The United Nations rarely has a sense of humour, but yesterday, to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the coinciding Human Rights Day, the UN opened the tightly sealed doors of its headquarters to the public, offering an exhibit of editorial cartoons entitled Sketching Human Rights. The show appears in the Visitors’ Gallery and will last until mid-January before beginning its worldwide tour, with stops in Jerusalem, Berlin, Wellington and Istanbul.

This exhibit was launched concurrently in Rome, as the UN-backed touring show Cartooning for Human Rights, a spin-off of the year-long tour Cartooning for Peace. As a project founded by Jean Plantu, one of France’s foremost editorial cartoonists, these shows have become a movement of sorts, reacting to the anger and riots that stemmed from the editorial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad early in 2006.

"There has to be a response to the condemnations launched by some Imams, but it had to be done tactfully so as not to fall into the trap of a too frontal attack, which would have been seen as blasphemous in the Arab world. A reaction was called for," Plantu writes of the origins of Cartooning for Peace. "I do think that somehow there is a way to continue being critical, forceful and penetrating without hatred and, above all, without such a marked disrespect for the religious convictions of believers and non-believers alike."

The first edition of Cartooning for Peace was shown in April of 2007 in Paris, now at Rome’s Archeological Museum, it is in its sixth edition. The exhibit features artists from Italy, Turkey, Kenya, Japan, and France. Boasting the great cartoonists American, Jeff Danziger; and Iranian, Hassan Karimzadeh, who is no stranger to the political power of cartoons having been imprisoned for his drawings in 1993.

Both exhibits are hoping to achieve similar ends—create awareness and dialogue about human rights issues around the globe, and examine the relationship between political satire and political power. For both shows, no subjects are off limits with Darfur, Iraq, racial discrimination and women’s rights being some of the topics presented.

The buzz around the movement and this exhibit in particular is simple: pictures are worth a thousand words. "We make drawings without knowing that we practice human rights every day. Our language is the cartoon. My first language is not English, it is not French. My first language is drawing," said Plantu.

Figurative Pakistan is a group show opening at the Aicon Gallery in London, UK featuring four prominent Pakistani artists, Ijaz ul Hassan, Naiza Khan, Sana Arjumand, and Ahmed Ali Manganhar.

Ijaz ul Hassan is a long-time activist and dissident who came to prominence as a political artist in the 1970s when he was jailed for his public condemnation of martial law under General Zia-ul-Haq. Hassan was arrested, held in solitary confinement for four weeks and endured threats to his life and to the lives of his family and friends. Hassan's artwork was deemed so dangerous that is was removed from galleries and refused entrance into group exhibitions after his release from jail. During the worst of the political repression under General Zia-ul-Haq, Hassan painted messages on handbills and posters and distributed them by hand. Even today some of his paintings remain “classified”, although many have been declassified, some of which were shown in a recent retrospective at the Canvas Gallery in Karachi.

Hassan is considered one of Pakistan's most revered contemporary artists, but his work continues to attract suspicion and fear from state officials for its graphic images of violence and images of political protest. In the midst of Pakistan's current turmoil, he is once again being forced to endure military harassment and initmidation and his son, a lawyer, faces house arrest. Hassan left Pakistan early this month to be in London for the opening the Figurative Pakistan exhibition.

Hassan, who turned 67 this year, has begun creating images addressing Musharraf's current crackdown...

An ad designed by Canadian agency Émergence and originally used in Quebec is causing an uproar in Italy. The ad (pictured at right) shows a baby with a hospital bracelet reading "homosexual." The regional government in Tuscany has recently put the ad up on billboards in a region-wide campaign to end homophobia.

The ad has sparked criticism from the conservative community and the LGBT community, with some arguing that it may communicate that homosexuality is a disease. One thing is certain - Émergence has stirred public interest, and it's not the first time.

From le Fondation Émergence (translated from the french):

The next question will be asked: is homosexuality innate or acquired? So far, science has been unable to answer this question in the affirmative or consensual. However, there is consensus on one fact: one does not choose their sexual orientation, which has inspired the theme of the campaign.

Read an article on this ad at gay.com.

