Maria KalesnikavaFlutist and resistance fighter imprisoned in Belarus

Editorial 03.11.2021

In this period when the Covid 19 pandemic has disrupted our lives, our families, our professions and has limited our individual freedoms for the good of all, artists, whose resources and working conditions have been severely affected by this crisis, have shared concerts, shows and films, most often without compensation. All over the world, they continued to create.
During this difficult period, they had to endure, in addition to these health disorders, oppression, disgrace, arrests, imprisonment, unfair trials, and, in the best of cases, dismissal.
This tendency towards violence and coercion by the growing number of authoritarian regimes to muzzle artists has increased in recent years, while at the same time the possibilities of informing oneself, sharing knowledge and cultural goods have been increased by social networks and digital tools. A trend that is also felt in our liberal democracies.

They are everywhere, near and far, men, women, young and old, unknown or famous. They play music, sing, go on stage, dance, make films, draw, write books in conditions where every word, every sound, every image is torn from the shadows and anguish.

Hémisphère son is an independent and friendly space where artistic freedom is celebrated and where the diversity of all cultural expressions is encouraged.

I would like to remind myself today that "artistic freedom is the freedom to imagine, create and distribute diverse cultural expressions without government censorship, political interference or pressure from non-state actors. It includes the right of every citizen to access these works and is essential to the well-being of societies", according to the 2005 UNESCO Convention.
I would like to remind us that defending this freedom of artistic expression cannot be dissociated from defending the freedom of the people themselves.
And if Hémisphère son is not a political platform, I would like to take advantage of our chance to enjoy this freedom of expression, here and now, to make visible their disarray and their resistance

In particular, I would like to mention the fate of Maria Kalesnikava, one of 82 artists imprisoned this year.

Maria Kalesnikava is a Belarusian musician and member of the opposition to President Alexander Lukashenko that formed during the 2020 protests.
Maria Kalesnikava was abducted on 7 September 2020 and forced into exile. She was forcibly taken to the Ukrainian border and arrested there after tearing up her passport. Like many others, she chose to stay in her country.
On 6 September, she was tried in camera and sentenced to 11 years' imprisonment for "plotting to seize power" and "calling for actions undermining national security".

A flutist trained at the Belarusian State Academy of Music, Maria Kalesnikava obtained two masters degrees in Stuttgart in 2012 and has since divided her career between her country and Germany. In 2017 she co-founded Artemp an art collective and in 2019 she became the artistic director of the OK16 cultural club in Minsk.

To support his action and courage, he has been awarded several prizes: the "Intrepid Speech" prize in Germany (Rhineland-Palatinate - 2020), the Sakharov Prize awarded by the European Parliament (2020), the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize 2021.
Vaclav Havel, a great resistance fighter and later President of the Czech Republic, has described very well in his book "The Power of the Powerless", the unsuspected power of civil society to build small alternative societies, music groups, sports associations, literary clubs, in the face of authoritarianism and censorship. 

Every day, initiatives in support of Maria are born: messages or postcards are published on her page #Freemariakalesnikava, concerts are organised on digital platforms, works are written and produced.

And since we are a music platform, I would like to mention two among many others:
" Dream House" by the Mixed Sound Personnel(Viktoriia Vitrenko, voice, music & Lucas Gerin, e-drums, music) feat. Pauline Drand (lyrics, music, voice & text) & Vj Yarkus (video art) in which her friends integrated Maria Kalesnikava's latest flute piece recorded in Stuttgart and electronically processed the voice of her last speeches.

And " à l'air libre ", a work for flute written by Frédéric Durieux, a French composer, to demand the release of Maria Kalesnikava. Consisting of several episodes added up over time as long as necessary, they will be published with the help of Ensemble Linea, La Poulie Production and will be played and recorded as they go along by flutist Keiko Murakami.
Hopefully this work will be as short as possible.
Started on 28 November 2021, here is episode 3 from 6 February 2022 :

Today I have spoken about Maria Kalesnikava but I could mention so many other names of artists like her who are persecuted, exiled, imprisoned such as: Ayesha Khan, Afghan singer, the Palestinian graphic designer Hafez Omar, the Kurdish singer Nüdem Durak or Maykel Osorbo rapper in Cuba, Ashraf Fayad poet living in Saudi Arabia, Shahriar Siroos Iranian painter or even the Spanish rapper Valtònyc in exile in Brussels

And since numbers can sometimes better illustrate what words are trying to say, I encourage you to visit the website of Freemuse (an independent international non-governmental organisation that defends freedom of artistic expression and cultural diversity - UNESCO) whose 2020 report is alarming.
A year in which 17 artists were killed, 82 people were imprisoned in 20 countries, 133 are detained in 23 countries, 107 are persecuted in 27 countries
Freemuse recorded 978 acts of artistic freedom violations in 89 countries and on the internet: 24% visual art, 24% music, 23% film, 12% literature, 9% theatre, 6% other art forms.
Which are distributed for 26% in Europe, 22% in North and South America, 19% in the Middle East and Maghreb, 15% in Asia and the Pacific, 9% in Africa, 9% on the internet.

Sandrine Maricot Despretz

LINKS :
Freemuse
Voiceproject
Unesco
Equaltimes

Photo © Wikipedia / Wikiwand

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