The Association of Visual Artists in Portugal considers that the board of directors of the Centro Cultural de Belém (CCB) “compromises the entire cultural program presented there” by having rented a room to a foundation of European far-right parties.
At issue is the holding, on the 17th, at the CCB Congress and Meetings Center of the first meeting of the Patriots Foundation, which brings together “the European far-right parties led by Viktor Orban, Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, Santiago Abascal or André Ventura”, lists the AAVP statement, issued today and signed by the three members of the board.
“What criteria superintended this reception?”, asks the AAVP in the statement, further questioning: “Does a public entity, with a cultural scope, such as the CCB validate the occupation-rental of a public space only from a commercial and possibly partisan perspective, completely alienating itself from what is presented there?”
For the Association, the “CCB administration cannot respond laconically that it governs ‘its commercial policy by principles of respect for legality, freedom and tolerance’”.
For AAVOP, the CCB’s response seems “a fallacious and insufficient argument”, particularly when it comes to “the promotion and dissemination of ideas that exactly promote the degradation of freedom and tolerance”.
“And we must not forget that the CCB was built to be the seat of the Presidency of the European Union, in 1992, a place to welcome democratic values”, highlights the statement from the AAVP management.
To justify what it supports, the association transcribes an excerpt from the program that the Patriots for Europe Foundation discussed and defended at the CCB, in which it considers “a suffocating tightening of ideology [que define como]’woke’”, claiming it erodes the “foundations of freedom of expression and national identity”, and challenging “Europe’s true defenders to resist cultural commissars and reclaim the right to tell unfiltered truths.”
“The CCB’s board of directors thus compromises, with these types of decisions, the entire cultural program that is presented there, putting into question the democratic values and cultural valorization that it intends to transmit to the outside and to society”, maintains the AAVP statement, stressing that “it cannot be complacent with these situations”.
“In this turbulent world in which we live, we are daily confronted with news that testifies to the advancement of these threatening speeches and gestures of sectarianism, whether in the functioning of institutions or in the revisionism they try to implement in cultural spaces”, adds the AAVP, warning that we “have to be alert”.
“The lessons of history show how cyclically there have been attacks on freedom of expression which resulted in the rise of authoritarian ideologies and consequent dictatorial regimes”, adds the Association, considering that the CCB administration “has an ethical commitment to the professionals who work at the CCB, to artists from various areas, to programmers and producers, to the public that visits the exhibitions and fills the concert halls”,
The Association emphasizes that “it cannot tolerate this type of political appropriation of a radically contrary sign of a cultural space which, in a democracy, is a place where freedom of creation, where diversity and inclusion are first and fundamental values”
And he claims to “not want” a public space where the basic principles of freedom are questioned and distorted by populist speeches, new nationalist narratives, manipulating the truth to try to win with the weapon of demagoguery.”
“The Portuguese State and the current CCB board of directors have a duty to distance themselves, clearly guaranteeing that similar situations cannot happen again; they advocate, adding that culture “is a space for creation and discussion, a platform to talk about human rights, democracy, pluralism, tolerance, equality”.
“The AAVP repudiates any type of speech that weakens and distorts the values of freedom and democracy” and, as a representative structure of visual artists, “publicly expresses the concerns of numerous artists, having also refused the invitation to participate in the Culture Forum organized by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, held today at the CCB”.
With AAVP members present at the Avenida 211 exhibition, opening on Friday at the Museum of Contemporary Art/CCB, the association concludes the statement by expressing “the discomfort that some of these artists feel when presenting their work in a cultural space that welcomed promoters of an ideology that seeks to interfere and manipulate the free thinking of creators”.
The first reaction to the holding of the Patriots Foundation meeting at the CCB came from director Pedro Penim, on Saturday, who publicly separated himself from the CCB administration, citing reasons of “institutional coherence, but also personal and political integrity”.
Speaking to Lusa, Penim stressed that he “hoped” that the CCB board of directors would take a stand “for having hosted that Patriots Foundation meeting.
For its part, also on Monday, the CCB board of directors told the Lusa agency that “the event in question occurred following the rental of a room at the CCB Congress and Meeting Center, to hold a private event, the specific content of which was not known”.
“The CCB Congress and Meetings Center holds dozens of private events every month promoted by third-party entities and has been operating in the events market since its foundation in 1993, motivated by the holding of the first Portuguese Presidency of the European Union, enjoying great prestige as a service provider in this area, and governing its commercial policy by principles of respect for legality, freedom and tolerance”, adds the note from the CCB administration.
For Pedro Penim, the holding, on Friday, at the CCB, “of an event promoted by the so-called Patriots Foundation, publicized by Chega and with the presence of far-right figures, transforms a public cultural space into a platform for institutional legitimization of speeches that deny the values of freedom and equality”.
The Patriots Foundation conference, under the theme “The great pushbak — Freedoom first”, was publicized by Chega’s MEP, António Tanger Corrêa, who in different ‘posts’ on the social networks X and Instagram praised “the first conference in Portugal of the Patriots Foundation”, with the statement that “the green deal is to be suspended”: “The Great Pushback starts now! Stay tuned – this is just the beginning!”
The Patriots Foundation, which brings together MEPs from the Patriots for Europe group of the European Parliament, of which Chega is a member, presents itself on its website as “a European political foundation”, in opposition to “any transfer of national sovereignty to supranational bodies and/or European institutions”.
On its website, it has publications about what it calls “neo-feminism” as a threat to women’s safety, immigration control as a “great challenge for Europe to overcome” and, as an example of how press freedom is at risk in Western countries, the prevalence of criticism of Viktor Orbán’s government and its authoritarianism, in power in Hungary since 2010.
Pedro Penim, who is also artistic director of the Teatro Nacional D. Maria II, told Lusa on Monday that his position “is a very personal thing, but it has implications.” Asked whether his personal opinion meant not taking TNDM shows to that cultural center, Pedro Penim said that “there is no plan for TNDM to hold shows at the CCB”.
For Pedro Penim, “it is necessary, in some way, some justification (…) minimally acceptable for what happened”. “Therefore, for now there is no further implication other than this personal implication of publicly distancing myself from the CCB’s activities.”
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