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Mexico: New city constitution protects art, culture and free speech
The Constituent Assembly of the Mexican capital has embarked on a project to create its first constitution and has approved a new article in which art, culture and education will be protected and granted by authorities. The article states that cultural diversity and freedom of expression must be respected and censorship will not be applied. The new constitution will carry language that strongly promotes the creation of art and culture and protects artists, reported El Economista on 9 January 2017.
Article 13 aims to reduce the educational and cultural gap of the population by guaranteeing quality access to culture and obligatory scholarship up to higher education, regardless of a person’s ethnic or economic situation.
The article also outlines cultural improvements, such as that everyone will be granted the right to access culture without restrictions; choose a cultural identity, being able to express it and being respected for it; freely participate in cultural life in public spaces; start cultural projects; elaborate cultural policies; and enjoy the freedom of creation, opinion and information.
Through the article, the city also aims to preserve material and immaterial cultural heritage; support self-managing, communitarian and independent cultural initiatives; and provide fiscal incentives for the development of culture.
Furthermore, the Constituent Assembly has emphasized freedom of speech and provisions against censorship within the constitution. Article 13 also encompasses the protection of academic freedom, scientific freedom, technological freedom, cultural freedom, creative freedom and the free discussion of ideas. Freedom of the press was guaranteed under Article 12.
Optimism for a new constitution
In recent years, Mexico City’s government has been approving a wave of liberal laws, gaining recognition as one of the most advanced cities in terms of human rights in Mexico and Latin-America.
The reason for great optimism around the new constitution is that the document isn’t just a series of good intentions, but rather also a document that includes legal mechanisms so that citizens can demand the fulfillment of their rights.
The new constitution, apart for including some rights that are already in place, adds several other rights, including: the right to euthanasia, protection for immigrants, protection for journalists, right to public protest, right to internet access, ban of water privatization, LGTB marriage and adoption, and the creation of an anti-corruption system, among many others.
By contrast, other Mexican legislations are choosing to ban certain artistic expressions, as in the case of the state of Sinaloa or the city of Chihuahua, which have decided to restrict narcocorridos and the movimiento alterado sub-genres of the northern Mexican ballad because their lyrics glorify drug kingpins and their exploits.
New constitution project
On 29 January 2016, as part of a series of local political reforms, the Mexican capital ceased to be called a Distrito Federal (Federal District) and is now transitioning to fully become the country’s 32 federal entity (without being a state, like the other 31 federal entities, due to a provision clause in the national constitution). Once the constitution is released, the new administrative status will give the city new juridical and political autonomy.
The city’s constitution is being discussed and approved by the Constituent Assembly, which was elected in June 2016 and is comprised of 100 members: 60 of whom were elected by popular vote, six appointed by the Mexican president, six more by the city mayor, and 28 appointed by both the Mexican Senate and House of Representatives.
Source: Freemuse
Kunsthall Trondheim Inaugural exhibition
this is a political (painting)
Kajsa Dahlberg, A K Dolven, VALIE EXPORT, Claire Fontaine and Alexandra Pirici
October 20, 2016 – February 26, 2017
In the presence of Her Majesty Queen Sonja of Norway, the inauguration of Kunsthall Trondheim will take place on October 20, 2016.
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Kunsthall Trondheim is a new contemporary art institution which will open in the old fire station in Trondheim city centre. The new location will offer two levels of exhibition space of approximately 1000 m2. Since 2013 Kunsthall Trondheim has been run as a pilot project by director Helena Holmberg, and on the initiative of the city of Trondheim and the county of Sør-Trøndelag. Kunsthall Trondheim is supported by the Art Council Norway. The programme has included exhibitions, productions, publications, discussions, international collaborations and informal residency-visits.
Kunsthall Trondheim
Kongens gate 2
7011 Trondheim, Norway
+47 485 00 100
SONSBEEK ’16: transACTION
June 4 - September 18, 2016
The eleventh edition of the contemporary art exhibition is curated by the Indonesian collective ruangrupa and takes place from 4 June to 18 September 2016 in Park Sonsbeek, the city of Arnhem and Museum Arnhem.
Ruangrupa is closely connected with Indonesian culture, in which community, collective and friendship are central themes. For ruangrupa, contemporary art is necessarily about working together and connecting between individuals and groups.
SONSBEEK ’16: transACTION also launches a new quadrennial cycle of the exhibition: SONSBEEK will appear every four years.
Practical info about the exhibitions can be found at http://www.sonsbeek.org/en/practical-information/
ZKM conference publication on "Biennials: prospect and perspective"
A e-paper of the conference on the topic of "Biennials: prospect and perspective" that was held in Karlsruhe, February 27 - March 1, 2014 has recently been published, and is available at http://zkm.de/media/file/de/2015-publication-prospect_and_perspectives-zkm.pdf
As part of the theoretical foundations of GLOBALE, ZKM, in cooperation with ifa (Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations), has organized a large-scale conference with approx. 40 curators who seismographically record and reflect the process of transformation triggered by globalization. The event’s objective is to sound out the potential of such large-scale events following almost three decades of biennialization. The conference forms part of the series »Biennials in Dialogue«, which ifa has been realizing with cooperation partners since 2000. Previous conferences took place in Kassel, Frankfurt am Main, Singapore, and Shanghai. As one of the leading actors in international art exchange, with this series of events ifa gives impulses to the scientific encounter with biennials, as well as to the international discussion around the modes of contemporary exhibition formats. The striking spread of the biennial structure has brought about a multiplicity of concepts and discourses. While the biennial system is frequently criticized as a purely marketing instrument, it also provides a space for the critical encounter with political and social issues, for which existing institutions often provide no space. Clearly, the number of biennials has grown exponentially as a means of offsetting the pressure of selection produced by the art market. A multiplicity of art is produced worldwide, the platform of which is not the market and the museum, but the biennial.
The conference focusses on five core themes: the opening section entitled “Biennials and Public Space”, discusses art as public sphere and new public conceptions. The selection “Biennials as Motor for Social Change” seeks to examine the potential influence of biennials on the transformation of society and politics, and to investigate whether this question can be adequately answered. A further section is dedicated to the theme entitled “The Dynamics of Biennials and the Role of Its Actors (Curators, Artists, Organizers and Public)”. In the past, for example, the increased spread of biennials has decisively strengthened public perception among curators. Have there been similar effects on other actors, such as artists or the public? The “Chances and Limitations of Biennials in the Context of Marketing and Policies” is given over to the question as to the way in which biennials deal with demands, such as urban development, location, marketing, and political ambitions. The concluding discussion, “Alternatives/Open Spaces“ is concerned with alternative biennial models, which point to new visions for the future of biennials.
Source: http://zkm.de/en
Zürich: Manifesta 11, June 11-September 18, 2016
Manifesta 11
June 11–September 18, 2016, Zürich, Switzerland
Every two years Manifesta takes place in a new Host City. Manifesta explores the genius loci and serves as a think tank to re-identify how we live, work, think and see our future here in Europe in the context of the growing challenges of economic recession, migration, climate change. Manifesta also studies and hypothesises on how these effect our changing habitats, our thinking and our society. Because of its migratory existence, Manifesta is able to mount a diverse and ongoing analysis of the state of European culture.
Manifesta 11, with its theme What People Do for Money: Some Joint Ventures, focuses attention on the relation between artistic work and labour. In our post-industrial age, it is a concept that resonates acutely with life not only in Zurich but in the rest of the world.
More information available at http://m11.manifesta.org/
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