Thursday, October 04, 2012

Workshops and labels sticthed

Monday I received 126 labels stitched in by Lewes Soroptimists, students and staff of Pestalozzi International Village Trust in UK and students from Susmita Ghimire´s primary school project in Nepal. They are beautiful. Thank you so much! They are now installed on the wall with the rest of the labels.

The wall is almost done now, last labels will come up today. Yesterday I visited Wexford Campus School of Art and Design and arranged a workshop there. Some of the students from this school helped me last week with the installation. Great help and they had to travel for more than an hours to get to Visual. The last session yesterday evening was with the volunteers at Visual - a group of more than 20 engaged people.

Today Norwegian choreographer and dancer Runa Rebne arrives here. We will be working on adapting our performance Ukjent to the room in Visual. The performance will be held at the reception Oct 24th.

Thank you.

Best Lise  





Information from Ciudad Juaréz, Diana Washington Valdez

I received an email from Diana Washington Valdez, writer and reporter living in El Paso, USA, yesterday with an update on the current situation in Ciudad Juarez:

 - About 1,500 girls and women have been murdered in Juarez since 1993. Young women and teenage girls still disappear from Downtown Juarez. The city police is making inroads into all other crimes, but doesn't seem to touch this area.

- In my book I wrote that the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Mexico and Moreles could be considered one region or the same region, because the Juarez drug cartel entrenched itself in all three states. The new president of Mexico, who assumes the office Dec. 1, was governor of Mexico state when crime grew rapidly and the drug cartel continued to expand. He did not have a good crime-fighting record as governor, and has ties to powerful and corrupt people in the state of Mexico. Chihuahua, Morelos and the state of Mexico are battlegrounds for the drug cartels.


Monday, September 24, 2012

Desconocida Unknown Ukjent in An Oasis of Horror in A Desert of Boredom, VISUAL Center for Contemporary Art, Carlow, Ireland

I arrived in Carlow on Thursday to start installing Desconocida Unknown Ukjent in VISUAL Center for contemporary art, Carlow. The exhibition titled An Oasis of Horror in a Desert of Boredom, includes works of Brian Maquire, Ireland and Teresa Margolles, Mexico. Mark Mcloughlin and Lanka Haouche Perren are showing documentary films and photos from Ciudad Juarez.

The wall to hold the labels is this time 3,4 m tall and 8,8 m long and will eventually be filled with 6100 - 6200 labels. The last ones being stitched here in Carlow in workshops this week and next week. I am also waiting for labels that are being sent from UK.

I am so lucky that in addition to all the great help I get here at Visual, I also have my father with me as an assistant. Very patient and very hard working. Today we had a group of art students and staff at Visual embroidering and helping out. Many are coming back tomorrow.

The wall is up, and we have almost finished the second verse of the lyrics. ( The labels are on the wall spelling the lyrics of the Mexican and the US anthem interwoven in Morse code. )
Best Lise






Friday, June 29, 2012

Wave of Violence Swallows More Women in Juárez



Article from the New York Times, pointing to the continuing murders of women in Ciudad Juaréz.

See link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/world/americas/wave-of-violence-swallows-more-women-in-juarez-mexico.html?_r=1

Lise

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Mexico´s presidental election and updates on Desconocida

The president election in Mexico is coming up: July 1st. Washington Post had a presentation of the candidates and their party. The Mexican youth protest in streets against corporate media and the PRI candidate. See the two links under for more information.

At the moment Pestalozzi Village Trust located in East Sussex, UK are involved in Desconocida Unknown embroidering with their students. The students responded with such engagement, many
wishing to carry on in smaller groups so that they can stitch and talk having seen the documentary.(Lourdes Portillo´s film: Missing young woman) More groups are getting involved in the same area, through the support of Susan Walton. I am very thankful for this! The labels embroidered here will be included in the upcoming exhibition of Desconocida in Ireland, October 5th at Visual Center for Contemporary Art, Carlow. Soon groups in Carlow will join and embroider labels in workshops arranged there. I am traveling to Ireland this summer to start off these workshops.

Thank you all for joining. Thanks to your involvement the pink wall in Carlow, will carry at least 6200 labels.

Best Lise

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/mexicos-presidential-election-the-old-may-be-new-again/2012/05/26/gJQAF8mPuU_story.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/mexican-youth-vote-on-the-streets-against-corporate-media/2012/05/31/gJQAngWs3U_story.html


Saturday, February 25, 2012

Last day at Musée Bernadotte, Pau, France -THANK YOU ALL

Dear all.

Sunday is the last day for the exhibition of Desconocida Inconnue Ukjent at Musée Bernadotte, Pau.
It has been such a special experience to bring Desconocida to Pau and the Museum. I want to thank all of you for the time and focus you have brought to the project! It has been so good to be received with such care and engagement, and that from every person I have met! I can hardly believe the involvement that has been established through the effort of Anne, Regis and Lila in BonArt and their helpers, and the museum with Jean-Pierre and his staff. So many community centers, hospitals, schools, and other groups have been involved, many have been visiting the museum and embroidered labels during the exhibition period.  I have understood from conversations with Anne that workshops have been arranged in the exhibition up til this last week.

Thank you all!!

The beautiful catalog, so greatly designed by Benjamin Lahitte, was stitched together with the same enthusiasm and collaboration in a sewing workshop ("La Défil'rit") at the Berlioz Youth and Community Center in Pau, run by Françoise Paugam. 1200 catalogs were made this way! I am so proud to share the catalog with people that have been involved in the project in other countries and most importantly send it to Marisela Ortiz and people in Ciudad Juarez. 

