***  Haus der Kulturen der Welt: Forum1 Archive  ***
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   [Date]: Fri, 12 Nov 1999 10:29:10 -0600
   [From]: "Chris Drew" <cdrew#@orion.it.luc.edu>
     [To]: "Cultural Exchange via Internet" <forum1@hkw.kbx.de>
[Subject]: Re: [forum1] Censorship

YES - A great discussion is beginning to unfold. Pablo Helguera has
described the opposing arguements of this discussion. I intend to prepare a
response soon (by Monday). Kim Machan is alerting us to potential dangers of
Internet control and forces that desire that control. We have yet to hear
what any of the Asian cultural spokes persons think of Pablo's "integrated
Conceptualism". I am excited!

Chris Drew       <mailto:umcac@art-teez.org>
Uptown Multi-Cultural Art Center
http://www.art-teez.org   We dress Chicago and the
Internet in t-shirt art.  Come get some! 773/561-7676

>Hola Chris:
>
>Censorship is all over the world. Here in Merida, Mexico there different
>ways of censorships. There is a gallery, Galeria Colon, a well known
>gallery, which doesn't represent the artists from the city. All of the
>artists are imported form Mexico City or other countries.


This is very true of Chicago. There is a lawyer who is suing the City of
Chicago at this time to get the City to explain how they have spent money
set aside from construction projects (about 1.3% of the construction costs)
on public art. The City should spend a significant amount of that money on
local artists to encourage local arts activity and that money should be
divided among the many ethnic communities of the City. Is this being done?
Nobody knows! The City refuses to tell how it spends this money. They will
have to tell now that a lawyer is demanding they tell. I would like to start
a mailing list to allow artists to discuss and follow these monies.

The Galleries in Chicago, also too often, are busy importing art rather than
encouraging the artists that exist here. Worse, all the other opportunities
for emerging artists to sell their work directly are too expensive for them.
Art fairs for the most part charge way too much for non-commercial
(cultural) artists to participate. We are trying to build a movement to
create a free artists' market on Chicago's Lakefront. The gap in support for
emerging artists of all cultural backgrounds is too large for all but a few
who most represent the desires of those who manage the "inner art circles."
The challenge as I see it is to create opportunities for artists to grow and
emerge to all they can be - regardless of their chosen cultural/asethetic
background.

http://www.art-teez.org/art_mart.htm

To win a space on our lakefront for artists will need some time to grow a
movement strong enough to impact city policy.

>
>But the worth censorship I had experience is the one whic created the
>internal censorship. I have seen gay artists who are reluctant to produce
>gay work because the own internal fears. Women do no have a place in the
>local scene. Only the big macho baravados artists who are able to speak the
>bullshit of the Chairman of the Institute of Culture are the ones who are
>supported most of the time.

This is equivalent to our divide between the "inner arts circles" and what I
call - the community artists. Community artists seek community spaces to
show in because there are so few opportunities in the "inner arts circles"
for a local artists to show. Major arts institutions spend enormous sums
while artists working in community locations trying to build up the
community arts infrastructure - support systems encouraging local talent -
especially African American, Native American, Asian American or Latino - can
not find but the smallest of crumbs to grow on. This is generally true for
any local artist initiative and true too for Eurocentric artists. It is wise
to support these issues of fairness because everyone out in the communities
are being
overlooked. This is a strong case for a lakefront artists' market.
>
>Regarding to the Cultural Center's exhibit. I had the chance to live in
>Chicago for a few years and I know the racist art politics of that town.  I
>am no surprise with the outcome from the selection process.  How is the art
>politics in Chicago at the end of he Millenium?

Same as before.

>The cultural center has a
>well known Latino artist in its staff. Is he doing his work, today?
>
>A while ago, Juan Diaz stated how difficult is for art historian and
>curators to understand the complexicties of Latino and Latin American art.
>We have to recognized that the educational system has kept the art
>historians and curators away from world art, focusing on eurocentric
>notions.

Our arts group last exhibited at the Chicago Cultural Center in 1993. They
cut our two month exhibit in half three days after the opening an lied about
the reason. That is another story for another day. I am too busy building
our website to notice. If you send me a name I'll ask an old friend Carlos
Cortez about him. Carlos is an old timer with lots of contacts in the Latino
community. He is an old board member of ours. He will know who you are
talking about.


>That is what they know and the only art language they can read. The
>sad part is that some of the "minority artists" decide to speak that art
>language and become the token spoke preson from the comunieties. That is
>another type of censorship which works at a deeper subconscious level.


I have found that the artists most keeping cultural traditions are often -
not always - self-educated. If their base of support - their audience - is
their peers - that has a big effect on an artist being able to maintain and
explore a cultural role related to their heritage.

This is a good reason to build a forum that can present the art directly to
people so they can have a way to support the artists that are doing their
cultural work. That is the concept behind the "Art of the T-shirt".


>
>Saludos,
>
>
>Raul Ferrera-Balanquet, MFA
>Interdisciplinary Artist and Scholar
>ferrera98@hotmail.com
>http://www.artswire.org/krosrods/curriculum/index.html