Art has always been used as a means of standing up to oppressive forces while educating others on the situation at hand. Picasso’s Guernica, for example, protested the massacre of citizens by General Franco’s allies during the Spanish Civil War, while symbolising the impact of conflict on civilians at large. The fact that, on the eve of war in 2003, a replica of Guernica hung in the UN was covered up for the presentation by US former Secretary of State Colin Powell as he made the case for invading Iraq, demonstrates how the work continues to remind us of the consequences of combat today.
In the decades since, as technology has given the world insights into every uprising and demonstration, so too have artists used their mediums to express and protest systems of oppression in their contexts –seen on streets of Cairo during the Egyptian Revolution, in the dance of protestors in Chile, and in the words of poets in Hong Kong.
With it has come an increase in the suppression and persecution of said artists. In 2019, Freemuse reported over 711 incidents in 93 countries of artists’ rights being violated including censorship, assault, persecution, & imprisonment. 42% of all imprisonments of artists involved criticising the government – who were responsible for 52% of all creative censorship.
In the UK, particularly since the EU Referendum in 2016, there has been an increase in politicians and the media using migrants and foreign nationals as “scapegoats” for issues of economy, politics, and safety. In response, we’ve seen an increase in race hate crimes which rose 6% in the last year, and a widening division between UK nationals and non. In a survey conducted by LSE, over 42.8% of UK nationals thought foreign nationals take out more than they put in.
Bosla Arts therefore, seeks to actively support artists facing oppression, ensuring they have the means to continue making art, while in turn sharing their work and stories to spread awareness of the socio-political situation in different parts of the world.
