13 October 2022 Cry for peace by dissident artists 'People want to raise their children in a free world: the language of art must be one for all'.
Two dissident artists, the Chinese Badiucao and the Russian Victoria Lomasko, in the handover of Brescia's Festival della Pace, from last year's protagonist to that of the exhibition to come, starting on 11 November at the Museo di Santa Giulia. Yesterday, the two spoke in the Vanvitellian Hall of Palazzo Loggia, exemplifying what the role of the artist should be, committed to reading the challenges of the contemporary world: 'The true artist must be a sensitive individual, capable of letting the world speak through him or her,' Lomasko reflected. According to Lomasko, art is not for fighting against something, it is not good at it at all, but for offering something. Its main objective, especially when there is a war going on, is to show that humanity is one and indivisible'.
Badiucao's response, which rose to international prominence thanks to the showcase of the exhibition in Santa Giulia last year, revolves around a work he donated to the City Council, featuring Dr Li Wenliang, who first denounced the Covid tragedy in China, before dying from the consequences of the Covid virus and becoming a universal symbol of the fight against to obscurantism: ' Dr. Li argued that society should not have only one voice,' agrees Badiucao: 'the artist must be the megaphone of the people, bring the people's complaints to the powerful. It is a privilege, but also a responsibility, to ensure that authoritarian countries like Russia and China do not only have the cries of power, but also the millions of voices around them. We are entering an era of chaos: climate change, pandemic, war in Ukraine'.
Before the talk, there was the customary press conference, attended by the mayor Emilio Del Bono, the deputy Laura Castelletti, the president of the City Council Roberto Cammarata and the president of the Brescia Musei Foundation Francesca Bazoli. Together with the curator of Victoria Lomasko's exhibition, Elettra Stamboulis, and the moderator of the meeting, the director of Brescia Musei Stefano Karadjov, Lomasko gave a strong cry of peace at the end: 'From the moment I left, I became a magnet for so many suffering artists,' explained the Russian graphic designer. In Russia, no one is for war, people would like their children to grow up in a free world: the language of art must be one for all'.
