The Artnauts: A Global Collective of Artists for Peace

I recently met the “Artnauts” a  collective of about 20 artists led by the dynamic George Rivera, a Professor of Art at the University of Colorado,  Boulder. Here you see him in the front and center of the members of the group who participated in their 20th anniversary celebration.

 

The Artnauts have been traveling the world since 1995, going to zones of conflict and offering art, communication, dialog, and mutual understanding. In their words: “The collective uses the arts as a tool for addressing global issues while connecting artists from around the world.” They have created exhibitions with local artists in Palestine, Bosnia, the Amazon, Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, South Africa, Russia, China and many more. As they go to these places, they are also immeasurably enriched by the experience.

 

I was honored to be invited to speak at their anniversary exhibition at Red Line Gallery in Denver, Colorado.

 

The anniversary exhibition highlighted ten of their more recent exhibitions. These featured small works that could easily be transported.

 

Above you  see two themes that are repeated, the ongoing Palestinian crisis and the impact of climate change and globalization on indigenous cultures in Central and Latin America.

 

For many years George Rivera carried  huge boxes with large prints to venues around the world.

 

In addition to the commemorative exhibitions, Linda Weintraub was invited to curate a special exhibition of new works by some of the Artnauts, “Rally ‘Round the Flag of Justice ” Here she is speaking about the exhibition (in front of a different exhibition about guns)

 

All of the works are critiques, with the flag as an abstraction, a metaphor, a source of irony. Of course, we immediately think of the US flag as the subject, but there were many types of flags.

For example, Trine Bumuller, inspired by her Artnaut exhibition in Sarejevo last winter, created a tent like shape with Tibetan prayer flags to honor the nightmare of the Bosnians;  on the flags she painted the image of the Sarajevo roses superimposed on photographs of the still visible ruins of the city or other images. Red “Sarejevo roses” were painted on sidewalks where sniper’s bullets landed.

 

Andrew Connelly featured a queen size bed with the US and Israeli flags sewn together, “in bed together” and under the transparent sheet we could see the Palestinian flag barely visible.

 

The group has visited Palestine many times, and collaborated with Palestinian artists, most recently this summer in “Art and Resistance,” an exhibition for which I wrote a catalog essay.

Here we see George Rivera in front of his piece on Palestine/Juarez, with rubber bullets and a water bottle signifying the two borders.

He pointed out that the red triangle on the flag also signifies the wall on the two borders.

At the symposium accompanying the exhibition he said (on November 11, only three days after our “election”)

“In spite of what we have become on Tuesday, around the world, they love us a human beings.  The Artnauts affirm in this time people who stand up to injustice. “

He spoke of his own personal motivations for creating a collective that would stand up to injustice.

“I came out of intense racism in a small town in Texas. Art is a tool for addressing global issues, while connecting to artists around the world.

 

We seek to bring a sense or caring and humanity. The Artnauts stand for the intersection of critical consciousness and contemporary artistic practice.”

One of the most fascinating locations that the Artnauts have travelled to is the Amazon river, where they collaborated with local tribes and communities. I am still trying to sort out the information about this and will revise my discussion when I learn more. Suzanne Faris’s amazing sculptural installation speaks to greed, consumerism and the gobbling of resources.

 

Beth Krensky has created a long white truce flag shared between the Israelis and Palestinians. Made of white handkerchiefs baby t shirts, etc each olive pole that it hangs from is inscribed with a quote from a mother who has lost a child

Jerusalem mother:

“For me the struggle is not between Palestinians and Israelis,nor between Jews and Arabes. The fight is between those who seek peace and those who seek war. My people are those who seek peace”

Nablus mother:

I’ve known Israeli bereaved mothers for many years. The mothers’pain is similar, no matter if they are Israelis or Palestinians . . . the pain is seared into us and will be with us forever.”

 

And on the theme of the Mexican border crossing Tony Ortega’s work included the theme of hybridity, crossing a “Warhol soup can” with a Mexican soup in an installation that included a hybrid flag and a water barrel providing water for border crossers.

Kim V Martinez also spoke of the border crossing, its difficulties and its dangers, referring to those who died within one small area.

 

These are only a few of the artists represented by the collective and in the special exhibition. George Rivera has carefully published a catalog of each exhibition and deposited the archives with the Lilas Benson Latin American Collections at the University of Texas at Austin, so their legacy for future historians is assured. Amazingly enough, they have not received any reviews in the past 20 years in the United States!

 

The Artnauts are deeply committed to speaking through their art of injustice. They speak in many voices, directly, poetically, politically, metaphorically. They speak of peace, of land, of consumption, of greed, of death, of hope, of perseverance. It was truly inspiring to meet them in t he week of our disastrous election.

 

We can look to these artists and others as we plan our resistance to the national nightmare currently unfolding like a slow, long-lasting earthquake.