Artists for Roja­va is a project that aims, first of all, at rein­forc­ing the social and cul­tur­al role of art in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the Kur­dish peo­ple and, sec­ond­ly, at pro­mot­ing con­tem­po­rary cul­ture and visu­al arts.


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Artists for Roja­va explains the ori­gin of the project in the fol­low­ing terms:

The first action was born with the hold­ing of an ephemer­al land art inter­ven­tion on Octo­ber 13 2019 on the beach in Bar­let­ta: “Save Rojava”.

Fol­low­ing this, with the mem­ber­shp of DeriveMet­ro­pol­i­tane we took part in oth­er events in Italy and abroad…

rojava

The asso­ci­a­tion has launched an appeal invit­ing artists to “an urgent ges­ture of solidarity”

The sub­scribers to this appeal accept with­out reser­va­tion the “Appeal from Roja­va and Kobanê Uni­ver­si­ties” and hope that every pos­si­ble mea­sure be tak­en imme­di­ate­ly to put an end to the mil­i­tary esca­la­tion in North­ern Kur­dis­tan. We hope that sta­ble insti­tu­tion­al rela­tion­ships with the Kur­dish com­mu­ni­ty will be encour­aged so that it may be clear that artists, the artis­tic world and that of cul­ture, active­ly oppose the vio­lence tak­ing place in those places, under­stand what an extra­or­di­nary gar­ri­son for free­dom they rep­re­sent and can still rep­re­sent as those who resist while con­tin­u­ing to study, to teach and to pro­duce art.

Remain­ing indif­fer­ent to the events is impossible

It is a ges­ture of active sol­i­dar­i­ty the urgency of which we feel keen­ly. We think it is nec­es­sary to adopt a rad­i­cal posi­tion against the war Erdo­gan and Turkey are con­duct­ing unjust­ly, with no scru­ples, pro­ceed­ing to the mas­sacre of a peo­ple resist­ing, blow for blow, in order to defend its inhab­i­tants and its lands.

Rojava

Art and cul­ture can­not remain impas­sive in front of the war and the attempt to put an end to one of the rare cur­rent exper­i­ments in rad­i­cal democ­ra­cy. If there is one con­tri­bu­tion that artists, design­ers and cul­tur­al providers can con­tribute when faced with these sce­nar­ios, it is that of con­tribut­ing to the cre­ation of empa­thy and con­science, by sup­port­ing also on the finan­cial lev­el projects such as that of a mobile clin­ic trav­el­ing from one region of Syr­ia ato anoth­er every day to pro­vide treat­ment to the inno­cent vic­tims of an unjust mas­sacre. The strug­gle of the Kur­dish peo­ple against ISIS these last few years inspired books, car­toons, songs, films, sto­ries that short­ened the dis­tances sep­a­rat­ing us from these ter­ri­to­ries and involved a num­ber of per­sons in sup­port and sol­i­dar­i­ty initiatives.

More than ever, we must con­tin­ue to feed the imag­i­na­tion in order to give strength and col­lec­tive sup­port to this resis­tance. We hope that the Itan­lian gov­ern­ment and the Euro­pean States will take mea­sures to end this mas­sacre, by demand­ing not only the imme­di­ate end of the sale of weapons to Turkey, but also the imple­men­ta­tion of all nec­es­sary polit­i­cal and diplo­mat­ic instru­ments, the redis­cus­sion of eco­nom­ic and com­mer­cial agree­ments and, in time, the pro­mo­tion of the cre­ation of a “No Fly” zone in order to stop the bomb­ings and cre­ate human­i­tar­i­an cor­ri­dors allow­ing for the care and secu­ri­ty of civilians.

We also demand that the Ital­ian gov­ern­ment hon­our its com­mit­ments by ceas­ing the expor­ta­tion of weapons toward Turkey, as have done Den­mark, Nor­way, Fin­land, Swe­den, the Nether­lands, France and Germany.

Art as an instru­ment of sol­i­dar­i­ty. What does this mean? 

Artists will donate a work express­ing their sol­i­dar­i­ty with the Kur­dish peo­ple. Par­tic­i­pa­tion in this event is free of charge as it must be acces­si­ble and afford­able for all.

