So, what happens tomorrow?

 

Last day of the project "This Machine Surrounds Hate and Forces it to Surrender"
in Ovar (2022)

In 2022, I had the happiness of participating in a very beautiful project by ondamarela, called “This Machine Surrounds Hate and Forces it to Surrender”. It was a project that invited people of different ages in different parts of the country to address the issues of hate, prejudice, difference and freedom through new artistic creations, built with these same people. On the last day of the project, we discussed what this experience had been like for the different participants. I often think of a teenage girl in one of those conversations. When I said “The artists are leaving today, the project is over. What happens tomorrow?” she murmured, “Tomorrow will be a sad day.”

Freedom for what? Culture for what?

 

My talk at the General Library of the University of Coimbra, on April 13, 2023, as part of the cycle "Portugal - 50 years (1973-2023): What has changed? What remains to be done?". You can read it here.

The year of radical care

Partridge in Cape Sounion, 2014 (Photo: Maria Vlachou)

A bit more than ten years ago, I remember how deeply angry I felt at an article by Clara Ferreira Alves in the newspaper Expresso, where she criticised young Greek people for getting married when the country was going through a serious economic crisis. She considered this attitude to be irresponsible, revealing lack of notion. I was angry because, in my view, hope and celebration are ways of resisting. The determination to celebrate in the face of adversity is an act of love, love for life, love for self and others.

I thought about this on many more occasions and also last night, when fireworks went up in the sky, outside my window and in many other places around the world. I was never a big fan of fireworks, they always seemed an unnecessary extravagance to me and also distressingly noisy for certain people and animals. More recently, I found out about their polluting effects. But this year, I felt that their “exploding” sound was also an expression of our lack of empathy, as Ukrainians, while they were also celebrating the coming of the new year (an act of love, hope and defiance), were once again under attack and had to run to shelters.

Is it really so hard to understand?

Photo: Just Stop Oil via The New York Times.

“Museums tighten vigilance worried about environmentalist ‘terrorism’ actions against art”. I don’t know whether it was the word “terrorism” in the title that I found more shocking or the actual answers given to the journalist by different Portuguese museum directors. Answers that revealed a complete disconnection from the issue of climate emergency and the role and impact museums have on it. I felt dumbstruck when a national museum director stated that he had “some difficulty understanding what museums and works of art have to do with this type of environmentalist protest” and that "It is related to the issue of oil and pollution, but the works of art are not to blame. These are actions to draw attention, but it is difficult to understand why works of art have to pay for this.” Another national museum director said that he finds these actions worrying because museums “hold, preserve and exhibit collections which are unique in the world” and "they [the activists] put at risk a heritage that belongs to everyone" and "must be protected for present and future generations" (wouldn’t these words serve perfectly to discuss our natural heritage and obligation to future generations?). 

The mental health of museum workers in Portugal: who cares?

 

Aug 29, 2022; Columbus, OH, USA; Columbus Museum of Art employees and supporters rally outside the museum before handing over a letter to management requesting voluntary recognition of the CMA Workers United union. Mandatory Credit: Adam Cairns - The Columbus Dispatch

 “For the past several months the YBCA leadership team has been grappling with the unprecedented impacts and volatility caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

(…) Today, because of these impacts, it is with a heavy heart that I announce the elimination of 27 staff positions at YBCA. This represents more than a third of our staff, primarily those in positions that are directly tied to live events and activities which are not operational for the foreseeable future. As an organization that cares deeply about its employees, we held off on making these changes as long as our finances would allow. We also carefully considered equity in all of our decision making.

Solidarity in action

 

In the last 18 months, I have had the privilege of being part of an international network of museum professionals called “Solidarity in Action”. In the last year, I am also a member of the network’s advisory board. Together with the lessons taught by the pandemic, this amazing group of people (led by a tireless and motivating Bernadette Lynch) has given me the opportunity to go so much deeper into thinking and practicing solidarity. It has also allowed me to fully understand the word in my mother language, the language one “feels” the most.

Who's afraid of decolonisation?

Humboldt Forum, Berlin (Photo: Maria Vlachou)

"Who's afraid of decolonisation?" is the title of a training course which will be organised in September by NEMO – Network of European Museum Organisations, and hosted by the UK Museums Association, SS Great Britain and Bristol Museums. For those who don’t remember, Bristol is the city where in June 2020 the statue of transatlantic slave trader Edward Colston was toppled and later put into display (but lying down) in the M Shed Museum, the city museum. In January 2022, a jury found four of the people who had helped topple the statue – the so-called “Colston Four” – not guilty of criminal damage.