It was also a very good experience to come back to Pau with the choreographer and dancer Runa Rebne to do the performance Ukjent and be met with the interest from so many.

I thank you all for your kindness, enthusiasm and care. Your effort and participation have added hundreds of new voices to the unison call against murder and abuse of women. All the best Lise

Monday, February 06, 2012

Norma Andrade in a new attack on her in her home in Ciudad Juarez on Saturday

Urgent Action: Mexican human rights defender Norma Andrade has been attacked again. First time was in December. She was seriously injured but was forced to leave the hospital and go into hiding due to death threats. She was attacked again in her home yesterday. Sign this petition urging Mexican govt to provide her protection and proper medical care.
Norma formed an organization together with Marisela Ortiz River, Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa to fight femicide after her daugher was murdered and is now being targeted for this work.
Please sign the petition from Amnesty Mexico (in Spanish) through this link: ¡Actúa! - Activista atacada continúa en riesgo.
In Musèe Bernadotte there are action cards ready to be sent to the Mexican President. Take on or many and give to to others to send to protest!
Best Lise
 

Thursday, February 02, 2012

More than 900 femicides is not enough for the Mexican Governmenet to initiate a gender alert

From article in Vanguardia, Mexico:

En su sesión de hoy, el Sistema Nacional calificó como improcedente la solicitud del Observatorio Ciudadano Nacional de Feminicidio (OCNF) para investigar la ola de asesinatos dolosos de mujeres en el estado de México.

El 20 de julio de 2009, el Sistema Nacional rechazó otra solicitud por agravio comparado para Guanajuato, por las reformas que penalizan el aborto en la entidad, pero al igual que esta ocasión, el Sistema descartó la investigación.

  Ana Yeli Pérez Garrido, integrante del OCNF y abogada de la Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos (CMDPDH), dijo a Cimacnoticias que este hecho demuestra la falta de voluntad política del Estado mexicano para proteger el derecho de las mujeres a una vida libre de violencia.

Añadió que durante la reunión de hoy el Sistema, presidido por la Secretaría de Gobernación, “los argumentos se politizaron, se habló de que la AVG era un golpe para el gobernador priísta y no fundaron la improcedencia en argumentos de hecho o jurídicos”.

  En cinco años del gobierno de Enrique Peña Nieto (2005-2010) los homicidios dolosos de mujeres sumaron 922, según datos de la propia Procuraduría General de Justicia del estado (PGJEM). “Pero este hecho no les parece suficientemente grave (a los integrantes del Sistema Nacional) como para iniciar una investigación”, acusó Pérez Garrido.

De acuerdo con la PGJEM, en 2005 se registraron 98 homicidios dolosos de mujeres, en 2006 hubo 138, en 2007 161, para 2008 176, en 2009 ocurrieron 205 y hasta agosto de 2010 se denunciaron 144. Para colmo, de cada 10 asesinatos dolosos de mujeres 9 están en la impunidad.

En la sesión del Sistema, detalló, cuya Secretaría Ejecutiva es ocupada por el Instituto Nacional de las Mujeres, las y los integrantes “dijeron, incluso, que los tratados internacionales firmados por México, como la Convención para la Eliminación de Todas las Formas de Discriminación Contra la Mujer, no son vinculantes para el Estado de México”.

Además, el Sistema Nacional cuestionó las estadísticas utilizadas por el OCNF en la solicitud de AVG por la violencia feminicida en la entidad, a pesar de que los datos se basan en información proporcionada por la PGJEM.

La improcedencia de la investigación muestra que “las autoridades mexicanas no tienen ningún compromiso con los derechos de las mujeres”. Y envía el “mensaje incorrecto” a la sociedad: “la violencia de género no existe, por lo que ésta no se atiende, ni previene, dejando a las mexiquenses en la indefensión”, lamentó Ana Yeli Pérez.

  Con ello, el Sistema, integrado por las secretarías de Seguridad Pública, Desarrollo Social, Salud, Educación Pública, entre otras, “minimiza los asesinatos de mujeres por su condición de género, pues en el fondo no se trata de si las cifras coinciden, el problema de fondo es que no debe haber una sola mujer que muera por ser mujer”, declaró por separado a Cimacnoticias la ex legisladora Angélica de la Peña.

La también integrante de la Red de Investigadoras por la Vida y la Libertad de las Mujeres indicó que tras el cuestionamiento de las autoridades acerca de la precisión de las cifras, está la falta de voluntad política y de compromiso efectivo para cumplir con las leyes que protegen la vida de las mujeres.

La AVG es un mecanismo derivado de la Ley General de Acceso de las Mujeres a Una Vida Libre de Violencia, la cual entró en vigor el 2 de febrero de 2007 y su reglamento fue publicado el 11 de marzo de 2008.

Frente a la decisión del Sistema, integrado también por la Procuraduría General de la República, los institutos estatales de las mujeres y el Sistema para el Desarrollo Integral de la Familia, el OCNF anunció que interpondrá un recurso legal que aún está por definir.

El OCNF, integrado por más de 40 organizaciones del país, ha hecho tres solicitudes para decretar la AVG: Oaxaca y Chihuahua (por violencia feminicida), y Guanajuato (por agravio comparado).