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16 - 25/06/2017

fot. Marcin Oliva Soto
Galleryfot. Marcin Oliva Soto

The statements made by Polish minister of culture regarding performance "The Curse" and the way he has financially blackmailed Malta Festival, are unprecedented in my artistic career. Although I have very often been subject of different forms of political pressure and censorship, it has never been done so openly and by a member of government. Mr. Gliński, I congratulate You on this infamous success!

The other thing I would like to point out here is the fact that the Polish minister of culture has declared openly that he is ready to violate valid agreement and to violate applicable procedure of giving donations he should by very nature of his function enforce. He should know, at least since the March 2016, when the Ministryapproved the program with the names of curators of Malta Festival for time period of 2016 till 2018, who those curators were. If Mr. Gliński doesn't know yet, my theatre work has been presented at most prestigious international festivals and theaters: Wiener Festwochen (Vienne), Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels), Festival TransAmériques (Montreal), Dialog (Wroclaw), La MaMa (New York), Bitef (Belgrade) - just to name few of them. If Mr. Gliński has had problem with what happened in Stary Teatr in 2013. he should have reacted before approving financial subsidy to Malta Festival.

When Mr. Gliński accuse me of threatening the basic principles of social coexistence, I would like to notice that he didn't say a single word to condemn all the violence that has been directed towards actors and management of Teatr Powszechny. We didn't hear from Mr. Gliński condemning those who attacked basic freedom of speech, artistic freedom or freedom of people to freely go to a theatre. We also didn't hear Mr Gliński expressing his compassion to the cleaning woman whose hands were burnt by corrosive substance thrown by nationalist youth before one of the repeat performance of "The Curse" in Teatr Powszechny. Maybe, for Mr. Gliński all this violence works on social cohesion where majority can unsanctioned maltreat different minorities.

I would like to inform Mr. Gliński and Polish public that I am going to use the time reserved to spend at Malta Festival to inform international press, human rights organizations, cultural networks, theaters and other subjects in culture about his suppression of freedom of speech, artistic freedom and violation of law.


Sincerely,
Oliver Frljić


14th June 2017