“The objective is to generate a framework for critical reflection on the situation of human rights in the world, with special emphasis on women’s rights,” said Arantzazu Acha, director of Unesco Etxea

 

“ This is a project that focuses on art for social transformation. We seek from art, reflection on gender inequalities,” explains Irantzu Lekue.

GASTEIZ,  The City Council of Vitoria-Gasteiz approved in June the decision for  the annual “Human Rights and artistic creation”  organized by the Cooperation service together with the Montehermoso Cultural Center. Councillor Jaione Agirre explained  “the best rated proposal was the one presented by UNESCO Etxea and the artist and muralist Irantzu Lekue called #Fem_RIGHTS” who began working on the project in August through three street art actions in the Jardin de Falerina,  Judimendi Park and the Lakua bus station ”. This is where the artist developed the first pieces of a “micro-mural” created based on participation dynamics designed “ad hoc” for the new project.

Irantzu Lekue explained that the exhibition will begin with a general and participatory analysis of the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights “to immerse yourself in an analysis of the violation of women’s rights, from a local perspective, without losing sight of the more complex situations, discriminatory and abusive of other cultures or other historical moments in our community and culture. The art works will take us on a journey from the Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 to the current commemoration: to the 70th Anniversary. It will address “discrimination against women in different fields, stereotypes, the gender gap – which appears in Wikipedia -, literary historical records, the glass ceiling, violence and abuse against women, the canon of contemporary beauty or the established  roles for women ”. An exhibition that came about in order to make visible and denounce human rights violations to which women are subjected to all over the world.

Arantzazu Acha, Director of Unesco Etxea  stressed that “it is a very broad, very complete project and that we will gradually re-create” and that it was born with the objective of generating a framework of critical reflection on the human rights situation in the world, with special emphasis on the violated rights of women, using the communicative power of various artistic expressions, and involving the citizens of Vitoria-Gasteiz.

United Nations

This new project that began in August and will be released in November is the result of the collaboration of Irantzu Lekue and Unesco Etxea. The artists and cultural managers Elssie Ansareo, Irene Basilio Intxausti, Irantzu Lekue, Leire Martínez, Jone Otero and Arrate Velasco went to the UN Human Rights Council where they attended the 37th session of the Council of Human Rights United Nations Human Rights. It was there that Lekue joined the Basque network of artistic education for social transformation Gizarte by Unesco Etxea and began working on what she has termed as muralism for social transformation, a muralism that focuses “not only to aesthetically improve the surrounding environments but to create new networks and synergies between communities. ” As she explains, “when we approach creative experiences our focus changes and that influences how we look at the world; if we are more or less empathetic; if we are willing to understand other realities … “Acha also points out that” to the extent that a person learns things, he also transmits them to third parties. And he adds that he wants to hear expert voices, voices that come from other realities and that value, in a context such as the United Nations, art and culture”.

FemRIGHTS has as a general objective to spread the commitment to human rights as a shared project of the Alava society before international institutions, actively participating in the campaign commemorating the 70th Anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations, “Defend equality, justice and human dignity ”# StandUp4HumanRights, and in the Basque institutions campaign“ Thanks to Human Rights – Eskerrak giza eskubideei ”.

With this premise, the project is marked with a specific objective, to disseminate the value of human rights and promote its promotion, vindication and defence among citizens to participate in the celebration of the 70th Anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights.