***  Haus der Kulturen der Welt: Forum1 Archive  ***
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   [Date]: Mon, 15 Nov 1999 19:48:43 +0100
   [From]: Francisco C—rdoba  <cordoba@tin.it>
     [To]: "Cultural Exchange via Internet" <forum1@hkw.kbx.de>
[Subject]: Censorship, Freedom, Marketing and Politics

Rome, November 16, 1999.

Dear members of the Forum,

On my last contribution, I wrote that I was going to let you know if I got
any more news about the "Culture Counts - Financing, Resources, and the
Economic of Culture in Sustainable Development", a conference in Florence/Italy, 4-7 October 1999 if the Italian Foreign Affair Department sent any. Well, today, I got a letter from them. They kindly printed what one can find on their web site:  http://www.esteri.it. 
So, I could not get anything extra.

I've been following the interesting postings about censorship. I'd like to
point out some news I found some days ago on La Stampa (Italian newspaper
printed in Turin) and Il Corriere della Sera (most read Italian newspaper).
I read that a "Sharia Tribunal" sentenced of a "fatwa"  (that is condemned
to death) Terrence McNally in any muslim country for his theater piece
called "Corpus Christi", where Christ appears to be gay. Reading the news I
understood that the reason for this death sentence was due to the fact that
for the Islamic religion, Christ is a god's messanger, that is Allah's
messanger and must not be offended. The news I read explained that that
"tribunal" is made of a group of fundamentalists, whose chief is the Scheik
 Omar Bakri Mohammad, based in England. They delivered leaflets in front of
the Pleasance Theatre in London, where the theater piece was represented.
All this reminds me of the many years that Salman Rushdie had to hide
himself because of the death sentence on him for one of his books.

Maybe those cases have to deal more with repression than censorhip, but I
wonder if "repression" is not one of the highest levels of "censorship".
Such cases have reached enough publicity to be appear on newspapers.
However, I believe there's so much more "silent" censorship everywhere, of
which there's never any single trace on newspapers or tv and yet it does
exist in order to exclude, as I mentioned on one my previous documents.

I'm very glad that more artists are now participating in this forum. We
must speak for ourselves about our own realities, too. In some of the last
contributions I've read about freedom as well as marketing and politics. I
think it is very enriching when many people get involved in the discussion,
not only it proves how deep a democratic relationship can become, I also
think that it proves that "freedom cannot be limited". 

In the begining of 1998, between January and February, when I was just
starting with my web page, I sailed a lot throuhg internet (almost two
months just to let people know I had it). I sent my web address to many
galleries, museums, art critics, art groups, art cooperatives, etc.. Some
answers were positive, some others were not. A part from the "cultural
responses", none of the others was interested in "buying", though. The only
"marketing-commercial" ones were interested in signing contracts for
publicity paid by artists and so on. Among all the responses, one of them
was quite "particular". On the 2nd of February 1998, I got the following
message from Hugo Martinez of the Martinez Gallery (I believe it's in New
York):

"Parece arte europeo? hm"

("It looks like European art? hm")

I answered to him in a polite way asking him if he had sent a question. If
the answer was yes, I wrote  that my art research was far way from what the
main art market tendencies were here. I also confirmed to him that it is
true that the cultural, political, geographical and social reality in which
I live do influence my research. Nevertheless, I do try to come to a
synthesis between my "original culture" and where I live now. Even
geographical nationalities are a product of a certain historic period and,
in a way, internet is contributing to overcome those "national borders".

His reply was:

"La cultura es un veh’culo, no obst‡culo. Lo europeo est‡ muerto. hm"

("Culture is a vehicle, not an obstacle. What is European is dead. hm").

After that I found it senseless to keep on writing.

I don't know if it's "commercially" worth to spend years of life struggling
for one's own right to express his/her creative need. But it is also our
freedom to defend that right. Maybe for some artists, for some art critics
and for some art curators that should not be done so. I still think that
one's own freedom must be respected. I also think that the way one
expresses him/her self in order to achieve his/her goals can follow what
art critics and art curators suggest or demand, but can also follow other
very personal "paths". 

This leads me to the discussions about "bad" or "good" art.... I believe
that a piece of art (whatever it can be) can be described as a piece, which
expresses "more" (or "less")  the personality of the creator, therefore
"better - or worse - accomplished" compared to other pieces of the same
author. By no means I can accept the descriptions of "good" or "bad" art.
"Good" compared to what? "Bad" compared to what? Who has really the
"power-authorization" to "generalize"?

I really appreciate that Partha sent the "Matters of Fact" on the 4th of
November reminding us of the Human Development Report '99 about the
differences in the world's per capita incomes. Yet, I'd like to remind you
that inequality is EVERYWHERE. I realize that, compared to other artists in
poor countries, I'm a "priveleged" one, since, among other things, I can
use my own computer and run my own art studio. But, how much energy, effort
and sacrifices do I have to face in order to "survive" in this
"commercial-marketing jungle"? I don't think my case is absolutely isolated
and Chris Drew has clearly pointed it out several times.

In an "apparently" different peoples world, problems and their solutions
sometimes become so similar: as artists, we don't always have the chance,
neither struggle enough to speak up, explain and maybe defend our ideas,
positions and expressions. I think it would be very interesting to know the
opinions of some of the artists about whom there have been some
discussions, such as Chris Ofili, Conrad Atkinson, Lin Evola, Rachel
Whiteread, for instance.

All the best,

Francisco C—rdoba

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Francisco C—rdoba - via degli Zingari, 39
00184 ROMA - ITALIA-  tl-fx (39) 06.47.43.286
www.cordoba.it  -  e-mail: cordoba@tin.it