#RiskandRebellion

In many parts of the world, artists and curators are targets of politically motivated threats and persecution. »Artists at Risk (AR)« is an international program that advocates for them at the intersection of human rights and art.

On January 24, the eve of the anniversary of two key movements that reverberated around the world, »Artists at Risk« (AR) is hosting the #RiskandRebellion symposium to kick-off a new Creative Europe project, streamed through and across the networks of the AR-ENSH Partner Institutions.

The event with interventions by artists, activists, theorists and figures in human rights from around the globe is dedicated to:

• The 10^th anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution of January 25, 2011;
• The 20^th anniversary of the World Social Forum (WSF);
• Artists, ecologists and activists putting their lives at risk.

#RiskandRebellion PROGRAM

#RiskandRebellion is a symposium about what it takes to face a world in crisis: the perilous structural imbalances under a current system that exhibits a degree of economic inequality comparable to pre-revolutionary Ancien Régime France; still deeply entrenched gender, ethno-racial and geopolitical inequalities; the ongoing failures of mainstream environmentalism and the reality of extractivist development politics and forms of neo-colonialism; and, politically, the rise of the »nationalist international« – the club of Trump, Xi, Putin, Modi, Erdogan, Bolsanaro, Sissi, Netanyahu, Orban… –  and the weakness of sustained counter-movements. All of these forces have profoundly negative effects on basic human rights and liberties. Systemic crises – such as the near-collapse of the world financial system in 2008, or the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 – make them all the more acute. 

Both the rebellious movement of the World Social Forum, founded in January 2001, and the uprisings around the world beginning circa January 2011 arose in response to related intersectional crises. We may choose to see them and countless other movements as all of the same historical cloth: rebelling against corruption and authoritarian impunity.

The fundamental questions to be addressed today are much the same. Has anything changed? Can movements of peoples previously subjected to colonial rule, of which Black Lives Matter is only the most visible, initiate major shifts in the social, physical and mental infrastructures of oppression inherited from (European) colonialism? Can Fridays for Future and Extinction Rebellion, and the countless, often invisible environmental battles of indigenious groups, mobilize enough political energy to finally make big business and politics change its suicidal and ecocidal course? Can ongoing anti-government protests in countries like Belarus, Thailand, Hong Kong, or India regain their rights and remake their countries?

The streamed symposium of #RiskandRebellion on January 24, 2021 starts at 3 pm and includes multiple artistic interventions, speakers from academia, the arts, theory and activism (e.g. WSF, Extinction Rebellion) and leading figures in the field of human rights. It will culminate at 7 pm in the concert by Ramy Essam – known as the »voice of Tahrir Square«.
January 25, the anniversaries of the Egyptian Revolution and WSF, will be met on the ground: from activities by AR-Network members, to protests by Helsinki’s WSF members in Pirkkola Forest, to undisclosed actions by Extinction Rebellion, to the streets of Cairo.

Register on Eventbrite to participate in the plenary discussions, or comment via the Telegram Channel: https://t.me/artistsatrisk.

#RiskandRebellion is a sequel of the »Re-Aligned Project« and the kick-off of »Artists at Risk (AR) – A European Network of Safe Havens« (AR-ENSH), a Creative Europe project co-funded by the European Union.