 |
Your Call Herr Momper!
BERLIN
December 21st, 2004
On Monday the 13th of
December
the
Derry City council of N.Ireland voted unanimously to
draft a letter
to Herr Momper, President of
The Berlin Parliament,
inviting him
to explain, truthfully if he can, why he chose to insult
a great section of
people in Northern Ireland by cancelling the exhibition
of the work of The Bogside Artists that had been
scheduled from as far back as January 2004 for the
parliament gallery in Berlin. Here is the letter
entire. " Dear Herr Momper,
At the November meeting of the Derry City Council,
members expressed concern
and disappointment regarding the decision by the
Berlin Parliament to ban an
exhibition by The Bogside Artists which was planned
to take place in the Parliament
Buildings.
The Bogside Murals have made a valuable
contribution to tourism and are part
of the overall cultural trail in the City and do not
cause offence to anyone living in the city.
Council support the work of The Bogside Artists and
have asked me to request
from you the reasons behind the German authorities'
decision to ban the exhibition."
Yours sincerely,
John Meehan,
Deputy Town Clerk
The Bogside Artists had been officially invited to
exhibit their work at the Berlin Parliament Gallery by
The
Committee for Cultural Affairs of The
Berlin House of
Representatives. The
invitation was extended with the
following statement:
We have invited the artists and their works to Berlin
to remind people that a political conflict is still
awaiting a sustainable solution that will ensure long-
term peace in the region."
How true is that, given the present stalemate in
N.Ireland!?
The invitation was
subsequently
confirmed
in a letter
dated January 13th stipulating that the artists had
been granted an exhibition of their work to run in the
gallery from November 11 to December 10th 2004.
They were later informed, a
mere two weeks before the launch, that Herr
Momper had decided to pull
the plug on
the whole event overriding his own committee in
order to do so. Why? Why indeed?
You can download the following PDF file (big) to
FIND OUT.
Whatever his cultural committee may think of this
(and we know not all of them agreed!), the Irish
Ambassador who drafted a letter of enquiry to
Momper in early November is likely a whole lot more
aggrieved. The following was received
from the Embassy on
November
12th. "The
Ambassador
has
already formally written to Herr Momper requesting
details of the thinking that led to the cancellation,
and setting out the background to the murals, "The
Bogside Artists" support for the peace process, etc.
We await Herr Momper's reply to the Ambassador's
letter."
As far as we know, the
Ambassdor is still waiting! You may call this
'unprofessional conduct', 'undiplomatic', 'negligent',
'disrespectful', or
whatever. We call it what it is, blunderbuss
abuse.
If you think political censorship has no place in the
arts and constitutes a blatant infringement of
Article 19 of the The Declaration of Human
Rights governing freedom of expression, do feel free
to contact Herr Momper who evidently believes, in his
Napoleonic delusions, that he is a law onto himself.
Telephone: (030) 2325 2325
Fax: (030) 2325 1008
E-Mail: walter.momper@parlament-
berlin.de
Or write to: Herr Walter Momper,
Prasident des Abgordnetenhauses von Berlin,
Niederkirchnerstrasse 5,
10111 Berlin/Germany.
About The Bogside Artists
The Bogside Artists have their studio in the
heart of The Bogside. Many tourists visit the studio
annually. There, they hold talks, give presentations
and conduct workshops with the disadvantaged
youth of the city. The artists are internationally
renowned for the ten large-scale murals they have
painted for The Bogside, depicting the
key events in the people's struggle for democratic
rights. They have been engaged in cross-community
work in the city for over a decade.
For a complete gallery of their work contact the
website below, authored by Dr. Martin Melaugh of
Magee Campus, Coleraine University.
|
Tom Kelly
THE BOGSIDE ARTISTS
phone:
71-373842
|
|
|
|
