HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Congratulations on the anniversary of the founding of "UN POCO artist offices" - a truly unique art and cultural promotion office based in Berlin. And truly one of the better decisions - not infrequently rather into the unknown - in the course of artistic paths.
After the writer, theater and film director, composer and - above all that - artist had observed the to some extend grotesque (let's call it) "work" of so-called artist "agencies" of all kinds for decades, he decided already a long time ago (together with other comrades-in-arms, of course) to set up the "UN POCO artist office". Which is - for exactly 7 years now! - not only seeing itself as an artist management, but also as an art & culture furthering office with direct, personal support for artists or larger art & culture projects. Of course also for his projects :-) But not only. Above all that mainly to support other complex, difficult but important artists and their art projects.
This added an unprecedented momentum, which not only accelerated external communication but also internal development and gave artists and their projects the necessary final "drive". Which one would actually expect with a certain naivety from artist agencies, acting agencies and whatever else they are called. And then have to realize again and again that "that's not it". They are often more like a "catalog". They adorn themselves with a handful of faces and "reach through", as the saying goes. This not only damages respect for the individual artist, but also demonstrates a way of handling art that is undisputedly anti-art and suggests to the recipient a questionable approach to art, which dismantles society's appreciation of art and the personality behind it. Nowadays it's a "that's the way it's done", which the artist and founder of UN POCO refused to accept. Because things only change if you ... drum roll ... if you change them.
Not that he doesn't have enough to do with all his other (own) various art & culture projects, established departments and branches in different regions of the world. But this artist's office, which is run by wonderful employees who are in close contact with him and with a great deal of love and sincere commitment to art & culture, fills the artist, as he says himself, "with a completely different kind of pride". It is not about commercial success but about "preserving" and "shaping" an inspiring world that without art would not even know what the word inspiration means. There is something rather charitable in the way he lets the office operate. And has so far accompanied every artist or project it has been involved in with full support without "turning the penny three times over".
We remember: One of the first projects UN POCO was involved in was the anti-war feature film "Foxtrot" by renowned film director Samuel Maoz, which was shown at all major film festivals and received various international awards. The office (or rather the founder himself) became aware of the project before production began, got in touch with one of the casting directors and recommended the actress Karin Ugowski, who was already being supported by the office, for the role of the protagonist's mother. To be able to make such a recommendation, you have to be more than an agent and be very closely and very well acquainted with the matter of casting and the realization of scripts. This resulted in closer contact with the German "production side" of the team, which was shooting internationally and in various countries, and the office began to support the filming in Germany, making recommendations for production contracts valid in Germany and at the same time promoting the project, which was not entirely uncritically observed with suspicious eyes during its development.
The thought-provoking, military-critical film and the explosive nature of the topic, which was received positively by most film critics at the time, proved our commitment right. Initiatives such as the grassroots movement and "standing together", which campaign for peace in the region from both sides, receive support on an artistic level in this way. The founder of the office, himself partly Jewish on his father's side, and the Israeli director (living in Israel) have one thing in common: on the one hand, both have a great deal of empathy for the incomprehensible suffering of the people and successor generations living in Israel and Palestine. At the same time, however, they also have concerns about the political forces that are partly fueling the escalation there and the young country's never-ending history of conflict in the Middle East, as well as the desire for an end to the military conflicts in the region.
The resulting film by the Israeli director was therefore one of the first and at the same time most explosive successful cultural furthering projects of the newly founded office. One that we will always remember fondly. This was followed by many other difficult projects with successes that can justifiably make us proud.
The founder of the office - the film and theater director, artist, composer and novelist Sebastian Ugovsky-Strassburger, would like to take this opportunity to thank the office and the entire staff and everyone who helped! Congratulations! We have changed things for the better and shown that things can be done differently. Let's go! To the next round around our fixed star on our beautiful blue home planet!
