Besides NewMediaFest, also ENGAD – Engaged Arts Directory was initiated by Agricola de Cologne in 2001 – so it’s the time to celebrate also this project’s 15th anniversary.
ENGAD was established as a media art platform following the curatorial goal to encourage contemporary artists using new media to deal with engaged contents reflecting political, cultural and social developments on Earth. As a platform, the project is representing an appeal against any totalitarianism – this is good especially in these time when there are continuously attempts to restrict and even eliminate freedom and the democratic rights and values – tendencies which can be obswerved in all parts on the globe, and especially in these countries which have a democratic constitution.So, an eseential goal of ENGAD is to activate and sensitize the artists and the audience alike via new approaches and technologies.
Unfortunately, not all early projects and experiments survived. The first project complex which still available in the original state, even if it is partially out of date concerning a couple of dead links, is devoted to totalitarianism in Argentina, the military dictatorships between 1976-1983 and the ten thousands of victims – Women: Memory of Repression in Argentina, dedicated to the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires. For the need of an advanced technology, the project had been updated meanwhile – http://argentina.engad.org/women/
However, this project was only possible due to the collaboration with Raquel Partnoy – one of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo and her family affected profoundly by the military’s persecutions. Of Jewish origin, the Partnoy family had escaped the progroms and poverty of Eastern Europe hoping the find finally in Argentina a place live in peace and harmony. The diasporadic live marked by persecution and expulsion was a reason for the first collaboration with Raquel Partnoy – a family portrait following the Utopia of finding the paradise. This project is simply entitled: Family Portrait – drawing a typical course of life of many Jewish families and the Jewish people in general – living in diaspora – http://familyportrait.engad.org
Realised in several project versions, Family Portrait received in 2005 the Mosaica Award – given by York University Toronto for this examplary project for Jews in Diaspora. Family Portrait became also corporate part of “Women: Memory of Repression in Argentina” resulting, that Agricola de Cologne was invited to Argentina for presenting his Argentina memorial in Buenos Aires, Rosario, Junin and Santa Fe in 2005 – http://argentina.engad.org
Even if nobody must overestimate art in terms of changing the world, it was reported that the engagement of a foreign instance (Agricola de Cologne and his network) for “re-viewing” the crimes against humanity executed during the military dictatorships in Argentina had a positive and encouraging effect on human rights initiatives in Argentina. The politcal changes short time later when Kirchner became President was settling a new era of commemorating the victims of the military dictatorships and gave justice to the persecuted families when their disappearwed family members where excavated and identified in mass graves.
But dealing with the Argentine Holocaust, had primarily also an encouraging effect on Agricola de Cologne. Himself a victim of terror, which abruptly stopped Agricola de Cologne to continue his memorial project for the victims of Holocaust in 1998, he saw the chance to return to this trauma causing World War II and a fundamental change of the world order. But only in 2009 – twenty years later, he had the personal courage to overcome him personal trauma, by initiating his Internet based project : Draft Title Shoah forming again the basis of dealing artistically with the phenomenon of collective trauma – http://dts.engad.org
in 2010, this project was extended by SFC Shoah Film Collection – an initiative addressed to young generations of artists to deal with the topic of Shoah (Holocaust) by using audio.visual media in order to keep vivid the memory of the Holocaust via art – http://sfc.engad.org/video/ – http://sfcip.engad.org
In order to make this collection avaialabe to an wider audience, Agricola de Cologne created an event structure – entitled “A Virtual Memorial – Commemorative Interventions to be run by A Virtual Memorial Foundation – to be premiered 2012 in Riga – A Virtual Memorial Riga 2012 – placing Shoah Film Collection into the context of complemetary interventions like a symposium, concerts, exhibitions etc. Standing under the Patronage of the European Parliament – the event in Riga was a milestone in Agricola de Cologne’s efforts to find new kind and contemporary approaches to transferring the memory of the Holocaust to the Future – more manifestations followed in Warsaw (2012 & 2013), Vilnius (201§), Milan, Timisoara and Jaffa (2014) – http://avmci.a-virtual-memorial.org
Shortly after Riga in 2012, Agricola de Cologne was invited to Cambodia for presenting Shoah Film Collection in Phnom Penh, where he founded the new film collection 
“Cambodia 1975-1979” – in collaboration with META HOUSE Phnom, Penh, GIZ and Royal University of Phnom Penh – including young Cambodian filmmakers dealing with the Cambodiam genocide and its impakt until these days. Together with Shoah Film Collection, both film collections were forming the fundament of a major audio-visual project on ENGAD, entitled: CTF – Collective Trauma Film Collections. The incorporated collections have no static state but represent platforms for encouraging more and more artists dealing with the engaged contents related to collective trauma from as many points of view as possible, in order to offer the interested audience a diversity of different artistic concepts and opinions and sinsitize the audience in terms of “We All Are One World”. In this ways, Collective Trauma Film Collections become a valuable artists initiative for PEACE – http://cambodia.engad.org
Driven by the currently dramatically changing world order, dividing the world into the “Rich” & the “Poor”, People living in peace and other living in civil war, persecutions and expulsion, people who have access to education and technology and those who don’t, people suffering from the climate change and those who have the material conditions to compensate that, Agricola de Cologne initiated in 2015 another commemorative film collection “Never More! Hiroshima – Fukushima” – spotlighting the technological progress of the nuclear power out of control with most desastrous effects on the human spacies. Soon afterwards, when the refugess crisis basically caused by the civil war in Iraq and Syria – escalated – he launched the project “REFUGEE!” – a plea for humanity – http://refugee.engad.org – http://hiroshima.engad.org
When Agricola de Cologne was visiting Palestine for the 1st time – he realised in 2005 the frist Internet based media art project in Palestine, at all, in the context of the twin-city-ship Cologne-Bethlehem – he was shocked about the conditions how the people were living behind the gigantic concrete wall separating Israel from Palestinian territory. Therefore he initiated in 2006 a project pointing to these inhuman conditions – in an exchange bewteen virtual and physical space – ://selfportrait – a show for Bethlehem – a show for Peace. While the project did not accuse any of the involved parties (Israel & Palestine), humanity was the only measure and the involved artists were showing face against inhumanity via the selfportraits – executed in different digital media – At first presented in Bethlehem in 2006, the project was exhibited afterwards in Poland (Szczecin), Italy (Naples) and Argentina (Rosario & Santa Fe) – http://self.engad.org/2006/
Deeply moved by the refugee crises in 20015 and how many people, not only in Europe, but elsewhere on the globe as well were showing a new kind of inhumanity – goaded by Right Wing pupulist movements anywhere – like it was known only from the Nazi and Stalinist times – Agricola de Cologne decided for a similiar concept like 2006 and launched on ENGAD on 1 Janauary 2016 – ://Self~imaging – artists show face agains Intolerance, Racism, Xenophobia and Antisemitism – to be presented, at first in February 2016 in India. This project will form the fundament for a variety of concepts for exhibitions in an exchange between virtual and physixal space – in Germany and abroad – http://self.engad.org/2016/
ENGAD is a very active artistic platform reacting on political, cultural and social movements via new media technology.