Adel Abidin, an artist who left Baghdad for Helsinki in 2000, has created Abidin Travels, a satirical travel agency to promote vacation trips to his hometown. This artwork functions as both a website that locates flights and an installation. You can enter the mock agency to find brochures and advertisements absurdly combining horrific images of today's Iraq with typical commercial sales slogans.

Book a flight and get details on hotels, rental cars and tours of Baghdad through Abidin Travels. Keep in mind you will probably only need a one-way ticket, as you may not be returning. Your tour will be full of surprises, maybe an explosion here or there, but "all the beautiful places that you might have read about have either been destroyed or looted. There really are no sights left." This information and other harrowing vacationing tips can be found at abidintravels.com.

Abidin Travels is on view in the Nordic Pavilion of the Venice Biennale through November 21. This and other works covering themes such as: fundamentalism, identity, nationalism, religion, totalitarianism, and common stereotypes can be viewed on the artist's website. While some pieces maintain equal levels of humor and irony, others, like Construction Site and Common Vocabularies, are quite heartbreaking; all Abidin's works are worth exploring.

Three floors of artwork exploring connected themes around protest and confrontation are on exhibit at Washington's Katzen Art Centre. From DCist:

In an audacious presentation of political and protest art, the Katzen Arts Center’s Art of CONFRONTation showcases three separate exhibitions that share a confident outspokenness. Whether it’s the poignant reenactments of torture of Abu Ghraib by Fernando Botero, or the surreal depictions of the city-dominated human condition by Irving Norman in Dark Metropolis, or the multifaceted collection of some of the 1970s most important feminist art in Claiming Space, these works are united by a passionate and irrepressible yearning to speak and be heard.

Despite their similarities, each exhibit has its own floor in the Katzen Arts Center—whose curved walls and pointed hallways make it a perfect venue for such a dynamic collection—so viewers are able to see each one independent of the others.

Read the whole article here.
Visit the Centre's website here.

Consuming War is a provocative collection of artwork and installations by artists exploring how consumer culture and American media have influenced the perception of war in the United States.

“The artists were chosen,” explained curator Barbara Koenen, “because they have been compelled to address the war in their practice. They had to shift what they had been doing because they could not continue production without addressing aspects of the growing dilemma.”

The exhibition includes work by Lynda Barry (yes, the same Lynda Barry with a syndicated comic strip), Wafaa Bilal (who earlier this year allowed netizens to shoot at him in his studio with a remotely operated paintball gun), Mary Brogger, Adam Brooks, Burtonwood & Holmes, Michael Hernandez de Luna, Fred Holland, Harold Mendez, Michael Rakowitz, Ellen Rothenberg, Edra Soto, Paula White and Dolores Wilber (see below for artists bios).

Despite the show’s provocative stance, public response to the idea of the show has been surprising. “Many people have expressed gratitude or relief to me that an anti-war show and its related events are being presented,” said Koenen.

The show opens November 4, 2007 at the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago.

Keep reading for artists' bios...

The Guardian ran a story yesterday about a little arthouse cinema in a Paris suburb that is fighting the megaplexes and Hollywood for a slim piece of the cultural pie in a country that manages to stave off much of the Hollywood Glam-Armada through strict screen quotas.

The Georges-Méliès Cinema wanted to expand it's screens from three to six. The megaplex down the street, multinational mammoth UGC, is taking it to the government saying UNFAIR! because arthouse cinemas receive public subsidies in France. The Georges-Méliès takes in about 200,000 audience members every year. UGC: 2 million.

Damn art-socialists moving into Hollywood's territory. The David and Goliath tale could take a surprising turn in the end, what with the likes of David Lynch, Wim Wenders and Wong Kar-Wai throwing their support behind the little player. Yes, diversity in the cinemahouse still has a chance in a few hotspots on the planet.

And a quote from the 60+ directors who have signed a petition in favour of the arthouse:

In these cowardly times where artworks are reduced to consumer products, auteur cinema and enterprising art house screens fight the same battle for quality, respect and freedom for directors and filmgoers.

Via The Guardian, and thanks to one of our readers, Roddy Doucet.