Indeks 73 Forum: WROCŁAW, 3.11.2008 (Monday), 7 p.m.

Partner: BWA Wrocław
Venue: Studio BWA, Ruska 46a

"Art and dialogue without censorship"

The removal of Hubert Czerepok's work inspired by the Jewish community during the Survival Festival in Wrocław was already discussed on the Indeks 73 website and protested in Indeks 73 Appeal. Today, a few weeks after the incident we would like to examine what exactly happened, what kind of reaction the incident provoked and if there is any lesson we can learn from it for the future.

Indeks 73 Initiative wants to debate on the issue of how to create multicultural artistic events and leave space for controversial subjects, so that the controversy concerning specific artistic activity wouldn't result automatically in a ban on the work, but would become the beginning of creative work of the artist and the environment they are working in. How to go beyond the ban strategy without giving up a possibility of interference in cultural activities? This question is going to be a starting point of our debate.

Moderator: Ewa Majewska, PhD, Indeks73

Panrticipants:
Icchak Chaim Rapoport
Piotr Stasiowski
Agata Saraczyńska
Lidia Makowska


Indeks 73 Forum: WARSAW, 12.11.2008 (Wednesday), 8 p.m.

Partner: TR Warszawa
Venue: TR Warszawa, Marszałkowska 8

"Culture, censorship and self-censorship"

The discussion concerning the film „Tajemnica Westerplatte” (Westerplatte Mystery), which had stirred up protests and controversies even before the shooting, resumed the debate on the limits of art financed with public money. What are the consequences of this case for freedom of artistic creation in Poland? How to control allocation of the public money without interfering with artistic freedom? How to separate political interests from artistic visions? How to discuss art without inflicting self-censorship on artists? How to avoid situations when the controversy concerning specific artistic activity results automatically in a ban on the work, instead of starting creative cooperation of the artist and the environment they are working in?

Moderator: Roman Pawłowski

Participants:
Agnieszka Odorowicz
Paweł Chochlew
Jacek Lipski
Grzegorz Jarzyna
dr Maciej Gdula


Indeks 73 Forum : POZNAŃ, 18.11.2008 (Tuesday), 6 p.m.

Partner: Teatr Ósmego Dnia
Venue: Teatr Ósmego Dnia, Ratajczaka 44

"Art and censorship in the neoliberal times"




A discussion about restrictions on freedom of artistic expression in a free-market world and secret mechanisms of emerging censorship.

Moderator: Izabela Kowalczyk, PhD

Participants:
prof. Piotr Piotrowski
dr Paweł Leszkowicz
Rafał Jakubowicz
Jakub Dąbrowski
Jarosław Urbański


 Indeks 73 Forum: GDAŃSK, 26.11.2008 (Wednesday), 6 pm - 7.30 pm

Partner: Kultura Miejska
Venue: Garrison Club (former ZAWISZA cinema) , ul. Słowackiego 3 in Wrzeszcz


"Our right to free culture"

Moderator of the debate:
Lidia Makowska, Kultura Miejska Association Gdańsk, Indeks73

Panellists:
Jarosław Lipszyc, Nowoczesna Polska Foundation in Warsaw, Indeks 73
Daniel Muzyczuk, art curator in the Centre of Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu in Torun, lawyer, Indeks 73
Jacek Niegoda, audio/visual artist, Indeks 73
Roman Pawłowski, Gazeta Wyborcza journalist, Indeks 73
Kuba Szreder, socjologist, curator of art projects in the social space
Grzegorz Ilnicki, law student, „Young Socialists” activist

Freedom of artistic creation and scientific research, as well as free access to cultural goods, is guaranteed in Poland in Article 73 of the Constitution, and on the international level - in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 27).
Culture in Poland is – similarly to other domains influenced by money and politics - subject to neoliberal strategies of commercializing the common good. Intellectual property rights are being collected within the global reach of a few publishing, phonographic and film consortia. Restrictive regulations prevent free dissemination of the works (also in Internet), which means it is not the authors of those works but big consortia that make profits.
What are advantages of free dissemination of cultural works (eg. on Creative Commons licence) in the aspect of culture-forming and civilisation development? How to expand the definition and power of „free culture”?
These issues will be the pivot of the debate on free culture in Gdańsk.

