Discover Top Posts Tagged with #thisispolitical

Popular Recent

All of this is going to get worse and dumber before an end is reached. There are no quick fixes if fixes exist at all. The only sureties are that to give in and give up guarantees the worst and dumbest people will win, and any resistance is better than none. Best of luck, try not to die.

#thisispolitical #ifyoucouldn'ttell #feelings

Belarus is a horrific example of intolerance

We have seen how the country, that has been governed since 1994 by president Alexander Lukashenko, reacted to the Teddybear-attack engendered by Swedish Studio Total.

For us in MDT it has been important to try to find out how the art field is doing. And like Natalia Koliada of the Belarus Free Theatre said:

”In Belarus it’s very simple – everything is repressed”

Belarus Free Theatre had to move their activity away from the country following arrests and threats.

"Almost all the members of the ensemble have served time behind bars. Director Vladimir Scherban was "fired by his state employer for being involved with the 'Free Theatre,' as were other actors." Andrei Kolyada, a renown belarusian professor and specialist in scenic speech, was fired from Belarusian Academy of Arts for his collaboration with the Belarus Free Theatre.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarus_Free_Theatre

Still active in Belarus is Performance Artist Ales’ Pushkin. He lives in a village and makes Alexander Lukashenko-critical performances. Praising the free Belarus. He gets arrested after almost every performance.

Love this quote:

"Pushkin’s work echoes Marcel Duchamp’s statement that creative acts are only initiated by artists and are completed by the interactions of spectators. Most often, Pushkin’s collaborators are the local police.'

Quoted from this very good article:

http://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/max-seddon/belarusian-alexander-pushkin-holy-fool-dissident-performance-artist

Pushkin’s next project is running in Belarus’ to run in presidential election in 2015. We hope he does not get arrested before it like he was before the last election.

Another example is Marina Naprushkina an artist who like many others is educated and have her practice outside the country. She describes herself like this:

“My work is focused on the critical examination of the contemporary Belarusian state which is authoritarian ruled by Alexander Lukashenko. One of my strategies is to appropriate Lukasjenkos own visual language, but to make crucial changes to the composition. The Lukaschenko regime remains unchanged already over several years and for me it is important to supervise it artistically.”

Marina Naprushkina does this through her Office of Anti propaganda and she publishes an art newspaper “Self # governing” distributed in Belarus:

”The hand-drawn newspaper called Self # governing, an oversized offset publication distributed both internationally, and clandestinely in Belarus with assistance from the NGO “Nash Dom.” Using a minimum of text to convey complex social concerns about life under dictatorship the artist has focused on such issues as “Belarusian self governing,” and women’s plight within the patriarchal system of government institutionalized in the country. With 60,000 copies printed in Russian, and an English version of the newspaper as well, she hopes to reach audiences inside and outside Belarus including students, NGOs, and other policy makers. In light of the recent wave of protest and resistance across the globe, Self # governing can be read – and used – as a guide for daring to think about political alternatives worldwide”

http://issuu.com/antipropagandaoffice/docs/self_governing2_farbea3/3

http://office-antipropaganda.com/

Marina Naprushkinas work is illegal in Belarus and just the other week Yanina Lyasneuskayaan, an activist who had the Naprushkina coloring book for children in her possession was arrested.

https://charter97.org/en/news/2012/7/12/55043/

Read the book here

http://issuu.com/antipropagandaoffice/docs/my_daddy_is_a_policeman_print

#belarus #art #thisispolitical #mdtsthlm #Ales Pushkin #Belarus Free Theatre #Natalia Koliada #Marina Naprushkina #Yanina Lyasneuskayaan

Tibetan singer imprisoned because of a song

20 March (date not confirmed) 2012 Tibetan singer Ugyen Tenzin was sentenced to two years in Jail. He was charged for singing a Tibetan patriotic song. Ugyen Tenzin’s new album for which he was arrested in February is available on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3x-YQlfEIw.

On the album, he had dedicated songs to the Dalai Lama as well as the third highest ranking Buddhist leader the Karmapa, and the Kalon Tripa, the prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile,according to RFA (Radio free asia).

The distributor of the DVD that was made along with the album was also arrested and sentenced to two years, the Chinese are now looking for the writer of the lyrics said Drudak Nyima, a Tibetan living in U.S. who has contact in the region.

http://www.everyonegroup.com/EveryOne/MainPage/Entries/2012/4/10_Tibetan_Singer_Sent_to_Prison_for_a_Song.html

