BALANCE of CULTURE

A "Dachshund UN"

Fitting for this month--"Dachshund UN" just opened to coincide with the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland, which began just a few days ago.  

UN Exhibit: History as News

A very interesting exhibit just opened at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland: History as News. This unique exhibit shares +100 historic front pages of newspapers worldwide published from 1898-2012. It's located at the Palais des Nations until March 1. Definitely a must-see if you're in Geneva this month!

Brazil's New Culture Stipend

While many countries have been deemphasizing the importance of culture by slashing arts budgets, Brazil has just announced a unique policy expansion from the well-known "Bolsa Familia" program--a stipend for culture. Under this program, workers who earn up to 5x the minimum wage are eligible to receive 50 real (25 USD) per month for cultural expenses such as movies, books, museums, music, DVDs, etc. 

The program has already been passed in Congress and approved by President Dilma Rousseff, and will probably begin later this year. As a result, Culture Minister Marta Suplicy projects a spending surge of nearly $3.5 billion in Brazil's culture sector. 

This program fits nicely with Brazil's recent efforts to increase its education investment, which has been significant but still lags below the OECD average. 

Art and Diplomacy 2013

After connecting with the State Department on its global art initiatives when Hillary Clinton became Secretary of State, I'm thrilled to see a brief piece by Secretary Clinton about our Art in Embassies program. The program now celebrates 50 years of work and continues to contribute to our vast diplomatic resource pool:

In my line of work, we often talk about the art of diplomacy as we try to make people's lives a little better around the world. But, in fact, art is also a tool of diplomacy. It reaches beyond governments, past the conference rooms and presidential palaces, to help us connect with more people in more places. It is a universal language in our search for common ground, an expression of our shared humanity.

This subject really brings me back to my grad school days, where I researched the history and significance of nations using large international exhibitions towards cultural diplomacy. Although I was the only one in my program to combine art with international relations (and got plenty of resistance for it, I should add!), it's thrilling to see this topic discussed more and more in the mainstream media. 

Afghan War Rugs

Sometimes more often than abstract pieces of art, I've found that these Afghan war rugs understandably provoke even stronger reactions from observers who already have specific opinions about conflicts in the region.

These historical pieces originate from women in Afghanistan's Baluchi region who shed their traditional preference for weaving benign birds and flowers, opting instead for an indigenous modernism that depicts the violence they endured during the decade of Soviet occupation beginning in 1979. Many of these knotted wool rugs also celebrate the Soviets' eventual exit of Afghanistan in 1989.

Despite the controversial aspects of these pieces (though we've shown these war rugs to a few Afghans who were very delighted), I find them to be fascinating and unapologetic reminders of Afghanistan's tumultuous and oppressive historical experience at the hands of Westerners. I also doubt that the women who created these expected most viewers to be comfortably charmed by these pieces--they are clearly not meant to please everybody. 

Ai Weiwei Wears Sold-Out Gas Mask in Beige-ing

Most people who go to China (or even Hong Kong) for the first time often end up catching a little cough--I'm one of those people who rarely gets sick yet I was no match for the smog there a few years ago. But Beijing's hazardous air quality is way beyond what travelers expect now, even from rapidly-industrializing China.

Above is Ai Weiwei's Twitter photo of himself donning a gas mask in Beijing yesterday; these cumbersome masks are long sold out in the capital. The one "silver lining" people are discussing regarding the city's hazy beige-ness is that Chinese face mask manufacturers and pollution control equipment companies (such as Shanghai Dragon and Fujian Longking) are enjoying soaring stocks and robust trading as they take advantage of the circumstances. 

The World Health Organization warns that 25 is the highest air pollution level to reach before tiny PM2.5 particles penetrate into the deep crevices of the human lung. Beijing got up to 993 a few days ago--that's 40 times the recommended safe limit. Unsurprisingly, today the US Embassy in Beijing again cited pollution levels that are higher than that of the China National Environment Monitoring Center: an "unhealthy" 153 compared to a "medium pollution" 161. 

To their credit, local Beijing officials have reportedly ordered a number of factories and construction sites to idle, but they now have a bit of a PR disaster on their hands. Not only are people all over the world witnessing remarkable levels of air pollution that seem inappropriate for a would-be superpower in 2013, but more attention is being placed upon the source of the issue: China's questionable approach to industrialization. I think this is the true potential "silver lining" here, as it gives Beijing the opportunity to show more systemic accountability in how it manages its position as a top global manufacturer. The question is, will they go for it?

Alexander Calder

Best known for his mobiles, Alexander Calder's paintings went abstract along with his sculptures while he lived in Paris during the 1930s. He was particularly influenced by visiting the studio of Piet Mondrian:

Alexander Calder (1898-1976):

In addition to sculptures, Calder painted throughout his career, beginning in the early 1920s. He picked up his study of printmaking after moving to Paris in 1926, and continued to produce illustrations for books and journals.^[38] His many projects from this period include pen-and-ink line drawings of animals for a 1931 publication of Aesop’s fables. As Calder’s sculpture moved into the realm of pure abstraction in the mid-1930s, so did his prints. The thin lines used to define figures in the earlier prints and drawings began delineating groups of geometric shapes, often in motion. Calder also used prints for advocacy, as in poster prints from 1967 and 1969 protesting the Vietnam War.^[39]

As Calder’s professional reputation erupted in the late 1940s and 1950s, so did his production of prints. Masses of lithographs based on his gouache paintings hit the market, and deluxe editions of plays, poems, and short stories illustrated with fine art prints by Calder became available for sale.^[38] By 1973, Braniff International Airways commissioned him to paint a full-size DC-8-62 as a "flying canvas." In 1975, Calder completed a second airplane, this time a Boeing 727–291, as a tribute to the US Bicentennial. In 1975, he was commissioned to paint a BMW 3.0 CSL which would come to be the first vehicle in the BMW Art Car Project. He had been working on a third airplane, entitled Salute to Mexico, when he died.

Mt. Everest Panorama

The photo below of the Khumbu glacier near Mt. Everest is already beautiful, but click here to see an absolutely breathtaking panorama shot of the same scene in 2 billion pixels!

Human Rights Blue

A landmark of light: New York City's Empire State building will light up in a vivid blue color today as part of Human Rights Watch's annual recognition of humanitarian issues. 

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights consists of 30 articles and was adopted on December 10, 1948 in Paris after WWII. While the efficacy of these types of agreement are certainly up for debate, nobody has actually implemented an alternative solution to the daunting humanitarian issues our planet faces.

I sometimes can't help but question the ethics of critiquing or criticizing the works of such efforts. When you are well fed and out of harm's way, it's unfortunately easy to get caught up in the bleak numbers and forget about the true causes.

Religious Images to Protect Forests in India

Dozens of artists in India's Bihar region are painting trees using a tribal art form called Madhubani in order to spare them from being cut down. The Bihar state currently has one of the lowest forest coverage areas in India, coming in at less than 7%. Despite the area's flooding problems due to lack of vegetation, climate change is not a well known subject among the native villagers. This unique project was started in September by local NGO Gram Vikas Parishad and is supported by like-minded organizations. 

Because the locals are so deeply religious, seeing depictions of the deities they worship on these trees are likely to incur fear of cutting them down. This is probably one of the few instances of visual art that I've seen utilized in order to literally "save" remaining parts of the environment--potentially a good case study to monitor, especially during the next few flood seasons.