20th Century

Hands off culture and media in Hungary! – Petitions24.com

December 23, 2010news20th Century, Artistic Freedom, Aspx, Brown Eyes, Contemporary Art, Control, Culture Media, Freedom Of Expression, Freedom Of The Press, Hungarian Media, Hungary, International Concern, Legal Control, Media Freedom, News Media, Petition, Political Control, Politicians, Profession, Roma, Theatre Director

Hands off culture and media in Hungary

Artistic freedom and freedom of the press are under threat in Hungary.

If one theatre director can be dismissed for political reasons, anybody can be dismissed for anything: for being liberal or conservative, for having blue or brown eyes, for being Catholic, Jewish, Roma or homosexual.

Art is a profession and evaluation of art is also a profession. Art should be evaluated by professionals, not politicians. If politicians can decide what is good or bad, what is contemporary art and what is not, what is moral and immoral, political control over the freedom of expression will break loose. We had enough of that in the 20th century.

If a politically biased committee other than the court can have legal control over the content of media, freedom of the press will be curbed.

We cannot accept political control in art and media.

(If you cannot sign this petition, try doing it with another browser)

For more infomation go to:

http://www.wan-press.org/article18748.html

http://www.enpa.be/en/news/hungarian-media-law-fuels-international-concern_50.aspx

via Hands off culture and media in Hungary! – Petitions24.com.

Land Art and changing perspectives

February 17, 2010news, RSA Arts & Ecology20th Century, Art Tv, Changing Perspectives, Commissions, Curators, Ecology, Form Of Art, Freek, Gerry Schum, High Tides, Inequalities, Jan Dibbets, Land Art, Latitudes, Liberation, Maasvlakte, Parallel Lines, Perspective, Rising Tide, Robert Smithson, Skor, Tide, Tv Broadcast

Filming Jan Dibbetâ€™sÂ 12 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective, 1969

Jan DibbetsÂ 6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective, Maasvlakte beach, 8 February 2009

A year ago this week as part of theÂ Portscapes project, the artist Jan Dibbets had what he called a â€œsecond attemptâ€ at his 1969 pieceÂ 12 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective; the artist and curators rejected the idea of the event being a recreation. The apparently parallel lines are drawn on the beach and disappear again within the space between two high tides.

The original work became part of the canon of Land Art when it was included in Gerry Schumâ€™s 1969 Â Land Art TV broadcast, alongside pieces by Robert Smithson and Richard Long. For Schum the attraction of Land Art was its liberation of art from the gallery. He was trying to make a TV-based form of art that suited the more democratic half of the 20th century.

In the second attempt the work becomes more obviously about manâ€™s relationship to the natural world, partly becauseÂ Portscapes, which we list as one of theÂ 21 highlights of 2009, was a series of commissions byÂ Latitudes on a piece of land that will disappear as part of the new Dutch industrial port complexÂ Maasvlakte 2. And the piece now seems to emphasise the tidal inequalities of that relationship. Just as Dibbettâ€™s illusory parallel lines are seen being washed away by the rising tide, so this beach will soon be gone. That is another perspective shift, of a kind.

Read more about 6 Hours Tide Objectâ€¦ here

Photos: Latitudes, Paloma Polo/SKOR and Freek van Arkel

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Climate change = culture change: the hugeness of the challenge

December 8, 2009COP15, news, RSA Arts & Ecology20th Century, Change Culture, Climate Change, Culture Change, Ecological Age, Ecology, Entire World, Flavour, Futures, Gerlach, Hansen, Illustration, Job, Little Time, Olaf, Old Version, Paper Culture, Realities, Responsiblity, Short Period, Time Factor, Transformations

We tend to talk about the idea of cultural change without thinking through what that means. The size of the job of retooling society to achieve an ecological age by 2050Â is immense.

Emerging from the 20th century, itâ€™s hard not to see this as a fundamentally Orwellian task.Â However, if we do embrace the idea that culture has a responsiblity to move forwads, we have to start thinking in practical cutural realities. I recommend reading the working paperCulture|Futures Cultural Transformations for a Cultural Age by 2050 edited by Olaf Gerlach-Hansen which was released yesterday. It begins the ambitious process of evaluating if we even have the means by which we get from here to there.

The degree and scope of the cultural challenge is â€¦ exacerbated by how little time we have to bring about change. The transformation must be completed globally in 40 years, which in terms of comprehensive cultural transformations is an extremely short period â€“ just a generation or two at most.

The time factor adds to the number of challenges concerning identity, lifestyle and habits to be addressed, since the entire world will vividly remember its old version, while developing the new.

Thatâ€™s only a quick flavour of the paper which served as a working document to kickstart yesteredayâ€™s symposiumâ€¦

Download the PDF [2.43MB] here.

Illustration:Â Glowing Climate

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