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Welcome to the celebrations for World Art Day and the 75th anniversary of The Swedish Artists National Organisation (KRO) at Moderna Museet. A party with cake artworks by Peter Johansson, Lisa Jonasson, Marianne Lindberg De Geer, Makode Aj Linde and Galleri Syster. Afterwards, a panel discussion on the fight against censorship and for the freedom of art with well-known names from the international artscene.

13: The beginning of World Art Day Where the artist-designed cakes are admired and eaten. Level 2 between the auditorium and Pontus Hultén Study Gallery.
14: Introduction by Daniel Birnbaum, Museum Director of Moderna Museet, the Minister for Culture Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth, Karin Willén, Chairman of KRO and Pontus Raud, Vice-President of the European section of the International Association of Art.
15-17.30: The Fight against Censorship and for the Freedom of Art, a panel discussion in English. Guests: Tania Bruguera, artist from Cuba, Niilofur Farrukh, editor of the art magazine NuktaArt in Pakistan and Marina Naprushkina, artist from Belarus. Christian Chambert, Chairman of Svenska Konstkritikersamfundet will launch the discussion. Moderator: Sophie Allgårdh, art critic for the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet and Vice-Chairman of Svenska Konstkritikersamfundet.
17.30–20: Bar and mingle.

RSVP by April 14 for the cake party: worldartday@kro.se
Free admission to World Art Day and panel discussion (no RSVP is required for the debate)

World Art Day is celebrated to highlight the importance of art in a global perspective.

Panel Discussion: The Fight against Censorship and for the Freedom of Art

Art and free speech are difficult to achieve in many places around the world. In some countries, it is not possible to exhibit artworks of a certain type, and sometimes, art functions only as part of an underground or dissident culture. But even there at the risk of legal reprisals. We often imagine that it is dictators pulling all these strings, but just as often threats come from various religious groups or groups of an ethnic or political nature. Dictatorship is unpredictable with its double-face. In the globalized world, dictators need contact with the outside world but they also require maximum control over their artists. In this game, there is a deceptive laissez-faire attitude. An artist can never be sure when the noose will be tightened. The rule of law is sidelined. However, not even democracy guarantees freedom for art. Institutions in the Western world dodge threats from vocal groups. Others are one step ahead and engage in self-censorship. How can these problems be tackled? Should you remove visitors’ shoes for security checks at every show? Is police surveillance and detectors for any sensitive subjects depicted the solution? Against this gloomy background, artists throughout time have been at the vanguard of a more permissive society. A painting has unique opportunities to communicate directly – it could be a signal to wake up.

Svenska Konstkritikersamfundet has invited three distinguished guests from around the world to illustrate and talk
about the visual arts field. Guests on the panel:

Tania Bruguera, A Cuban artist with the world as her field of work. Founder in 2002 of Cátedra Arte de Conducta, the first centre in Havana for the study of political art. In 2009, she provoked the Cuban dictatorship during a performance. In an operation against Fidel Castro, she stretched out a microphone and invited the audience to say anything for one minute. Many took the opportunity and called for freedom and democracy. The regime condemned the campaign as shameful opportunism, claiming that it offended Cuban artists.

Niilofur Farrukh is the founder and editor of NuktaArt, Pakistan Contemporary Art Magazine and a member of AICA’s Commission on Censorship and Freedom of Expression that reviews and acts against censorship in the arts arena of various different countries. Her book Pioneering Perspectives highlights three female artists’ influential role during the oppression of the Zia period. The book reveals the regime’s insidious censorship and how it systematically erased the role of Pakistani women in nation-building. Her struggle for peace in the conflict between Pakistan and India led to her involvement in the exhibition Flags of Peace.

Marina Naprushkina, an artist from Belarus, who experiments with the propaganda language of dictator Alexander Lukashenko to get hold of the power elite that has shaped the country. With her artistic magazines and the book My Daddy is a Policeman. What is he doing at work? she makes a contribution to the fight against militia violence against women in Belarus. Since 2011, she has worked together with the journal Nash Dom against militia violence against Belarusian women. The magazine is run by the Belarusian opposition politician Olga Karatch. Marina Naprushkina will exhibit Self#governing at the Kalmar Art Museum, opening May 19, 2012, in collaboration with the Berlin Biennale.

The debate is organized by Svenska Konstkritikersamfundet, the Swedish section of the international art critics organization AICA based in Paris (Association Internationale des Critiques d’Art).

World Art Day is organized by the International Association of Art (IAA) which is the largest international non-governmental association of visual artists, with over 100 branches worldwide.
Other organizers: The Swedish Artists National Organization and Craftsmen and Designers Organization (KRO/KIF) and Swedish section of the international art critics organization.
Partners: Visual Arts Copyright Society in Sweden (BUS), Konstfrämjandet, Museum of Modern Art, Polish Institute and Swedish Institute.

For more information about World Art Day, please contact Pontus Raud: +46 709-451 724.
For more information about panel discussion please contact Sophie Allgårdh: +46 708-45 60 87.

Tuesday, 6 March, 19:00 hrs.

Free admission. This invitation is for you and one guest.

“I happen upon two critic colleagues, art critics, eagerly discussing and taking notes in their notepads […] In contrary to most critics on duty, they wear uniform. But then, of course, they are police, the place is a subway platform and the object of critical observation is a new graffiti painting. We are talking about a crime scene investigation – which, actually, does not make their business any different than a great deal of ordinary critique assignments.” Leif Nylén, in daily DN, 27 March, 2001

The discussion in art criticism and art history on graffiti and street art brings to the fore the relationship of critics/historians to a number of actors in society. Aside from an international subcultural community of artists, amateur historians and photo collectors, there is a large number of professional participants who contribute to the value production of street art: from graffiti cleaners and police, via criminologists, sociologists and journalists, to filmmakers and art collectors.

As Leif Nylén points out in a column, there are obvious similarities between the work of, for example, police and critics. The lecture will discuss similarities and distinctions between four different agents who all, in different ways, contribute to the understanding of graffiti as a societal phenomenon. The non-profit work of amateur historians and photo collectors is put in relation to the societally institutionalized work of police, critics and art historians. What difference is there in methods of selection and classification of material, and what is the relationship between selection and the values represented by the agent?

Jacob Kimvall is a post-graduate student at the Department of Art History at the Stockholm University, and is working on a dissertation on street art and graffiti concerning, among other things, the hip hop culture as part of Cold War cultural exchange and confrontation. Kimvall is also active as a lecturer and teacher, for example at Berghs School of Communication and the Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design.

A bar serving light food will be open all evening, from 18:30 to 23:00. Address: Konstnärsklubben, 2nd floor, Smålandsgatan 7, Stockholm. Ring door bell marked ”Konstnärsklubben”.

The Critics’ Salon is arranged by the Swedish Art Critics Association in collaboration with the Tuesday Club – the meeting place for artists in Konstnärshuset (the Artists’ House) on the first Tuesday of every month.

The Critics’ Salon will be held in Swedish.