Alert!

18.06.2011

Article by Alexander Karschnia about the major budget cuts in the arts in the Netherlands:

This is not only an issue of reducing material means for critical, independent and experimental art forms, this is a veritable cultural counterrevolution:

to sign an international petition, klick here!

And this is not only about the Netherlands! The danger is that the Netherlands are, once again, only ahead of its time. The most liberal country in Europe is turning into the most restrictive country – just as we have seen on the issue of migration. Just a few years ago the term "Hollandtest" was coined when the Netherlands used intimidating questionnaires for immigrants that were then also applied in Germany and elsewhere. For the right-extremist Geert Wilders who tolerates the current Dutch government, the arts are nothing but "left-wing hobbies"!

For free, independent theatre-makers the plan of the current government to stop funding the smaller production-houses in 2013 and only give money to eight state-theatres is a major backlash, an attempt to turn back time: Fourty years ago the Netherlands made major structural reforms that created a new perspective. The funding of big theatre-institutions was reduced in order to to distribute money directly to artists. This lead to an amazing cultural flowering, especially of independent theatre-artists and groups, the emergence of a new aesthetics, an unparalled innovation of new theatre-forms: the rise of what Hans-Thies Lehmann once called "the miracle of Dutch theatre". This development, which made the Netherlands a model for independent theatre-makers all around the world, is now becoming extinct. This is unacceptable and has to be responded to all over Europe and beyond. The Frascati has already hissed a black flagg – just as we did in 2004 when the TAT (Theater am Turm) in Frankfurt/M. was closed: Yo ho, artists & cultural activists, hoist your colors high!

Next demonstration is on the 19th of Septembre in Le Hague: www.marsderbeschaving.nl

On the 19th of Septembre in Rotterdam the geuzen returned to life to rehearse the rebellion: de opstand. And founded a facebook group: neo-geuzen.

Notes from the underground:

For four days a group of people were sitting in the rehearsal rooms of Frascati WG in Amsterdam for AN ACADEMY called We live here! The former Gasthuis used to be hospital that was turned into theatre after it had been squatted. Today the situation is different: theatres, some as old as Teatro Valle in Rome (1726) are being squatted in order to prevent them to be turned into a bingo hall. Time to take a look back in anger:

400 years of iconoclasm: from de opstand of the Low Lands to the cultural revolution in China (1566-1966). The two tomatoes that become Aktie Tomaat were thrown in a spirit of cultural revolution, their effect was a major reform in cultural policy. The whole system of funding was restructured and enabled a whole range of groups to start working on a professional level. „Let a hundred flowers bloom!“ as Mao once said. “Let not a hundred flowers bloom” is what Ivo van Hove said in his State of the Art Address in 2006. And then he quoted Ayn Rand. Since the beginning of the financial crisis she has had a renaissance. For some she is the ‘bolshevic of capital’. Her writing could be called ‘capitalist realism’. Or even ‘social-darwinist realism’. Her novels glorify the single strong one: EGO.

One can safely say that EGO was heard: “Tell me where have all the flowers gone!” is a famous US protest song that was adapted by Marlene Dietrich for her only appearance in postfascist West-Germany: Sag mir, wo die Blumen sind… The flowers will be beheaded just like the Dutch noblemen in Brussels during the inquisition. The artists from the visual field rather speak of a ‘new iconoclam’: vandalism through budget cuts. Artists are called ‘beggars’ in return by politicians. “N’ayez pas peur, Madame, ce ne sont que des gueux.” said a courtier to Margarethe of Parma when the Dutch nobles approached her with petitions: “Don’t worry, madame, they are only beggars.” Thus the noblemen dressed as beggars and called themselves from now on ‘geuzen’. Thus today the artists are the new geuzen – so we decided to rename the former Gasthuis into future Geuzenhuis!

Even in German the expression ‘geuzenword’ exists for the strategy to take on a term that was used in a derogatory way – like the contemporary ‘slut walks’ or the N-word in HipHop etc. So we ask everybody to dress up as a beggar and bring some nice signs written on cardboard with messages to hold them up for the politicians. Or bring mirrors (you can get them cheap in IKEA). You know what they say: “The artists are standing with the back to the audience – and with an open hand to the State.” Look who’s talking: a minority government that only came to power by letting itself being tolerated by a right-wing populist. So we are asking: Who is standing with the back to who? Isn’t that exactly what has been said for years about the political class in general? Is it possible that the politicians are just passing on the charge against them to artists? Like ‘contaminated financial papers’. That’s why we propose to bring mirrors. The message: “Beware of anything you say against us – the same thing could be said against you!” After all: who needs these bad performers in parliament? If the government doesn’t want to spend any state-money, what’s their function anymore? Let’s cut them first! Let’s gueux!