Press Kit (August 30th/31st, 2012) - Goldmann Public Relations ...

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NEWTOPIA: The State of Human Rights Contemporary Arts Exhibition in Mechelen and Brussels 01.09. – 10.12.2012 in relation to the basic tenets of human rights. Many of these artists come from countries and geographies where human rights have been or still are a particularly pressing issue such as the Arab World, China, India, Latin America, South Africa and certain former Soviet countries such as Belarus or the Ukraine. However, the exhibition also explores the situation in the Western World in the post-1989, post-9/11 era, a time during which human rights seem to be increasingly disregarded, and hard earned civil liberties and social rights are currently under serious threat. NEWTOPIA’s partners include both Amnesty International as well as Human Rights Watch. II. BROAD PERSPECTIVE AND IN-DEPTH EXPLORATION OF RELATED TOPICS The exhibition traces the artistic responses to human rights issues especially since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, paying particular attention to the significant rise of human rights since the 1970s and their current state. It is divided into four chapters. The first chapter explores so-called ‘first-generation human rights’, which revolve around issues of freedom and participation in political life. Civil and political in nature, these aim to protect the individual from excesses of the state and to ensure participation in democratic processes. The works in this chapter will address issues such as freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, the right to a fair trial and the right to vote. The second chapter will focus on socalled ‘second-generation human rights’, which are social, economic, and cultural in nature and tied to the establishment of the welfare state, now increasingly under threat. They call for equal conditions and treatment of citizens. This chapter will include contributions by artists whose practice has focused on issues of work, housing and health care as well as social security and employment. The third chapter focuses on the current state of human rights, and on rights which are a response to post-war economic and geo-political developments such as decolonization, globalization, multiculturalism and the consolidation of global capitalism. These rights, known as ‘solidarity’ or ‘inclusion’ rights, go beyond the civil and social, covering a wide spectrum related to contemporary socio-political issues: minority rights, the rights of immigrants, asylum seekers and sans papiers; gay, lesbian and trans-gender rights, and the right to self-determination; the right to economic development; the right to a healthy environment and rights to clean land, air, water, natural resources and sustainability; the right to ‘difference’. 6
NEWTOPIA: The State of Human Rights Contemporary Arts Exhibition in Mechelen and Brussels 01.09. – 10.12.2012 III. MECHELEN AS CONTEXT NEWTOPIA: The State of Human Rights takes place in various cultural institutions in the historic city of Mechelen – a city whose roots in humanist tradition make it an appropriate context. The highly lucrative cloth trade gained Mechelen wealth and power during the late Middle Ages and it even became the capital of the Low Countries (very roughly, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg) in the first half of the 16th century (1506 - 1530) under Archduchess Margaret of Austria, a period of economic and cultural prosperity which left the city with a large number of sites and monuments. A lot of them are now on the UNESCO world heritage list. During this time, the court of Margaret of Austria was also frequented by notable humanists such as Erasmus and Thomas Moore, who also consulted her famous library. Prior to that, in the 15th century, the city came under the rule of the Dukes of Burgundy, marking the beginning of this prosperous period. During the 16th century the city's political influence began to decrease, due to many governmental institutions being moved to Brussels. The city compensated for this loss of secular influence by increased attention in the religious arena: in 1559 it was proclaimed the Archdiocese of Mechelen for Belgium, not sharing this title with Brussels until 1961. It still remains the religious capital of Belgium. The city entered the industrial age in the 19th century. In 1835 the first railway on the European continent linked Brussels with Mechelen, which became the hub of the Belgian railway network. This led to the development of metalworking industries, including the central railway workshops, which are still located in the town today. During World War II, the extensive Mechelen railway infrastructure led the Nazi occupation forces to choose Mechelen for the infamous transit camp – the Dossin Barracks – from which 26,053 Jews, Roma and Sinti were deported to the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps. In the end of the year 2012, Mechelen will open the Dossin Barracks Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre on the Holocaust and Human Rights. IV. VENUES NEWTOPIA is configured in the form of a parcours that will entail a rich combination of historical and cutting-edge art, all easily accessible by foot in the city centre. It will take place in some of Mechelen’s prominent cultural institutions, including Mechelen Cultural Centre, Lamot Conference and Heritage Centre, the Old Mechelen Meat Market, the City Museum Hof Van Busleyden, Scheppers Institute and the Academy of Fine Arts, as well as public space. NEWTOPIA will also feature a satellite exhibition in Brussels at ING Cultural Centre in the heart of the city. 7
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