13 May 19 | Awards, Fellowship, Fellowship 2019
After being jailed for her art, Kurdish journalist Zehra Doğan’s paint supplies were confiscated. She was charged with peddling terrorist propaganda when she drew a scene of a destroyed Kurdish-majority city in southern Turkey. In prison, she asked fellow inmates to give her their menstrual blood to use as paint. Meanwhile, she had the support of activists around the world. Graffiti artist Banksy painted a mural in New York calling for her release. Listen to the podcast here.
07 May 19 | Awards, Fellowship, Fellowship 2019, Index in the Press
Zehra Doğan was released from prison on 24 February 2019. She was jailed over a painting she adapted from a Turkish army photograph where she depicted armored vehicles devouring civilians in her hometown, Nusaybin. She was denied access to painting materials while imprisoned and began making paint from fruit, spices, and blood, and used newspapers, letters and bed sheets as canvasses. She used feathers and her hair as paintbrushes. Zehra also taught other prisoners to paint and use alternative materials. Her situation was noticed by acclaimed artists: Banksy who painted a large mural for her in New York and Ai Wei Wei who sent her a letter in solidarity. Doğan recently won the Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Arts Award and is a Writer in Residence with English Pen. Read the article in full.
03 May 19 | Awards, Fellowship, Fellowship 2019
Today marks World Press Freedom Day. Around the world, hundreds of journalists are imprisoned for doing their jobs, and the highest number is in Turkey – according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Zehra Doğan, a Kurdish journalist and artist, was sentenced to nearly three years in a Turkish jail for painting a picture. Her story gained worldwide attention in 2018 after Banksy drew a mural calling for her release. See the video here.
03 May 19 | Events
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When: 21-25 May, 12-6pm
Where: Tate Exchange, Bankside, London SE1 9TG
Tickets: Free entry
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]In Who Are We? attendees move across Tate Exchange through commissioned installations, symposia, and participatory workshops exploring living archives, the power of popular culture and crossing borders; migration, mobility and citizenship; and the politics of cultural policy, language diversity and translation. Take part in Learning Labs focusing on the increasing restrictions on artists’ rights and freedom of expression, the political potential of the neighbourhood-led co-operative commission, and the local/global re-building of arts/culture and civic infrastructures.
Throughout the week, Counterpoints Arts and The Open University will choreograph conversations with artists, cultural activists, academics and cultural hubs across the UK – with guest partners and participants from Beirut, Berlin, Casablanca, Dublin, Istanbul and Madrid – to explore the comparative processes of cultural democracy and new models for artistic production and collaborative, socially engaged practice.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”106883″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]
E Li Dû Man (Left behind)
Wars take away a lot from people. But sometimes they take away the people and leave their belongings behind.
As a journalist covering the clashes in Kurdish cities in Turkey, 2015 – 2016, Zehra Dogan took the small objects she found in the debris, as testimony of a war no one was talking about. This installation tells the stories of those who fled, via what they left behind. It also invites you into a conversation and to participate in the crafting and performance of stories about place and displacement.
E Li Dû Man (Left behind) will also house an experimental, participatory press room where Zehra and her collaborator, Ege Dundar, along with others will write content and co-produce with visitors a newspaper for artists and activists imprisoned in Turkey.
The installation will invite the visiting public to read the stories Zehra and fellow journalists documented, bearing witness to the displaced and those who lost their lives. Translation will play a key role in this installation. Co-Commissioned with Tate Exchange in collaboration with Index on Censorship, English PEN and PEN International.
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Artists Who Risk and Artists at Risk
Join us for a conversation on how artists can be activists
When: 25 May, 12-4pm
Where: Tate Exchange, Bankside, London SE1 9TG
Tickets: Free entry
There is a very fine line between artists who risk and artists at risk. This line is increasingly blurred as artists repeatedly step into risky territories in their practice, becoming political actors, activists, agitators and cultural agents. With artistic freedom threatened and restrictions on freedom of expression and state censorship on the rise, what ethical responsibility do art and civic organizations – large, medium and small – have in defending and protecting the rights of artists they have commissioned? This is especially true for those working with more vulnerable communities. Where are the local and global lines of solidarity between artists, arts organisations, advocacy, audiences, cultural policy, funders and grassroots communities?
A number of international artists — including Zehra Doğan — and organisations whose work has involved them in different kinds of risk will be joined in person and via Skype by a range of actors working in this field: English PEN, Index on Censorship, International Rights and Arts Advisors and Artists at Risk Connection.
This conversation takes place as part of Counterpoints Arts’ Learning Lab Programme in partnership with Tate Exchange.
[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”106635″ img_size=”full” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://counterpointsarts.org.uk/”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”106636″ img_size=”full” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.open.ac.uk/”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”106645″ img_size=”full” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.tate.org.uk/”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]In partnership with[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”106637″ img_size=”full” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.britishcouncil.org/”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”106638″ img_size=”full” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.plymouthart.ac.uk/”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”102960″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”106639″ img_size=”full” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.englishpen.org/”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row]
