¡Venceremos! A celebration of International Workers Day

Featuring Rebel Diaz, Dirty Surgeon Insurgency, Laura Yes Yes, FM Supreme, Cavepainters, an excerpt from Judy Veramendi’s upcoming play “Alegrias y Lagrimas” and more!

Friday, April 27th

Meeting Hall in Pilsen, 1038 W Cullerton

Doors at 7:30pm, $8 entry, cash bar

As communities, union members, Occupiers and activists gear up for another mobilization this May Day, the Occupy Chicago Rebel Arts Collective will be presenting a night of music, poetry and performance celebrating the struggle for justice. Featuring an absolutely incredible lineup of hip-hop, folk, punk rock, slam poetry, and even an excerpt from Judy Veramendi’s upcoming play “Alegrias Y Lagrimas” (including a talk-back afterward), this is an event will be a reminder that culture—like everything else—belongs to the working people of the 99%.

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Italian Museum Burns Art In Protest Against Cuts

From the Guardian. This without a doubt provokes a response of horror from any true art lover. The notion of burning pieces of art whose cultural value can’t be measured in Dollars or Euro is something guaranteed to break hearts. But then that’s the point; it’s also virtually the same as what the Italian government does when it slashes funding for the arts by as much as 43%. Proof yet again that we need a culture whose purse-strings aren’t held by the one percent!

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A museum in Italy has started burning its artworks in protest at budget cuts which it says have left cultural institutions out of pocket.

Antonio Manfredi, of the Casoria Contemporary Art Museum in Naples, set fire to the first painting on Tuesday.

“Our 1,000 artworks are headed for destruction anyway because of the government’s indifference,” he said.

The work was by French artist Severine Bourguignon, who was in favour of the protest and watched it online.

Mr Manfredi plans to burn three paintings a week from now on, in a protest he has dubbed “Art War”.

Artists from across Europe have lent their support, including Welsh sculptor John Brown, who torched one of his works, Manifesto, on Monday.

Mr Brown told the BBC that his organisation, the Documented Art Space in Harlech, North Wales, had exhibited at the Casoria museum in the past.

He said the loss of his artwork had not been particularly upsetting.

“We work in a fairly contemporary manner so the process of making art, and the interaction with people, is more important than keeping it as a precious object.”

He called the burning “a symbolic act” to “protest against the way the economic crisis is being dealt with”.

“These cuts reach beyond the confines of the visual arts and affect the cohesive well-being of millions of people all over the world.”

Italy’s debt crisis led to the resignation of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi last year. Since his departure, the government has passed a tough package of austerity measures and other reforms.

Art institutions says they have been particularly affected by the country’s economic woes, with state subsidies and charitable donations drying up.

One of Italy’s leading galleries, the Maxxi Muesum of Contemporary Art, said its funding had been cut by 43% in 2011.

When its board of directors failed to approve the 2012 budget last week, the Culture Ministry took steps to replace them with a government-appointed administrator.

International concern was also raised last year over the neglect of Pompeii, one of the world’s most precious archaeological sites.

A number of structures in the ancient city have fully or partially collapsed, including the “House of Gladiators” which fell down 18 months ago.

However, Prime Minister Mario Monti announced a 105m euros (£87m) project to reconstruct the ruins earlier this month.

‘Adverse circumstances’

Mr Manfredi is known as an outspoken and radical museum director.

He opened the Casoria gallery in his hometown, just outside Naples, in 2005 and several of his exhibitions have drawn the ire of the local mafia.

In 2009, a lifesize effigy of an African figure was left impaled over the museum gates following an exhibition of art that dealt with prostitution - a trade occupied locally almost entirely by African immigrants and controlled by organised criminals.

Manfredi has also blamed the theft of security cameras and several attempted break-ins on the mafia.

His attempts to focus attention on his museum’s funding crisis have been crafted with a keen eye for publicity.

Last year, he announced he had written a letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel asking for asylum, saying he was fed up with the government’s failure to protect Italy’s rich cultural heritage.

He said he would take his entire museum with him if the asylum was granted, but never received a reply.

He said the latest protest will continue unless the funding situation improves.

A statement from the museum described the first burning as “political, necessary, and compelling in the face of these adverse circumstances”.

It added that Neapolitan artist Rosaria Matarese will set fire to one of her works on Thursday, 18 April as the protest continues.

Art, Music and Resistance - Two Upcoming Events From OCRAC

Occupy Chicago Rebel Arts Collective at Uri-Eichen Gallery

Friday, April 13th - 6pm to 10pm

Uri-Eichen Gallery, 2101 S Halsted, Chicago IL

Artwork that inspires, informs and furthers dialogue. Curated by Uri-Eichen and members of the collective, with pieces from artists in the local movement as well as radical art from before OWS began. From scenes of a world where billboards are reclaimed to expressionist portrayals of our hometown police department, this work embodies the spirit of Occupy Chicago. 

Members of the collective will be present to talk to anyone who wants to collaborate, join or just learn more.

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Occupy Music? Crisis, Resistance and the Sound of Revolt

Saturday, April 21st - 4:30pm

Roosevelt University, 410 S Michigan, Second Floor Congress Lounge

Last fall saw a huge outpouring of support for the Occupy movement among artists and musicians. But this is hardly the first social movement to have its own soundtrack. What does this sonic solidarity reveal about music’s role in the struggle for a better world? What about the function of the modern music industry? Does art actually have the power to change the world? 

An upcoming teach-in from Occupy Chicago will aim to take up these very questions. The speaker, Alexander Billet, is a music journalist whose articles have appeared in Z Magazine, TheNation.com, New Politics and SocialistWorker.org among others. He is also a founding member of Punks Against Apartheid and an organizer with the Occupy Chicago Rebel Arts Collective.

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