Artists from All Over the World to Speak of Artistic Creativity and Human Rights at UNESCO

Paris, 05 December—Dancers, choreographers, musicians, performers and visual artists will engage in an open dialogue on how artistic creativity can contribute to the defense of human rights and human dignity, at UNESCO’s first Art Lab - Dialogue with World Artists on Human Rights at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris (Room 1), on 11 December, at 2.30 p.m.

Organized in cooperation with the National Theatre of Chaillot in Paris as part of the celebration of the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Art Lab will bring together artists from North and South America, Africa, Europe and the Middle East in a public debate. They will explore their individual personal and artistic perspective and experience of human in a unique space for reflection on the power of art to highlight injustice, to heal and to reconcile.

The artists include choreographers Lia Rodrigues (Brazil), Alonzo King (US), Jose Montalvo (Spain/France), Phia Ménard (France), Taïgué Ahmed (Chad), Fabrice Bwabulamutima, (Democratic Republic of Congo), Marcia Barcellos (Brazil), visual artist Freddy Tsimba (DRC), and musician Bachar Mar Khalifé (Lebanon).

Nada Al-Nashif, Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Science of UNESCO, and Didier Deschamps, Director of the National Theatre of Chaillot, will open the event, which will be moderated by French audiovisual journalist and environmental activist Audrey Pulvar.

The artists, some of them victims of abuses, will speak of human rights and dignity in their personal journeys and artistic development, which, in some of their cases focuses on subjects such as migration and exile, conflicts of identity, collective memory, war and reconciliation as well as gender and other discriminations.

What is the transformative power of art? How can artists effect positive social change? Art Lab aims to support young artists’ contribution to human rights and dignity, notably in conflict zones.