La Voz de Galicia – July 7, 2023 →
This week, reading the news about the cancellation of cultural events, one can’t stop thinking about what it means for political power to have so much weight over this country’s cultural life. It is difficult to accept that our most commercial cultural products are «governed» by an economic power that we don’t even know where it comes from but that has the ability to dictate tendencies and styles that not so long ago we swore we would never understand. But it is even more difficult to grasp the fact that much of the country’s cultural programming depends on public organizations that have the ability to decide whether there is or isn’t «a budget» (because that seems to be the official excuse for the cancellations) for this or that show, event, or movie.
It is scary to think of the word «censure,» but looking around the world, gazing at our own navel first, one feels that, in some way, the word (and its meaning) is gaining strength again, manifesting itself not only in the cancellations of shows, but also in the day to day of cultural, real, and virtual life. And even though the cancellation of culture is not the same as cancel culture, the truth is that one can’t stop thinking about the social consequences of the practice of these two ideas.
A life where artists can reflect on and translate the world around us through cultural products expands our horizons, making us understand other points of view, helping us question our perception of the world, and it is precisely because of this that it is fundamental that it belongs to us, to society, and not to political and economic powers that govern our lives.
