MARCH 2, 2014
Appeal to the International Art Community
On March 1, 2014 the Russian Parliament authorized the
use of military force in Ukraine. Russia’s intervention in Ukraine disregards
all international norms and, especially, the “Budapest Memorandum on Security
Assurances” signed on December 5, 1994, when newly independent Ukraine gave up
its arsenal of nuclear weapons. Russia, the United States and the United
Kingdom pledged to respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity; therefore this
appeal is addressed primarily to the art communities of these countries.
When your government does not fulfill the international
obligations it has accepted, can you still consider that you live and work in a
lawful, civilized and humanitarian state?
Russia’s aggressive actions look like revenge for the
Ukrainian people’s insistence on choosing Europe and ousting their dictatorial
president, a choice that cost a hundred lives. Today Russia is an
aggressor-state where culture is either forced to serve imperial propaganda or
persecuted.
We call on you to actively denounce the imperial
aggression of V.V. Putin, thus promoting the preservation of Ukraine’s
territorial integrity and, accordingly, peace in Europe.
We call for a boycott of cultural events that aim to
represent Russia internationally (Manifesta, IV Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, etc.) and
to support those cultural workers in Russia who dare to condemn Russia’s
aggression against Ukraine.
We not only encourage your free choice of method in
impacting your own national government, but insist on applying uncompromising
pressure on the government of the state-aggressor. We also ask you to inform
your country’s leadership and population – using all available means – about
what has happened and is still happening in Ukraine. In this, we promise to
offer whatever assistance we can.
On February 23, 2014 in the building of the Ministry of
Culture of Ukraine in Kiev, a meeting of over 200 civic activists, cultural
workers and artists created the Assembly for Culture in Ukraine, which has
taken control of the state organ for cultural policy. From this moment,
cultural activists will initiate and develop strategic reforms in the cultural
sphere. The Assembly has been occupying the building since February 22 and
will not leave until a commission begins an investigation, audit and systemic analysis
of the previous activities of the Ministry of Culture. The Assembly demands the
enactment of lustration laws for officials of the Ministry of Culture and that
the new Minister be approved by the Assembly before appointment. The group has
initiated the formation of expert committees in various areas of art, culture
and cultural heritage to articulate proposals for introducing systemic reforms.
No comments:
Post a Comment