There will be a Directorate of Cultural Rights to support “erased” or “censored” authors
MADRID, 22 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, has announced a review process of the collections of State Museums that “make it possible to overcome a colonial framework or one anchored in gender or ethnocentric inertia that has, on many occasions, hindered” the vision of heritage, the history and artistic legacy.
“It is about establishing spaces for dialogue and exchange that allow us to overcome this colonial framework,” the minister remarked in his first intervention in Congress during the Culture Commission. Urtasun has advanced that there are international commitments assumed by Spain that “translate into a review process” of the collections of state museums.
Thus, he has advanced that this review is already incorporated as a transversal axis in the temporary programming of, for example, the National Museum of Anthropology or the Museum of America. “We are working to make visible and recognize the perspective of the communities and the memory of the people from which the exhibited goods come,” he defended.
Thus, the minister has reiterated that the objective in this field will be to “continue advancing” in the line opened by other Spanish and international museums.
On the other hand, Urtasun has announced the creation of a General Directorate of Rights, which “will accompany any creator, author or collective whose activity has been deleted or censored from public space.” This new department will have among its fundamental objectives to develop a Cultural Rights Plan.
In this case, it will cover both the field of freedom of expression — “adopting a firm stance against any form of censorship,” he indicated — and the “promotion of decent conditions” for cultural work, which are “an essential condition for guarantee freedom and equality.”
Urtasun has stressed the importance that the exercise of culture “cannot be restricted by any type of prior censorship.” “Cultural creation and production is undergoing a historic moment of change in which censorship and political interference are gaining ground in public cultural management,” he lamented.
In the legislative field, it has announced that a new Heritage Law will be addressed, which includes precisely the new heritage categories such as the cultural landscape and industrial heritage and the international conventions ratified by Spain. Likewise, it will bet on the incorporation, along with museums and archives, of the now not contemplated category of national centers.
Along these same lines, he has also referred to the pending reform of the Cinema Law, which will be “for independent producers who are waiting for it and the necessary economic resources will be made available to them.” This law will be published in the coming weeks to conclude the last phase of the parliamentary debate.
On the other hand, he has described as “urgent” the need to “also protect two minority languages” which are Aragonese and Asturian. “They are languages ??that are not co-official but are recognized by their autonomy statutes and must be protected,” he has advanced.
In this regard, he has expressed Culture’s desire to “maintain a fluid relationship” also with the Academy of the Asturian Language and the Academy of the Aragonese Language, as well as all civil society that “actively works for the preservation and promotion of both.” languages”.
“We will work to agree with the regional authorities on a joint strategy to support, disseminate and project the cultural and linguistic diversity of Spain, recognizing those institutions that in a special way ensure the maintenance of this expression of wealth,” he added. Furthermore, Culture will promote in this legislature the circulation of productions in their original language with subtitles or overtitles.
Urtasun has also advanced the creation of an equality plan for culture and the strengthening of the equality observatory. In this field, he explained that guarantee systems will be activated in programming, in juries or in committees, in addition to preparing general and specific reports for any institution that receives public funds.
In addition, it has announced the launch of a Climate Future Culture Biennial, as well as a cultural action program also in neighborhoods and disadvantaged areas of Spain to “guarantee the equitable distribution of resources and access throughout the territory to both enjoyment as well as cultural creation and production”.
In this field, a program of access to cinema throughout the territory throughout the year will be studied in line with the action of Spanish Cinema Day to take it to rural areas or towns where projection spaces have disappeared.
AI AND 1% PUBLIC EXPENDITURE
Finally, the minister has demanded that all Spanish public administrations increase investment in culture, aiming for it to represent 1% of total public spending in Spain (compared to the current 0.7%, according to Eurostat data).
Another of the challenges of the Ministry of Culture for this legislature will be the area of ??copyright, its protection in a context of technological advances and, in particular, the development of Artificial Intelligence. “We must be public institutions who work so that AI is not a mechanism for dispossession of the work itself and the rights of workers,” he concluded.
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