Freemuse on freeDimensional

Dispatch: Mazen Maarouf on 'All that is banned is desired"

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

When art turns into a reflexive power, to get banned!

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In the Norwegian capital sleeps on the shoulder of water Oslo opera house. It is a peaceful structure breathing below a changeable weather that displays simply the “unexpected”, the “percussive” and the “unrest”. The weather of Oslo resembles a state of instability. Political in the first sense and in a country somewhere, thousands of miles away from Oslo city. The “unexpected”, the “percussive” and the “unrest” are three vertices, each of particular dimension, that induce a temptation into the artist/writer/activist to move within and try to come up with a result. Yes, if these three vertices got joined together in a triangle, nothing can fit inside better than a chart of “politics of nowadays”. That may sort an elementary exercise in geometry. Is it easy to construct a triangle when the three points are located on the page? May be. A matter again to be thought about! Not that easy in fact. You have to cling in your neck a basket of requirements! Metaphorically speaking, to be able to connect the three vertices, you have to distinguish them first. And to be distinguished, an effort has to be done as they wouldn’t be located so clearly. And the medium that hosts them should be already existing, but either translucent, either turbid or dirty. However, you need also to track the “why” behind their location as well! Is that too complicated? The simplest way then, sounds to go backwards. If you know that the paper (the medium) we are talking about is nothing but the country, any country under political and military conflict, ethnic struggle, civil war, revolution, or any other kind of tension, then you can find your way to the “why” and you can understand how it means “translucent, turbid or dirty”. You will end up most probably pointing your finger to each of the vertices: the “unexpected”, the “percussive” and the “unstable”.

MUSIC, TOLERANCE & DEFIANCE - October 19, 6:30 PM

Sun, 14 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

MUSIC, TOLERANCE & DEFIANCE: An evening with Shahin Najafi & Mohsen Namjoo

Shahin Najafi and Mohsen Namjoo are among the leading Iranian musical artists working today.

Najafi is visiting the U.S. for the first time since the fatwa and death threats against him in May 2012 resulting from the release of his satirical rap, “Naghi.” His speaking tour includes Berkeley, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Orlando. In 2009, Namjoo was sentenced in absentia to five years in prison for insulting religious sanctities by singing some Quranic verses to music in a private recording, which was later released without his authorization.

fD @ Artsfex - Copenhagen Summit on Artistic Freedom of Expression, 9-11 December

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

fD joins the Artsfex summit in Copenhagen on 9-11 December 2011 along with several prominent national and international artists’ networks, and freedom of expression organisations. The summit is organised by Freemuse and Danish PEN, and funded by the Danish Ministry of Culture. Participants will present http://www.raybani.com/ recent examples of censorship of the arts, and discuss the effects of censorship and repression of artists. Featured presenters include founding members of the Belarus Free Theatre, currently living in exile.

fD participates in VI. Festival Against Censorship - November 7-11

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0000

fD program coordinator Sidd Joag joins a roundtable discussion at the VI. Festival Against Censorship in Bilbao, Spain. Now in its 6th year, the Festival is organized by the Basque production company Serrano in collaboration with FREEMUSE and in 2010 honored fD with its annual No Censorship award.

Highlights of this year’s Festival program include fD stakeholders: Malaysian cartoonist ZUNAR, and Zimbabwean artist Owen Maseko.

“Zunar has been drawing editorial cartoons for the past 20 years in malaysia. Zunar uses his drawing pen as a weapon to fight state corruption and abuse of power. seven of his books are banned by the malaysian government.”

A project we like: The Impossible Music Sessions

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

freeDimensional is now five years old. Whereas we have a particular way that we actualize art and social justice by hosting activists and culture workers-in-distress in the surplus (vacant) apartments of artist residencies, we often see amazing projects that inspire us, innovate and show new approaches to advocating freedom of thought and expression. The Impossible Music Sessions is just such an initiative! Here’s a clip about Session #3, a tribute to Lapiro de Mbanga, which happened on 16 November 2010 in Brooklyn, New York. Lapiro is Ray Ban outlet currently in prison in Cameroon on trumped up charges because he challenged the president in one of his songs; if you are interested in helping Lapiro keep his spirits up, look here. As you can see we have a new section where we feature projects we like such as The Impossible Music Sessions. We’ll feature a new one each quarter.

Abazar Hamid - Supporting Culture in the Face of Injustice {World Policy Blog #1}

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Abazar Hamid has a song hoping for peace in Darfur and a song with visions of a new Sudan—two subjects that the government won’t allow on the radio. Only his most innocuous tunes about love are allowed in public. All Hamid wants to do is reverse the deadly effects Hakama, the traditional Arab singers more locally known as the Janjaweed women, have on communities and on the conflict in Sudan. While Hamid sings about peace and love, Hakama singers go on about killing, raping and pillaging ethnic Africans.