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A
VOICE FOR CULTURE AND THE ARTS
IN THE ERA OF GLOBALIZATION
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UNE
VOIX POUR LA CULTURE ET LES ARTS
DANS L’ÈRE DE LA MONDIALISATION
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UNA
VOZ POR LA CULTURA Y LAS ARTES
EN LA ERA DE LA GLOBALIZACIÓN
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804-130
Albert Street
Ottawa, Ontario CANADA
K1P 5G4
incd@ccarts.ca
tel/tel: (613) 238-3561
fax/tlc: (613) 238-4849
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Member
Bibi Andersson (Sweden,
actress)
Homero Aridjis (México, writer)
Gillian
Armstrong A.M. (Australia, Film Director)
Margaret Atwood (Canada, writer)
Ingmar Bergman (Sweden, film maker)
Harry Belafonte (USA, actor/ musician)
Jorge Bosso (Spain)
Michael Boyd (UK, Head, Royal Shakespeare Company)
Byungki Hwang (Korea, Composer/Musician)
Agricola
de Cologne (Germany,
New Media artist)
Bec
Dean
(Australia, Curator/Visual arts)
Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Columbia, writer – Nobel Prize)
Salvador
Elizondo (México, writer)
Karel
Glastra van Loon
(Netherlands, writer)
Danny Glover (USA, Actor)
Nadine Gordimer (South Africa, writer)
Probir Guha (India, Theatre director)
Jung Rae Jo (Korea, Writer)
Kwon Taek Im (Korea, Film director)
Tom Keneally (Australia, writer)
Chiha Kim (Korea, Poet/Writer)
Ludwig
Laher (Austria, Writer)
Pierre
Larauza
(France, Architect videographer)
Robert
Lepage (Canada, Film/theatre director)
Igor Marinkovic (Serbia, Visual artist)
Carlos
Monsivais (México, writer)
Carlos Montemayor (México, writer)
Mirella
Barberio (Italy, Visual artist)
Sam
Neill (New Zealand, Actor)
Abraham
Oceranski (México, theatre director)
Michael
Ondaatje (Canada, writer)
Victor
Hugo Rascón (México, writer)
María Rojo (Mexico, actress)
Volker
Schlöndorff (Germany, Film director)
Tomás
Segovia (Mexico, writer)
Tang
Shu-wing (Hong Kong, Theatre director)
Sin Cha Hong (Korea, Dancer/writer)
Sumi
Jo (Korea, Vocalist – Opera)
Danis Tanovic (Bosnia-Herzegovina, film director)
RH Thomson (Canada, Actor)
Francisco Toledo (México, painter)
Antonio Traverso (Australia, Academic, media and video artist)
Victor Ugalde (México, movie director)
Roger
Von Gunten (Mexico, painter)
Youn
Taek Lee (Korea, Drama producer)
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AN
OPEN LETTER FROM ARTISTS
September
12,
2003
[ back
to main site]
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It
is time to secure the rights of artists globally. These rights are at
risk because international trade courts are ruling on artistic matters.
We
are artists and citizens of the global village. We come from every
community and work in all artistic fields. Through our words, music,
films, dance, paintings and plays, in every language on earth, we
entertain, inform and engage our fellow citizens in the adventure of
being human.
It
is an exciting time to be an artist. Technologies can overcome physical
distance and allow our works to be shared more widely than ever before.
We have the potential to exchange and blend our rich diversity of
cultural practices in ways our ancestors could only imagine.
It
is also a dangerous time. Many human conflicts arise from a failure
to recognize cultural complexities or from perceived threats to cultural
values. The road to security and prosperity requires that we celebrate
and encourage our cultural diversity and embrace and respect our
cultural differences.
Some
believe artistic creations are no different from conventional goods and
services and they deny or ignore the powerful cultural importance of
works of the human imagination. For some of the world’s largest
corporations, artistic works are commodities to be bought and sold like
any other. They seek to dominate the world’s markets with homogenized
forms of popular culture and thus marginalize artists in many of our
communities.
Our
world of unequal economic relationships has created unequal cultural
relationships. We believe governments have a responsibility to
resist the economic push by implementing policies that support diverse
local artists and cultural producers, and ensure pluralism in the media
and the arts. This will create more choice and bring about a greater
balance in exchange between cultures. Governments must also preserve
threatened cultures and languages, especially those of indigenous
peoples.
An
important struggle between these incompatible visions is underway in
trade negotiations. Trade officials negotiate rules that would hasten a
global monoculture and make it virtually impossible for communities to
support their artists. We oppose these efforts.
At
the same time, discussions have started within and outside UNESCO to
develop a new global Convention on Cultural Diversity to provide a legal
foundation for government measures that support cultural diversity and
to encourage governments to use that authority domestically. We
support this initiative.
As
artists, we come from different disciplines; as citizens, we come from
different countries.
But,
we are united in our call to the world’s leaders:
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don’t
bargain away culture in trade talks
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implement
a legally binding Convention on Cultural Diversity
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use
your powers to support diverse local artists and cultural producers
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help
those countries that don’t yet have the capacity to bring their
stories, music and other artistic expressions to audiences
everywhere.
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“I
do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be
stuffed. I want the cultures of all lands to be blown about my
house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet
by any.”
Mahatma
Gandhi, from the wall of his ashram at Ahmedabad.
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Mirella Barberio
luciano.severino@mbarberio.net
Copyright
© 2002 luciano severino, tutti i diritti riservati
Aggiornato il: 30 settembre 2007
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