Utopia3 and the International History Department – Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva present:
70
On 10 December 1948, the 58 member states that then made up the General Assembly of the United Nations, adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.The Declaration recognizes the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family as the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.
Seventy years after its adoption this document, translated into over 500 different languages and celebrated every year on 10th December, continues to be regularly ignored by many governments around the world.
On 8 June 1949, English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic George Orwell published Nineteen Eighty-Four. In it “Human Rights” become a lure of the imagination when a dictatorship suppresses the freedom of expression, by carefully monitoring all thoughts, by meticulously degrading all social ties, all notions of history and memory.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and 1984 are two texts of great significance for the second half of the 20th century and beyond; two texts of radically different nature. But they do have a lot in common: they have inspired many people who fought (and still fight) for justice and freedom around the world.
What would happen if we combined them? What shape would a reflection on the past, present and plausible futures take, then? And how might contemporary art in its broader manifestations, or pop-culture, connect human rights with the issue of denial of the most basic freedoms? How would art and culture experience and connect with these issues of crucial importance to all of us?
utopia3, a Geneva non-profit association set up a joint venture with the International History Department of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies with the aim of exploring these questions, their most obvious, surprising and completely unexpected inter-connection and mediations.
Together we created 70, a non-profit combined event scheduled for November 2019 at the Graduate Institute in Geneva.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ri1WDvG8Ts
During a weekend, this event of a new kind, at the crossroads of academic research and contemporary avant-gardes, will establish a dialogue between human rights, art and pop culture, questioning the sociocultural, historical, economic and political heritage of the “human rights” concept. The program includes conferences, an exhibition gathering 70 unpublished works of 70 famous artists, a sales auction of the exhibited works, the inauguration of a new model of circular economy and concerts.
On 5 December 2018, the project was unveiled through the teaser, shown as part of the symposium “The UD HR at 70” organized at the Graduate Institute shortly before the conference given by Philippe Sands.
70 actively seeks participations, supports, contacts. More information: www.utopia3.ch
Featured image (cropped) by Mr TT on Unsplash.
