Inspired by an exhibition about AI-5 at Instituto Tomie Ohtake, I recommend websites discussing violations of freedom of expression
Amid all this electoral turbulence, can we still talk about art? We can. Even if it means talking about art and censorship…
I visited the exhibition AI-5 50 ANOS – Ainda não terminou de acabar, on view at Instituto Tomie Ohtake, which contributes to a discussion of the 50th anniversary of Institutional Act No. 5, AI-5, enacted in December 1968. Curated by Paulo Miyada, the exhibition uses the context of the visual arts to discuss the impact of the withdrawal of democratic rights on the country’s cultural imagination.
I will discuss the exhibition in detail in another column. Today, inspired by this show, which I already recommend, I suggest some websites devoted to the relationship between art and censorship.
Art and censorship on the Internet
I begin with File Room, by multimedia artist Muntadas. Begun in 1994, the project is also one of the earliest works of net art. The website is a collaborative database. It archives cases of censorship in the arts, provides definitions of censorship, and offers an extensive bibliography on the subject.
http://archive.rhizome.org/anthology/thefileroom.html
Essential to gaining a global perspective on censorship in the arts is the website of the NGO Freemuse. There you will find all kinds of legal resources to combat censorship. It features news and a repository organized by country, mapping and describing cases around the world, including Brazil. Freemuse also has a publications section. This includes a very detailed report on the state of artistic censorship in 2018. The report analyzes more than 500 cases of violations of freedom of expression from 2017.
https://freemuse.org/
One website I consider very important is a directory listing banned books—from children’s books to the classics—maintained by the Arizona university library. It provides several other resources, such as anti-censorship Twitter accounts, an excellent compass for understanding attempts to control art and thought on the Internet and around the world.
https://libguides.asu.edu/c.php?g=718504&p=5116824
In Brazil
In Brazil, I highlight Memórias da Ditadura, produced by Vlado Educação, part of Instituto Vladimir Herzog. The website offers a range of educational tools and has a section devoted to art and culture, covering music, cinema, theater, and the visual arts. It also links to films such as Tropicália (2012) by Marcelo Machado, and texts such as “Esquema Geral da Nova Objetividade,” by Hélio Oiticica (1967).
http://memoriasdaditadura.org.br/panorama-de-arte-e-cultura/index.html
Finally, I recommend the Argentine website Memoria Abierta, which has a meticulous catalog of films portraying the country’s violent dictatorship and its transition to democracy. The catalog also includes pro-regime films and specific themes, such as sites of repression, the Falklands/Malvinas War, and dictatorship in the classroom.
http://www.memoriaabierta.org.ar/ladictaduraenelcine/index.html
Image: Claudio Tozzi. Guevara Vivo ou Morto. 1967.
Transcript of Giselle Beiguelman’s Ouvir Imagens column, broadcast every Monday at 8 a.m. on Rádio USP (93.7).
Access the playlist with all audio recordings of the Ouvir Imagens column on Rádio USP | Read all transcripts and posts.