di Edoardo Malagigi
09 Marzo 2005
Edoardo Malagigi visited Afghanistan to research the working conditions of artists there. Here, he reports on some of the issues affecting artists living there, and on the planned Centre for Contemporary Art in Afghanistan, Kabul.
When a country’s identity and people have been defaced by war, it’s hard to imagine where to start recovering dignity. Perhaps one of the most startling truths emerging from this recovery process, is the role that art and culture play in reconnecting people to their core by rediscovering dignity beyond survival, towards freedom of expression and creative engagement with one’s own community. In this respect, art can often reach where politics can’t.
As part of my collaboration with Afghan artists and local Ministry of Culture officials, I was invited to lead workshops at the Faculty of Fine Arts and to visit the UN-led, School of Hope, both in Kabul, to assess the possibilities of contemporary art regeneration in Afghanistan. What I saw gave me sufficient motivation to try to independently explore the possibility of a project that could help rebuild what war had taken away in terms of cultural expression.
From the first few days, it was obvious that the country’s education system was in need of modernisation, particularly in the artistic department. Currently Afghanistan has four art institutions: two Fine Arts faculties located in Kabul and in Herat, which are subsidiaries of the Ministry of Higher Education; the Fine Arts school in Kabul, connected to the Ministry of Education, and an after-school arts programme for all ages in Kabul, which is part of the Ministry of Culture and Information.
University students enter college through a competition and then, just like it happened in the military service in the 1950s, they are allotted a campus and a faculty. Few will be taught what they would have felt like studying; it’s easy to predict that, as a result, few will love their job later on. Art students in Afghanistan are fighting the prospect of becoming artists only by a whim of the local bureaucracy. In this culture, teachers are viewed as sages, rather than professionals delivering a service.
Women and the liberation of customs are the true revolution in this quickly evolving country. I met with women’s associations, where the need for self-sufficient enterprise is coupled with an incredible use of irony, especially in areas where gender equality is actively and politically promoted.
The will for knowledge and the drive to share experiences with the West is highest among students and young artists alike; speaking in classrooms with veiled girls sitting on chairs on one side and boys in jeans crouching on the carpet on the other side, we debated the issues artists deal with in Afghanistan.
It is a country where the average life expectancy is forty-six; with fifty per cent being less than eighteen and seventy per cent less than twenty-five, it’s the place with the world’s youngest population. In 1970, fifty per cent of the population was illiterate; this figure is currently eighty-six per cent. In Kabul people have been exposed to conflict and hardship; sixty per cent of households do not have electricity or running water.
Many young artists from various ethnic and cultural backgrounds are engaged in developing local and global cultural progress, through individual expression touching upon everyday life as well as the wider implications of the recent war. Artists in Afghanistan respond to their country’s current issues, but they feel the need to have a more solid base in order to contribute effectively and responsibly to Afghan and international culture. They need to have the means and possibility to communicate on an artistic level, cross-culturally from within Afghanistan and towards other countries.
As a result of these discussions, my visit to Afghanistan generated two distinct outcomes: the first was to assemble a body of work with a number of young artists exploring current issues of cultural displacement. With artists and organisers Rahraw Omerzad, Sislej Xhafa, Roya Ghiasy, Hashem Shareq, and Frederic Levrat, young artists Mohammad Hamid, Humayoon Omari and Sohrab Eshaq Zai had the opportunity to work with adequate equipment and technical support, which allowed them to feel free to explore every creative possibility necessary for their pieces. This led to the creation of new work on the themes of social change and the conflict between the pressure from the West and the reality of Afghanistan.
The second outcome was to find a place for this work, which eventually emerged as a collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and Information, to constitute the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Afghanistan (CCAA) in Kabul, a place that will be used for exhibitions, archives, workshops and as an interface with the current arts education system. The Centre will organise workshops and lectures by various national and international contemporary artists, designers, writers, critics, curators, anthropologists, sociologists and architects. The CCAA will also offer media support and an international residency programme functioning as a catalyst of cultural exchange amongst Afghan artists and with other countries. At present, there is a need to find artists and professionals willing to share their knowledge and experience in exchange for a part to play in the cultural renaissance of a whole country.