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/song-03262012190715.html/

#this-is-political #thisispolitical #mdtsthlm #tibet #Ugyen Tenzin

Alexandra Pirici - a initiator of the RCI occupation in Romania

Alexandra Pirici, a Romanian choreographer and performance artist, is one of the initiators of the occupation at the Roman Culture Institute in Bucharest, this summer. This is a extract from her conversation with our artistic director Danjel Andersson. D: First tell me a bit more about the occupation. How did it go? A: Well, it needs a little introduction. This practice of occupying has very little "history" in Romania. I think the first attempt was last year, in 2011, when we occupied the former space of the National Dance Center (an institution which worked very well and was very opened to experiment) as it was getting evicted with no alternative space to use. It was - and still is - the only institution for contemporary dance in Romania, it is under the Ministry of Culture's patronage and now, a year after, is still in the same situation - no performance space, an improvised studio and two very small offices. At that time we also staged a protest at the ministry of culture but to no effect. So there is a practice of killing institutions (especially if they work with or promote contemporary art so they don't make box office) and cutting down funds in that area. Now, with the RCI, one (if not even the only) functional institution in the country that managed to create fair conditions for artists to work in, is being attacked, it's budget cut down with one third, put under Senate control - which is not good, as things stand there - and it's missioned changed with a nationalistic agenda. We decided to initiate this right after the former board (led by former president Horia Roman Patapievici) resigned. [...] These were the things we demanded: Artists occupy the Romanian Cultural Institute. Starting today, 03.08.12 at 11:00h we are waiting for you at the headquarters of the Romanian Cultural Institute, Al. Alexandru no. 38 in Bucharest to join us for an occupy movement at the RCI. This movement, initiated by members of the cultural community in Romania is a reaction to the change of functioning status and mission of the Institute through the emergency ordinance 27/2012, confirmed by the decision of the Constitutional Court on the 31st of July 2012.

We demand: - selection of the president and vice presidents of the Romanian Cultural Institute through a public contest and not through a political nomination; - selection of the directors of Romanian Cultural Institutes abroad also through a public contest; - the constitution of a jury commission for these contests, comprising representatives of both the institutional and the independent cultural community; - withdrawal of the RCI from under the jurisdiction of the Senate concerning the strategy and the content of cultural programs; the constitution, instead, of a non-political and professionally competent board, including representatives of the independent cultural community, able to evaluate the quality of the Institute’s activity; - establishing a clear and transparent administrative functioning of the RCI; the guarantee of non-interference of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and of the Ministry of Culture into the cultural programs of RCI; - respecting the budget approved for RCI for 2012 and provisioning a decent budget for the functioning of the institution in the future. We consider these demands are the minimum to insure the autonomy and de-politicization of a cultural institution of national interest. We invite also all those outside Romania and support this movement to occupy the Romanian Cultural Institutes abroad. D: What was the reaction to the protest and what happened to the people that took part of the protest? A: Now, the big problem was : we were - and remained - very few people. And I think there are a few reasons for this: I think it was also a bad period of time - people were in vacation. But there were still lots of people in Bucharest (and I came back from vacation for this. There was a huge critical reaction on the internet to the RCI thing but very few actually took a stand and tried to be present. And this is a constant in Romania, unfortunately - especially in Bucharest. There is very little solidarity in general. The art scene is very divided (there are unions who don't like the independent scene and always go and negotiate things for themselves). People have no civil conscience and don't think anything can change - even with this set of demands -which could and should be a normal thing - not everyone agreed and some though they are not realistic. Also, the media is killing and making fun of all this kinds of initiatives - they ridicule them. If there are, let's say, 50 people at a protest, they will write there were 3 - so it's generally not encouraged. We wrote this letter - which mainly contains the demands - and sent it to as many people as we could so they could sign it and send it, personally, via e-mail or post, to the Senate and the Government and also asked for an encounter with the senators. We got no answer (the Senate is also in vacation until September) but we are not very optimistic, although, who knows. D: Do you know of any artist that are in trouble because of this situation? A: Not yet. I don't think it got to that point where it would present a threat and people needed to be "prosecuted". We are still very few but organizing. D: Thank you for your time! I hope it doesn't get there. A: You're welcome. Somehow I hope it gets there.

#thisispolitical #mdtsthlm #MDT #Romania #Bucharest #Alexandrapirici #danjelandersson #interview

Hej, Den 13 juni 2012 har Rumäniens regering utfärdat en nödförordning som omformulerar Rumänska kulturinstitutets uppdrag och som syftar till att byta ut dess ledning och styrelse och ställa verksamheten under politisk kontroll. Konsekvenserna av denna förordning är inte riktigt klara i nuläget, men eftersom förordningen antyder att Rki:s verksamhet i olika länder har skadat ”känslan av tillhörighet till den rumänska nationen” hos rumänerna utomlands så fruktar vi att detta kan påverka vårt arbete på djupet. Situationen har uppmärksammats av medier världen över, från Dagens Nyheter (http://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/strid-kring-rumanska-kulturinstitutet) till New York Times (http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/26/romanian-cultural-institutes-new-mandate-draws-protests-in-europe-and-u-s), tidskriften Variety (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118055913.html?cmpid=RSS%7CNews%7CLatestNews) eller Le Parisien (http://www.leparisien.fr/flash-actualite-culture/roumanie-la-revolte-des-artistes-contre-un-diktat-du-gouvernement-17-06-2012-2052719.php). I Sverige har författaren och översättaren Cecilia Hansson tagit initiativ till ett brev som ska skickas till Rumäniens regering och där man berättar om en annan bild av Rumänska kulturinstitutets verksamhet i Sverige än den som framgår av nödförordningen. Brevet vädjar till att Rumänska kulturinstitutet bevaras i dess nuvarande form. Liknande brev har skrivits och signerats av ett sextiotal internationella organisationer, bl a teaternätverket IETM och MoMA-museet i New York. Om du känner igen i brevet din egen uppfatning av Rumänska kulturinstitutets verksamhet och är beredd att ställa dig bakom texten, så är vi mycket tacksamma. Läs protestbrevet här: http://www.namninsamling.com/protestbrev_RKIS. För att skriva på klickar man här: http://www.namninsamling.com/site/sign.asp?id=4378. Vi bifogar även nödförordningens text, för kännedom. Du kan gärna sprida brevet även till andra. Bästa hälsningar, Rumänska kulturinstitutet

Öppet brev till stöd för Rumänska Kulturinstitutet

28 juni 2012