Artship Global Initiative • Freedom of Expression Assembly
An exhibition and series of international meetings centered on an original theater piece
Burning of the Ancient Library of Alexandria
ARTSHIP Ensemble • San Francisco
Home Season and International Tour
A partnership of actors, dancers, musicians, storytellers, visual and language artists
"In Africa, when an old man dies, it's a library burning."
—BÂ, Amadou Hampâté, delivered in 1960 at UNESCO
A major theme of this project is the celebration and confirmation of the central role that wisdom collections—oral or written—play in every culture at all times in history. Among the most significant cultural contributions of these wisdom collections are the direct and indirect ways they nurture and preserve freedom of imagination, freedom of speech, and freedom of expression.
To these ends we are convening an international committee of artists, thinkers, curators, librarians, and patrons who might be able to act as an unofficial United Nations to support and promote freedom of expression.
The performance and exhibition together are a galvanizing and convening point. They will deal with the alignment and dis-alignment of places, issues of freedom of expression, and the rise and fall of empires.
The performance addresses the tensions brought about by huge events in history to the people who happen to be there—in that place at that time; how periods of cultural flourishing often are followed by periods of oppression and darkness; and that the great library was burned more than once.
“The loss of the ancient world's single greatest archive of knowledge, the Library of Alexandria, has been lamented for ages. But how and why it was lost is still a mystery. The mystery exists not for lack of suspects but from an excess of them.” —The Burning of the Library of Alexandria (P. Chesser. 2006)
The intention of the theater piece is to raise these issues from the level of rhetoric and complacency, to give vital insight into the meaning and depth of collecting and disseminating knowledge, and to illuminate the fragility of library collections and their keepers.
The whole project examines and inspires contemporary policy making, helps us learn from history, and gives sanctuary to individuals and groups who have dared to stand alone. |
