Forbidden Culture Week
Status
ongoingCity
Malmö
Main actors
City Government, Supranational / Intergovernmental Institutions, Private Sector, Community / Citizen Group, Research Institutes / Universities
Project area
Whole City/Administrative Region
Duration
Ongoing since 2020
Freedom of expression is currently threatened in many parts of the world, and cultural practitioners and artists are often particularly vulnerable. The City of Malmö prides itself in keeping the conversation about freedom of expression alive, but this can always be improved. The aim is to continue to offer cultural experiences that safeguard the free formation of opinion and other democratic rights. During this week, Malmö’s cultural institutions, independent actors and community groups will collaborate to provide a broad and exciting range of activities for Malmö residents to participate in.
- Highlight and safeguard forbidden culture from a historical and contextual perspective.
- Provide a forum where Malmö residents can experience and discuss freedom of expression.
- Strengthen the democratic discourse through culture
- Increase awareness of the limitations of artistic freedom in the world, and in Sweden
- Strengthen collaboration and cooperation between the City of Malmö’s cultural institutions, and with independent cultural actors and community groups.
The initiator (host) of Forbidden Culture Week is the cultural administration of the City of Malmö and is supported by Skånes Dansteater, Inkonst, Moderna Museet, Biograf Panora, Biograf Spegeln, Reporters Without Borders and Malmö University.
By focusing attention and resources on issues of freedom of expression, the Department for Culture hopes to gather the city and others interested in questions of free and unfree speech today and historically and raise awareness both within Malmö and in a larger context. An increased awareness of and wider conversation on freedom of expression has a strengthening effect on democratic society at large.
Evaluation will be done quantitatively through statistics on the number of visitors and activities and qualitatively in conversations with participants and the working group for the event. Depending on the results of this evaluation, it is hoped that Forbidden Culture Week can return every year and grow into a national and international event.