The work pro­posed will have to be select­ed by the cura­tor. Thanks to the syn­er­gy between the dif­fer­ent inter­venors – cre­ators, sup­port­ers, artists – and the rela­tion­ship with rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Kur­dish com­mu­ni­ty, “Artists for Roja­va” will involve cit­i­zens in the project with ini­tia­tives aimed at broad­cast­ing events through­out the town mak­ing the fundrais­ing known through a num­ber of dif­fer­ent ini­tia­tives : exhi­bi­tions, cat­a­logues, galeries on the site of the project, sale of works dur­ing the exhi­bi­tion and online…But also the pre­sen­ta­tion of books and videos, con­fer­ences, as well as con­certs and con­vivial events…

Exhi­bi­tion cura­tor: Alfio Cangiani
Venue: Ex Palaz­zo delle Poste in Bari
Pur­chas­es:
— On eBay
— Through phone reser­va­tion at 330400920 – Gior­gio Skoff. One of our mem­bers will be on hand at the exhi­bi­tion at the fol­low­ing times: Wednes­day 18h/19:30 and Sat­ur­day 11h/12h and 18:30/20h.
— Dur­ing the auc­tion to be held on Feb­ru­ary 26 at the Ex Palaz­zo delle Poste, Piaz­za Ces­sare Bat­tisti 1, start­ing at 18:30.

All the works sold will be deliv­ered to the pur­chasers at the end of the exhi­bi­tion and after final payment.

Program of Events

Let’s spread solidarity!

From Jan­u­ary 22 to Feb­ru­ary 29 2020 in Bari, Ex Palaz­zo delle Poste, Uni­ver­sità degli Stu­di di Bari. Piaz­za Cesare Bat­tisti 1 Bari.
Press Con­fer­ence: Casa delle Cul­ture. Via Barisano da Trani, Bari.
Par­al­lel events: Offic­i­na degli Esor­di. Via Crispi Bari.
Infor­ma­tion: Urban Cen­ter and Cham­ber of Commerce
Con­tact: Giro­gio Skoff 330400920 / info@artistsfor rojava.org

Artists for Rojava
www.artistsforrojava.org | contact | Facebook 

Events in detail…

Exhibition: From Saturday February 1st to Saturday February 29 2020, from 8h30 to 21h30 every day from Monday to Saturday. Ex Palazzo delle Poste, Piazza Cesare Battisti 1, Bari
Saturday February 1st starting at 18h30 Inauguration. Apérritif offered by Buo’. Show by Vittorino Curci, poetry reading and music.
Friday February 7 starting at 20h30. Rap Concert Fatti di
China.
Friday February 14 starting at 20h30, Graphic performance, Fatti di China.
Saturday February 29 from 16h30 to 21h30. Closing event around the auction, concert of Kurdish music, apéritif.

CONFERENCES AND DEBATES

    • Tuesday February 4 from 18h30 to 20h30 / Main Post Office.
      Metropolitan Drifts present : a Conference on “Art and Politics” with Giorgio Skoff (creator of the exhibition), Alfio Cangiani (exhibition curator), Bernardo Bruno (artist exhibitor for Rojava) Puglia Kurdistan Network, Mirella Casamassima (art historian), Vittorino Curci (writer and visual artist)
    • Friday February 7 from 18h30 to 20h30/ Palazzo delle Poste
      Giovani Comunisti/e presents: a Conference on “Democratic Confederalism, from Abdullah Öcalan’s theory to autonomous practices in Rojava”. With Yilmaz Orkan (coordinator UIK-ONLUS), Moderator: Fabio Fronterré, (Puglia Kurdistan Network)
    • Friday February 14 from 18h30 to 20h30/ Palazzo Delle Poste
      La Rifondazione Comunista presents: a Conference on “Rojava, a Stateless democracy”. With Eleonora Forenza, Haskar Kirmizigul (responsible for the Jineology Committee in Europe and member of the Kurdish Women’s movement). Moderator: Imma Barbarossa.

Translation by Renée Lucie Bourges
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