Kulturcensur i Georgien

Får återigen mejl från mina internationella teaterkritikerkollegor som handlar om politisk kulturcensur. Postar här ett brev från Irina Gogoberidze, teaterkritiker och professor vid universitetet för teater och film i Tbilisi, Georgien, som handlar om hur kulturministern i Georgien, Nikoloz Rurua,  ska ha avskedat Shota Rustaveli National Theatres konstnärlige ledare Robert Sturua på grund av hans kritiska, offentliga uttalanden. 

Dear Colleagues,

I would like to inform you that by a decree signed on August 9, 2011, Mr. Nikoloz Rurua, Minister of Culture of Georgia, dismissed Robert Sturua from his position as Artistic Director of Georgia’s first and foremost, the Shota Rustaveli National Theatre. Two days later, the Minister explained through the media that the cause of this dismissal was xenophobic statement made by Robert Sturua. However, the Georgian society, who has never witnessed any evidence of xenophobia in Robert Sturua’s performances or his public life, knows only too well that the real reason behind this decision was political. Georgia’s government was very displeased by Robert Sturua’s critical public statements, interviews and his performances, created to criticize causes of an immense, irreversible void that appeared between the Establishment and the Georgian society.

The great maestro is now left without his theatre, and the Rustaveli National Theatre, the image of Georgia’s cultural life, faces hard times. The company is protesting, the start of the season is under question and the scandal around Robert Sturua is alarmingly growing into a larger dimension where the Georgian culture is threatened with well concealed censorship.

I am sure that out foreign friends and colleagues have seen at least one performance of Robert Sturua, or have heard that Robert Sturua has staged 19 out of 37 Shakespeare play, that his “Caucasian Chalk Cricle” is amongst the best performances of the 20th century, that his shows, saturated with breathtaking fantasy, grotesque, ironical and philosophic metaphors, always ponder the same themes of interrelationship of human, freedom and power.

Your kind words of support will strengthen us in the fight against political persecutions of artists and censorship on culture.

Dr. Irina Gogoberidze
Theatre Critic, Member of IATC
Professor at the Tbilisi University of Theatre and Film

Jag vet inte mer om detta än vad som står i brevet, men The Guardian har tagit upp fallet samt publicerat ett svar från den georgiske kulturministern

Svenska Teaterkritikers förening har ett pågående kritikerutbyte med Georgien och åker till Tbilisi för styrelsemöte i ExCom för  IATC-AITC  27 september – 3 oktober, i samband med Tbilisis internationella teaterfestival .

Annons