CULTURAL
DIPLOMACY AND NEW YORK PRIVILEGES
An
article by Michael Z. Wise, published on last Sunday's 'The
New York Times' edition, analyses the amazing cultural harassment
by other countries on New York when, on the other hand,
American culture officially does nothing to be seen by the
rest of the world. Wise evaluates how some nations use culture
to polish their images, commenting the construction of a
24-story building, signed by the architect Raimund Abraham,
containing galleries, a library and a theater as well as
offices, on 52nd street, between Madison and Fifth Avenues,
which cost 29 million dollars to the Austrian government.
The
phenomenon of using art as diplomacy is one sided, says
the newspaper: "While many nations have embraced cultural
diplomacy and made New York the focal point of it, the United
States has been reluctant to use art to communicate American
objectives overseas." It also brings to understanding
that the USA doesn't use popular culture to promotion because
this culture would already be spread and guarantees political
power to the country with the advent of satellite TV and
the internet. It forgets the power of the movies to also
disseminate American popular culture, but reminds of the
importance of Secretary of State Colin Powell having shown
on MTV in his campaign against terror.
It
also talks about how much is spent by other countries to
have visibility in New York: Denmark, Finland, Iceland,
Norway and Sweden helped build the Scandinavian House in
Park Avenue, a permanent Nordic pavilion for concerts and
exhibitions, lectures and films. Spain will open a US$ 19
million 'Arts Center' on East 49th Street. The Italian Cultural
Institute also plans changes for 2003. Goethe Institute
spends annual US$ 7,5 million to promote German culture
to the Americans. The article goes on listing cultural actions
by France, Holland, Greece, Mongolia, Israel and Brazil.
Here,
south of the world, facing the cultural diplomacy extravagances,
we are left to follow, exasperated and from far, what is
offered to the cosmopolitans in New York. We can also conclude
whatever we want to from this fetishist policy that prioritizes
massive cultural investments for the privilege of American
thinking minds. There are exceptions, of course. Goethe
Institute and Italian Cultural Institute are some of the
cultural names present in many other parts of the world,
including Brazilian cities. Besides that, the 25-year history
of the São Paulo International Film Festival is a
good living testimony of the difficulties faced every year
to bring culture from other parts of the world to Sao Paulo.
It is a small example. The 'The New York Times' article
is a great proof that culture, too, has classes.
FROM THE READERS
CARLOS
SAURA
On
jornal da Mostra nº 73 there is wrong information.
The film "Bunuel and the Table of King Solomon",
by Carlos Saura has been finished some months ago. It has
even already been released here in Spain last year.
Tatiana Tolentino Mosca
SOKUROV
First
of all congratulations for the high level in 'Jornal da
Mostra' text, being daily is great, the inclusion of readers
letters could be bigger…
Taking
the opportunity of the article about Sokurov, I would like
to suggest the São Paulo International Film Festival
team make a retrospective of the films of this great director,
many of which unseen in Brazil.
Whoever
had the chance to see "Elegy of a Voyage" was
wondered by what he saw. Since Tarkovsky's films there was
nothing so visually intense. One gets the impression that,
even without the subtitles, the film itself carries the
viewer…
Researching
on Sokurov's website, I found out that there is a series
of theses "Elegies".
I got in touch with the distributor and unfortunately there
is no way to get prints, not even VHS, but they beckoned
the possibility of a retrospective in the São Paulo
IFF this year. That's why we reinforce the suggestion…
Other directors that deserve a retrospective (and have often
been presented in previous editions of the Festival) are
Jacques Rivette and Raul Rouiz.
Congratulations
to the 'Jornal' and the Festival teams.
Jorge
Poulsen
Artigo
de Michael Z. Wise, publicado na edição de domingo
do 'The New York Times' analisa o fenomenal assédio cultural
de outros países sobre Nova York quando, em contrapartida,
a cultural americana oficialmente nada faz para ser vista pelo
resto do mundo. O articulista avalia como algumas nações
usam a cultura para polir suas imagens e cita a construção
de um prédio de 24 andares, assinado pelo arquiteto Raimund
Abraham, com galerias, biblioteca, teatro e escritórios,
na Rua 52, entre as Avenidas Madison e a Fifth, ao custo de 29
milhões de dólares aos cofres do governo austríaco.
