(Photo by Samuel de Roman/Getty Images)
Spain’s state-run museums will soon be subject to review as part of efforts to move history “beyond the colonial era,” representatives of Spain’s socialist-led government announced on Monday.
As first reported, guardian Ernesto Urtasun, who was appointed as Minister of Culture last November, told Parliament’s Committee on Culture on Tuesday that he would “guarantee the effective enforcement of cultural rights throughout Spain” and establish a link between Spanish museums and institutions around the world. He said he is dedicated to deepening their relationship.
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“With that in mind, one of the challenges we are proposing is… to remove frameworks that are rooted in colonial frameworks and old gendered and ethnocentric habits that have often damaged the way we live. It is the establishment of a space for dialogue and exchange that can overcome the challenges.” Discover our heritage, history and artistic heritage. ”
“As we know, museums are living organisms that respond to the issues and debates of our time,” he said, adding that an important goal for the country’s cultural sector is “to create spaces of dialogue and exchange that allow us to move. It’s about establishing it,” he added. We have moved past colonial frameworks and frameworks rooted in old gender and ethnocentric practices that have often undermined the way we view our heritage, history and artistic heritage. ”
Urtasun said the National Museum of Anthropology and the American Museum have already implemented program updates that reflect the overarching goals of the Ministry of Culture. Who brought the works on display here? ”
Urtasun also cited the growing number of cases of art censorship in Spain, saying the agency supports artists and groups whose works have been removed or banned from public display. Last summer, protests led by the activist group Organización por la Libertad Artística (OLA) swept through cities across Spain in response to the suppression of films, plays, and other artistic works that championed LGBTQ+ and feminist perspectives. did. The protests come at a tense time for Spain’s national, regional, and municipal elections, raising concerns that Spain is retreating toward conservatism or toward Francoist fascism, which the country overhauled in 1975. Many people were concerned that the economy was even slipping back.
per report public and hyperallergenicseveral liberal municipalities moved to the right, followed by cases of alleged censorship by far-right parties Vox and the People’s Party (PP): a municipality in the autonomous region of Cantabria in northern Spain canceled a public screening of a Pixar film. light year (2022), citing a kiss between the film’s two female characters. Soon after, Virginia Woolf’s novel was adapted into a movie. orlando: Biography, which explores transgender identity, has been cancelled.A production of Lope de Vega’s masterpiece villain of getafe “” was also abolished due to the use of set pieces resembling a phallus and vulva. Protesting the cancellation, OLA members took to the streets shouting, “We will not be silenced.”
“Protecting culture and understanding its relevance in building an equal society means defending democracy, fundamental rights and freedoms, and the welfare state,” Urtasun said in a speech to Parliament’s culture committee. ” he said.
In December 2023, Vox threatened to undermine the upcoming budget proposed by Huesca’s PP-controlled council and succeeded in canceling the 23-year-old cultural festival in the northeastern part of Huesca. However, Vox culture spokesman Joaquín Robles, in a public rebuttal to Urtasun, denied all accusations that the party was censoring cultural expression.