Human Rights: An Art Exhibit

Beginning on September 11th, my painting, Banded and Broken in a Complex World, will be included in a global art exhibit dedicated to human rights. This extraordinary exhibit will be held in Caserta, Italy. Please take a moment to read the information below, which was provided by the curator Roberto Ronca. (The content has been translated from Italian.)

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THE CONCEPT

On 10th December 1948 , the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was proclaimed. For the first time in the history of humanity, a document concerning all the people of the world was drawn up. Everyone of us, only due to the fact that he was born, enjoys the rights endorsed by the Declaration. Everyone of us, regardless of the place where he was born and where he lives, enjoys these rights. Everyone of us has civil, political, social, economical and cultural rights. Everyone of us is equal to the others.

Is it always so?

In this exhibit artists speak about human rights. The title, simple and direct, without roundabout expressions, expresses the main idea which must go with everybody’s life. In this event, uncomfortable, complex and denunciation subjects are dealt with, in order to sting the conscience of all those who, enjoying their own rights, don’t think about all people whose rights are violated every day. The logic is based on the fundamental concept of art as a universal expressive form, understandable by everybody regardless of his language and culture, regardless of his gender, of the subject and of the languages used. Languages vary depending on the artists’ experience and mastery, and they create new relationships with the audience, who approach art feeling immediately involved and directly concerned. Uncomfortable images, violated rights images, images about everyday stories which should not exist, but even images which are able to deal with a delicate and difficult subject with wisdom and, why not, irony. The exhibition will highlight different ways to see the matter, since the event is open to artists from all over the world. It becomes so particularly interesting to discover in which way the perception of the concept of “respect of the rights” is experienced and expressed.

The event aims to shake consciences; it deeply wants to avoid common places brought by word abuse. To speak about human rights has become so common that the words “human rights violation” are deprived of all meaning and by now they touch us only at a distance when we hear them, without getting them into our heads.

The most immediate way to retrieve that conscience, essential to be really part of a system which respects everybody’s rights, is to see with one’s eyes all that artists have to say. Images insert themselves in one’s memory in such an immediate and strong way that all those who visit it will leave it more conscious and emotionally involved. To speak about human rights, according to artists, means to “pull out” many ideas which can’t find the space fit for the purpose in other events. wants to be a strong signal to all the artists and to all those who will visit it.

THE LOCATION


San Leucio, known as Palazzo del Belvedere, was the base of royal silk factories during the Borbone’s Kingdom in Naples. Nowadays at San Leucio is present the ancient silk factory which boasted silk productions all around Europe; still today, it is possible to find silks from San Leucio at the Vatican, at the Quirinale, in the Oval Room at the White House: the latter’s flags and Buckingham Palace flags are made with that material. The royal site, together with the Reggia di Caserta, has been recognized as Humanity Heritage by UNESCO. At San Leucio, inside king Ferdinando’s original factory, Palazzo Belvedere, today there is the base of “Silk Museum” where it is possible to find some of the original machines, still working, used for silk processing. It is the base of the faculty of politics of the Second University of the studies of Naples. Since 1999 during summer months it takes place in San Leucio the “Leuciana Festival”.

THE ORGANIZATION

The event is managed with the active cooperation of ADISS Onlus from Caserta, which promotes the Free Children project. ADISS was born with the concrete intent to take sports, above all football, to the suburbs of small and big cities, in forgotten hamlets, involving and fostering children and young people participation. With the project called “FREE CHILDREN”, ADISS opened free football schools and didactic labs for hundreds of minors at risk of poverty and school dispersion, developing a new and effective net among all social and institutional actors in the involved territories and becoming a real chance, a reference point.

There will be the opening on 11th September 2009. September 11th is the anniversary of one of the greatest tragedies in contemporary history: the Twin Towers terrorist attack. During the ceremony on Friday 11th September there will take place artistic performances in order to remember the attack, expressed through art language. Further events will take place during all the weekend and all the next weekends, even during the Saturday morning dedicated to children and school boys.

At the opening ceremony there will be the speech of Amnesty International representatives. During the opening ceremony the Free Children project will be highlighted since ADISS Onlus has recently dealt with it in Brazil. There will be a link with the shantytown where ADISS has performed its voluntary service and the World March for Peace and Nonviolence will be promoted.

The World March will begin in New Zealand on October 2, 2009, the anniversary of Gandhi’s birth, declared the “International Day of Nonviolence” by the United Nations. It will conclude in the Andes Mountains (Punta de Vacas, Aconcagua, Argentina) on January 2, 2010. The March will last 90 days, three long months of travel. It will pass through all climates and seasons, from the hot summer of the tropics and the deserts, to the winter of Siberia. The American and Asian stages will be the longest, both almost a month. A permanent base of a hundred people of different nationalities will complete the journey. In order to introduce the World March for Peace and Nonviolence there will be a representative of the organization who will report about the main moments. Then there will be a performance held by Spazio-Tempo.

During the event there will take place some conferences about the issues of human rights, with a careful view of the Campania territory and the discomfort situations managed daily by ADISS ONLUS operators. Spazio-Tempo will animate all the month of the exhibition thanks to international artists’ performances, action paintings, meetings with artists who will be available to speak about their works. International artists’ sculptures will be placed in the public buildings of the city of Caserta to give a concrete signal of the importance of the event. During the exhibition Spazio-Tempo will organize guided tours for groups of visitors and school groups.

For additional information including a list of the participating artists and a video about the event, go here.