Artists at Risk

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“What is the state of political arts and freedom of speech in Europe?”

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Artists, writers, curators, critics and scholars are targets of politically motivated threats and persecution in great parts of the world.  Perpetuum Mobile initiated Artists at Risk as a platform and network to support these art practitioners in times of need. Artists at Risk is an institution at the intersection of human rights and the arts. It is dedicated to mapping the field of persecuted visual art practitioners, facilitating their safe passage from their countries of origin, hosting them at seven residencies around Europe. Artists at Risk develops cooperation-programmes with artist-in-residency centres, art unions, cities and human-rights networks which help provide artists at risk a safe place of temporary relocation.

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The European Parliament honoured Perpetuum Mobile with the CIVI EUROPAEO PRAEMIUM (the European Citizen’s Prize) for Artists at Risk in 2016. Safe Haven (Artists at Risk residency in Helsinki) won the Annual Art Act Award in 2016 and the Thematic State Prize of Finland in 2017.

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Are artists becoming activists, and how is this influating the concept arts and what we consider as art? What is the state of freedom of speech and the arts as a tool with political influence? At LIFT the curators Marita Muukkonen and Ivor Stodolsky share their perspective to the changing atmosphere of arts in politics from an European point of view. They are joining on LIFT Live stage the discussion "Art, Politics, & Inclusion" together with Start Up Refugees.

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Marita Muukkonen, Co-Founding Co-Director of Perpetuum Mobile, is an internationally active curator based in Helsinki. She has been Chairperson of HIAP – The Helsinki International Artists-in-Residence Programme; Curator at HIAP; Curator at FRAME – Contemporary Art Finland; Editor of FRAMEWORK – The Finnish Art Review; and held key functions at NIFCA – The Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art over several years.

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Ivor Stodolsky is the Co-Founding Director and Curator of Perpetuum Mobile, an internationally active curator, writer and theorist. Today, aside from curating and institution-building, Ivor is an editor and contributor to journals and publications and a speaker on art, politics and philosophy.

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