À travers le monde

As the IETM Satellite Meeting in Beruit is underway, Raphael Khouri's story about being unable to tell people about a queer Arab play she directed is incredibly timely and important.– Geoliane Arab.

Inclusion

10/10/2016

Is Art the Best Way to Tell the Truth?

Wael Qadour, playwright and threatre director, not only asks the right questions, but dares to ask them at an unlikely time. While most people today defend artists’ absolute right to express themselves, Wael takes a step back and delivers a nuanced piece on the responsibility of artists and cultural professionals in building and voicing the discourse on freedom of expression. – Geoliane Arab, series curator.

29/09/2016

An Opposite is Made Visible by Another

Hanane HAJJ ALI

A prominent theatre figure in Lebanon and the Arab region, Hanane Haj Ali reflects in this piece on the personal and professional encounters that have made her the free woman she is today. With her upcoming work, Jogging—theatre in progress, which will be avant-premiered at the IETM Satellite meeting in Beirut, Hanane challenges legal, political, and social censorship and unfailingly reveals herself as an inspiration.—Geoliane Arab.

26/09/2016

Employability in the cultural and creative sectors in Arab Mediterranean countries: The cases of Palestine, Egypt, Tunis and Morocco.

To what extent are employment policies and Active Labor Market Programs (ALMP) in Arab Mediterranean countries capable of reducing the mismatch in cultural and creative sectors and supporting youth employability? This study aims to identify the main obstacles facing job creation in these areas, and assess gaps between the supply of skills (by universities and training centers) and their demand (by the labor market).

20/09/2016

Number 17 made me a filmmaker

As part of the IETM's Campaign for Freedom of Expression series, Iraqi film director Mohamed Al Daradji writes about his shocking experience of filming in his homeland, how he tamed it and came to be one of the most representative artists of the Arab region. Freedom of Expression will be the main theme of IETM's next Satellite Meeting in Beirut.

15/09/2016

Dario Fo and other foreign plays banned in Turkey

Elena DI FEDERICO

Dario Fo bandito in Turchia: "È come vincere il secondo Nobel". I suoi testi teatrali censurati insieme a quelli di Shakespeare, Cechov e Brecht: "Sono tutti morti tranne me, speriamo che Erdogan non lo venga a sapere". “It’s like winning another Nobel Prize”

13/09/2016

Here comes the new!…and business as usual.

Jude ANDERSON

Bi-partisan government funding policy for arts in Australia has been under sustained attack and excellence in arts has been ‘transformed from aspiration to commodity’. This article written by IETM member Jude Anderson (Punctum) looks at the past and current developments of public funding for the arts in Australia.

08/09/2016

Artists and museums sue Israel’s ministry of culture

Elena DI FEDERICO

A group of Israeli artists, museum directors and art educators quietly filed a lawsuit in July against the country’s ministry of culture, according to a petition seen by The Art Newspaper. Artists and cultural institutions are feeling increasingly intimidated under the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, especially since Miri Regev, an Israeli army brigadier-general, became the country’s minister of culture in 2015. Protests against threats to freedom of speech flared all summer. Threats to funding based on policies that limit freedom of expression could be a “death blow to culture institutions...

Fernando BITTENCOURT HERSAN

31/08/2016

How free is free? Reflections on freedom of creative expression in Africa

Article 19 of the Declaration of Human Rights states that: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” Although a recognised freedom, it is viewed and experienced in different ways, depending on its discipline, the country in question and also historical precedents. Sometimes biased and violated, sometimes honoured and often misunderstood, freedom of expression is much more complicated to explain and defend in...

29/08/2016

History of Censorship in Lebanon

Mona MERHI

As Beirut gets ready to host IETM's first Satellite meeting on Freedom of Expression in the South-Mediterranean region, Lebanese writer and advocate Mona Merhi writes about the history of censorship in Lebanon and its current state of play, paving the way for a deeper reflection on artistic freedoms in the Arab region and beyond. This is the first post in the Campaign for Freedom of Expression series.—Geoliane Arab.