Exhibition International Centre, Frankfurt Book Fair, Hall 5.0 D 901
Silenced Voices – Rescued Voices - Unterdrückte Stimmen - Gerettete Stimmen
In many countries around the world, writers, authors and journalists are persecuted, threatened, imprisoned and live in fear for their lives. The list of those murdered is long, as is the list of those countries where they have been killed or where freedom of speech and of opinion is under extreme threat for writers and journalists.
But more and more voices are also being raised worldwide in protest, more and more campaigns are under way against the curtailing of freedom of speech and publication and in support of concrete measures to help those who are in danger. International P.E.N. and national P.E.N. centres act on behalf of Writers in Prison and Writers in Exile, whilst organisations that have developed special forms of information and intervention include amnesty international and Reporter without frontiers (Reporter ohne Grenzen) – mentioned here as examples only. The network of Cities of Refuge is also expanding worldwide, giving authors who are at risk when working in their home countries the opportunity to be free from danger and economic hardship for a limited period whilst doing what writers want to do and should do: write.
The exhibition shows emblematic examples of persecution and murder (such as Salman Rushdie, Anna Politkovskaya and Ken Saro-Wiwa, as well as actual cases of persecution and harassment. Brief profiles of the authors (like Carlos Aguilera, Nada Yousif or Salem Zenia) who have found refuge in various cities in Europe make up the centrepiece of the exhibition.
The exhibition is jointly organised by P.E.N. Català, the International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN) and the Frankfurt Book Fair. It is being shown at the Kosmopolis literary festival in Barcelona, at the Göteborg Book Fair – and in the International Centre at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The exhibition has been made possible thanks to the European Union’s “Culture” programme which funds the international project “Shahrazad – Stories for life”.
