Tag Archives: update

FREESZFE Association works on Emergency Exit Program for Students

March 17, 2021NewsEastern and Western European States, USA, Canada, News, updateACAR

The newly formed FREESZFE association announces that European universities will form partnerships to save the degrees of about 150 SZFE students. The Theater and Film University in Budapest (SZFE) has been occupied by its student last year to protest against the loss of independence and academic freedom (see ACAR post). The diploma rescue program “Emergency Exit ” will be supported by the University Mozarteum Vienna, the University of Performing Arts in Ludwigsburg (Akademie für Darstellende Kunst in Baden-Württemberg) the puppetry department of the Akademia Teatralna im. Aleksandra Zelwerowicza) at Bialystok and the Swiss Academy of Drama (Accademia Teatro Dimitri). They agreed to take over fourteen SZFE classes and will recognize the credits they have earned so far. As the epidemiological situation worsened, the association switched to a digital work schedule: courses are held online, projects are developed without physical contact.

The long-term plan is to acquire a building with the help of donations and a foundation and to establish a private democratically run university with an international profile.

Source: freeszfe.hu

Update: Kirill Serebrennikov Fired From Gogol Center

February 4, 2021News, Personal CaseCanada, Eastern and Western European States, news, personal case, update, USAACAR

The Moscow city department of culture will not renew Kirill Serebrennikov’s contract as the director of the Gogol Center. The contract ends on February 28. Serebrennikov was appointed as director of the Gogol Theater in 2012 and reopened the venue 2014 as the Gogol Center. The Serebrennikov case started in May 2017, when the Center was raided by the Russian Investigative Committee, followed by a “theatre trial” over 3 years (see also our several posts).

Source: Moscow Times

Hella Mewis Freed

July 24, 2020News, Personal CaseArab States, news, personal case, updateACAR

Security officials in Bagdad announced today, that German curator Hella Mewis was released at 6:25 a.m. (03.25 UTC/GMT) in a security operation at Rusafa, eastern part of Baghdad. Iraqi authorities did not give any information about who was behind the kidnapping. No one was arrested during the operation.

Hella is presently under the protection of the German embassy in Baghdad. She is already the sixth foreigner to be abducted in the Iraqi capital this year and dozens of activists have been kidnapped in recent months.

Sources: Deutsche Welle, The Arab Weekly, Neue Züricher Zeitung (German)

Serebrennikov Convicted of Fraud

June 30, 2020News, Personal CaseEastern and Western European States, USA, Canada, personal case, updateACAR

On Friday, June 26, the Moscow judge gave Kirill Serebrennikov a suspended sentence to three years probation and a three-year ban on leading any state-backed cultural institution in Russia. However, the judge said that the defendants would be required to repay nearly 129 million rubles in compensation for the money allegedly embezzled. Co-defendants Yury Itin and Konstantin Malobrodsky were also found guilty of conspiring to mislead the culture ministry for “personal enrichment” and also sentenced to probation. The fourth defendant, Sofya Apfelbaum, was convicted of negligence.

Artists around the world expressed their solidarity, an online petition in Germany got 57.000 subscribers. The representative of the EU foreign service Peter Stano and Germany’s Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Assistance Bärbel Kofler expressed their demand for a fair and transparent trial.

Sources: The Guradian, NY Times, German Federal Office, TASS

Prosecutor Seeks 6 Years for Kirill Serebrennikov

June 23, 2020News, Personal CaseEastern and Western European States, USA, Canada, personal case, updateACAR

The case of the “Platform” Projekt at the Gogol Center’s “Seventh Studio” Kirill Serebrennikov has been going on for more than three years (see also our former posts at ACAR). On June 22 the judicial investigation has ended. The state prosecution considered proven guilty persons involved in the case of Serebrennikov, asks to plead Kirill Serebrennikov, Alexey Malobrodsky, Yury Itin and Sophia Apfelbaum and sentence them with following punishments: 6 years of imprisonment in a penal colony with a fine of 800 thousand rubles for Serebrennikov , 5 years for Malobrodsky and 4 years for Itin and Apfelbaum as well.
At the same time the prosecution corrects the amount of damage from 133 million 237 thousand rubles to 128 million 974 thousand rubles.
The court will pass a verdict in the coming days.

The Gogol Center has published Kirill Serebrennikov’s speech at the Meshchansky court on June 22nd: Platform Lessons

Sources: Russsian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI), Russia Today (RT), Gogol Center’s Facebook page

Albanian National Theatre Demolished

May 18, 2020NewsEastern and Western European States, USA, Canada, News, updateACAR

On Sunday, May 17, the historic National Theatre in Tirana has been demolished. Since 2018, artists and citizens have staged the longest active protest in the history of Albania to protect the theatre from demolition by the government (see ACAR posts 1, 2) The government moved in amidst the emergency situation and lockdown imposed due to the coronavirus crisis. Resisting citizens, sitting in front of the theatre, were removed and detained. The Albanian National Theater is officially part of Europa Nostra’s 7 Most Endangered European Heritage Sites list for 2020.

Albania’s President Ilir Meta has called the demolition of the National Theatre by his own government “a constitutional, legal and moral crime that cannot be granted amnesty.”, done by the Mafia. The decision to demolish Albania’s National Theatre was approved in secret and was not on the agenda for the meeting of the Tirana Municipal Council.

Sources: exit news 1, 2, 3, 4; Europa Nostra, video