Art is a major force in helping to influence a culture’s progress as well as questioning and shaping social awareness. Throughout my stay, there was a strong sense that Afghan artists and people believe in art as the first step of post-war regeneration.
This article was first published in a-n Magazine, December 2004.' and would be nice to have something like 'a-n The Artists Information Company, a UK visual arts organisation publishes a-n Magazine and www.a-n.co.uk
Riportiamo di seguito in italiano una parziale rielaborazione dell'articolo:
In Afghanistan si soffre per motivi diversi, uno dei quali l’obsolescenza rende evidente quanto sia necessario un rinnovamento delle strutture formative, e in particolare dell’istruzione artistica: gli studenti entrano all’università per concorso e poi, come per i militari italiani di cinquanta anni fa, vengono loro attribuite sede e facoltà.
Nessuno si specializzerà su quello che sente di voler fare, si potrebbe facilmente dire che nessuno amerà in seguito il proprio lavoro; gli studenti d’arte stanno lottando per combattere l’idea che si diventi artisti per volontà amministrativa. Gli insegnanti sono considerati dei saggi e basta, non personale competente erogatore di un servizio, e si soffre ancora di cultura tribal-sovietica.
Le donne e la liberazione dei costumi sono la vera rivoluzione in questo paese, che si evolve man mano che metaforicamente si svela, man mano che si esprime in trasparenza. Gli incontri con le associazioni di donne sono sintomatici; il bisogno di autonomia d’impresa si coniuga con l’incredibile uso dell’ironia, proprio nelle aree ideali dove anche politicamente viene spinta la parità fra i sessi.
La voglia di conoscere e di fare esperienze con l’occidente fra gli studenti è altissima, e fa tenerezza parlare in aule dove da un lato stanno sedie con ragazze (con velo) e dall’altro tappeti con ragazzi in jeans. E’ eclatante che l’età media sia di 46 anni, il 50% abbia meno di 18 anni e il 70%meno di 25; è il luogo con la popolazione più giovane al mondo e soltanto il 14% sa leggere e scrivere, il 60% della città non riceve corrente elettrica e acqua, eppure nel 1970 l’analfabetismo era al 50%.
L’invito a fare due lezioni alla Facoltà di Belle Arti di Kabul e visitare le scuole della “School of Hope” mi hanno dato motivazioni sufficenti a muovermi con autonomia anche per esplorare la possibilità di realizzare un progetto d'aiuto ai bambini a cui guerra e luoghi comuni hanno rapito il gioco e il sorriso. Durante quelle giornate ci sono stati sia i contributi al Workshop che la stesura del progetto del Centro d’Arte; due temi che mi parvero subito un’emergenza culturale, un aiuto per spingere una situazione nascente e implementare relazioni fra l’interno e l’esterno del paese, fra civiltà diverse.
Avrei così ripercorso il principio, secondo il quale l’arte e la cultura possono fare quello che la politica non sa fare; forse una bella utopia, che voglio perseguire.
Così è stato e mi sono reso disponibile ad incontri ed elaborazioni di progetti, nel tentativo di costituire con Rahraw Omerzad, Sislej Xhafa, Roya Ghiasy, Hashem Shareq, Frederic Levrat e tre giovani artisti Mohammad Hamid, Humayoon Omari e Sohrab Eshaq Zai un primo corpo di opere che esprimessero istanze di cambiamento, una bandiera di libertà e di rinascita in un paese difficile e martoriato dai conflitti.
Utile anche la collaborazione con il Ministro della cultura e dell’informazione, nell’intento di costituire un contenitore fisico adibito ad esposizioni, archivio, meeting e che abbia anche la funzione di scambio culturale fra realtà artistiche diverse dello stesso paese.
Editing a cura di Indire Comunicazione
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