About Indeks 73 Forum
Expanding freedom of culture, art, science and media is commonly associated with an uncompromising battle with censorship. „Indeks 73 Forum” aims to expand the sphere of freedom and expression through a series of meetings with artists, curators and people who happen to restrain artistic expression acting as censors.

We want to go beyond the strategy of surveillance and punishment applied so easily in the battle with censorship. Instead of appointing new police forces responsible for hunting crimes of censorship, we want to act as the rank-and-file initiative to build free culture society. We wish to place censorship in its socio-cultural context, which often makes censorship functional. Therefore it is not sufficient to sentence censors to reintroduce free culture, as they are only a part of a bigger „freedom-less” order. We also want to diagnose censorship from the rank-and-file point of view of the people involved in the process of creation in different cities. The idea of „Forum” is to invite all people interested in expanding the sphere of free culture.

Indeks 73 Forum Debates:
• Art and dialogue without censorship (about the removal of Hubert Czerepok's work inspired by the Jewish community protests during the Survival Festival in Wrocław)
Participants: Ewa Majewska, PhD (moderator), Rabin Icchak Chaim Rapoport, Piotr Stasiowski, Agata Saraczyńska, Lidia Makowska,
BWA Wrocław, 3.11.2008
• Culture, censorship and self-censorship (about controversies around the film „Tajemnica Westerplatte” (Westerplatte Mystery) and the right to a free artistic vision financed with the public money)
Participants: Roman Pawłowski (moderator), Paweł Chochlew, Jacek Lipski, Agnieszka Odorowicz,
Grzegorz Jarzyna, Maciej Gdula, PhD
TR Warszawa, 12.11.2008
• Art and censorship in the neoliberal times (about restrictions on freedom of artistic expression in a free-market world and secret mechanisms of emerging censorship)
Participants: Iza Kowalczyk, PhD (moderator), professor Piotr Piotrowski, Paweł Leszkowicz, PhD, Rafał Jakubowicz, Jakub Dąbrowski, Jarosław Urbański
Teatr Ósmego Dnia w Poznaniu, 18.11.2008

Read more about Indeks 73 Forum


Artistic commentary on Indeks 73 debate

CONCERT FOR CINEMA PROJECTORS. Epitaph for 37 cinemas
Piotr Wyrzykowski

26 November 2008 (Wednesday), 7.30 – 8 pm
Former ZAWISZA cinema in the Garrison Club in Wrzeszcz
ul. Słowackiego 3, Gdańsk


~~Luckas: Small, old, smelly and dirty cinemas with dilapidated chairs, without air-conditioning, and with farting loudspeakers... On the top of it, they show 'ambitious' crap that nobody comes to watch.

Epitaph for 37 cinemas is a concert – performance composed specially for cine projectors. The projectors united in a multi-canal light and sound emitter will act as an audiovisual instrument which will perform works composed of fragments of the film bands, defined as the analog samples. The essential part of the presented film fragment is the recorded sound and emitted light.
Following concerts will consist of public presentations of the analog sample and an appeal to scan it and copy it freely.
After the concert there will be a screening of the recorded material from the selected closed cinemas. During the recording the video camera is used as a light scanner. The lens of the camera will face directly the lens of the projector. The most important aspect of the video and audio recording is the process of digitalisation of the analog signal and copying it further on.
Piotr Wyrzykowski

In March 2005 the Pomeranian Parliament agreed on selling 37 cinemas owned by Neptun Film company (controlled by the Pomeranian government). 19 regional councilors voted for, 14 voted against the transaction. The cinemas were sold by tender to the developer consortium Capital Park, which paid 23.4 million PLN (about 5 Mio euro) for all cinemas, including the complex of the cinemas Neptun – Helikon – Kameralne in ul. Dluga in Gdańsk, and Polonia and Baltyk in Sopot.

„Głos Wybrzeża”, 5 March 2005



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