Syndicate: Re: Austria!

["Joseph Nechvatal" <jnech@hotmail.com>]

This shows other view of the response stategy.
It is from Carlo McCormick (carlom@mail.papermag.com)to me and I wanted to 
share it with the list.
Cheers
Joseph Nechvatal

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

joseph- good sentiments, but what an asshole. the whole notion of boycott
isolationism has never worked in any way near constructive. the solviet
dictatorship ultimately disembled via the glasnost interaction of artists
and governments on an international level, and certainly never benefitted
from any cultural ban. this fool may be austrian, but certainly doesn't
understand history in the least. we see these same issues at hand with
china, which is only gradually becoming more tolerant due to increased
interaction on the global scale, and cuba, which has unduly suffered the
same kind of self-righteous, hypocritical political blockading. I myself am
proud to write for camera austria, some of the hippest, most adventurous
fans of contemporary publishing today, just as I am pleased to be working
on a book with cuban artists los carpinteros. arts and information are the
last place where political lines should be drawn, and this robert fleck-
with no doubt the best, but totally ignorant, intentions- is falling into
the same traps of intollerence he most abhors. please be wary of the
politically correct, they constitute one of the more pervasive forms of
thought police censoring and squelching the arts today. I encourage you to
think twice before passing along such smug cultural assessments in the
future- those I know and respect in austria are indeed very concerned about
this, but would never wish to have their pipeline to the ideas and
creations of the rest of the world severed- and if you know robert fleck to
give him a big fuck-you from me.

love-- carlo.

Senior Editor
P A P E R
365 Broadway NYCÂ  10013
212.226.4405
http://www.papermag.com





dear friends,

there can be little doubt that the FPO is very bad news for austria, not
least for the austrian artists and cultural organisations who have had to
go through several difficult conflicts with haider's party already.

in order to understand the danger more precisely, it would be good if some
of the austrians on this list, or robert fleck himself, could explain a
little more what the policies of the FPO are in the field of culture and
society. this might also help to ascertain more clearly how best to support
the democratic and independent groups in austria.

at the same time, we should not forget that there are other countries in
europe which have worrying governments with xenophobic, nationalistic,
undemocratic, you name it, policies, whose artists deserve the same kind of
support. vienna-belgrade 660 km.

by the way, whatever happened to the Baltic mission to Minsk?

greetings,
-a


>Dear all,
>I am forwarding you an e-mail I got from a Croatian theorist, who
>recieved e-mail from Robert Fleck who wrote about what for austrian
>artists mean enter of Haider into the gouverment.
>greetings,
>ana

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