Study Berlin)
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"We have indeed advanced far, but there is still so much to do"

Luc Ferry
former Minister of Youth, Education and Research, France
DAAD Scholarship 1972 to 74 University of Heidelberg
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"It would be terrible if we, Germans and French, were to converse with each other in English only, and in poor English at that"

Andrei Marga
Rector of the Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca and former Education Minister of Romania
One-Year Scholarship 1975 Freiburg, Bielefeld, Frankfurt am Main
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"The DAAD strengthened hope in Eastern Europe of returning back to Europe."