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Betreff: Invitation to Sign Open Letter and Support Fund for Maja
Smrekar & Defending Artistic Freedom
Datum: Mon, 7 Jul 2025 02:37:01 +0000
Von: Jens Hauser <[email protected]>
An: Jens Hauser <[email protected]>
Dear friends and colleagues!
I hope you are well.
I’m writing to invite you, as one of the potentially first signatories,
to sign and share an urgent Open Letter in solidarity with Slovenian
artist Maja Smrekar, Golden Nica at Ars Electronica 2017 for her K-9
<https://www.majasmrekar.org/k-9topology-cyberarts-2017-prix-ars-electronica-exhibition> and
and Hybrid Family
<https://www.majasmrekar.org/k-9topology-hybrid-family> project, to
support her to take legal action against the Slovenian Democratic Party
(SDS) for unauthorized use of her artwork, defamation, and the
incitement of public hostility.
As you may be already know, in the lead-up to Slovenia’s 10 May 2025
referendum on pension reforms for awarded artists, SDS escalated its
long-running culture war. The party weaponized Maja’s internationally
acclaimed artwork /K-9 Topology: Hybrid Family/ by flooding public
spaces with decontextualized billboard images
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/10/slovenia-to-vote-in-referendum-on-artist-pension-that-has-fostered-culture-war>—without
her knowledge or consent—framing her work as a symbol of moral and
cultural decay, and ‘degenerated art’. Since then, Maja has been
subjected to a sustained campaign of harassment, includingin public and
private space. These tactics mirror a growing global trend:
authoritarian regimes targeting artists to suppress dissent, distort
public discourse, and stifle freedom of expression- our fundamental
rights. Maja has therefore decided to take legal action—an individual
stand against the machinery of Slovenia’s largest and most financially
powerful political party of the past 30 years. This is not only a fight
for her personal integrity, but a broader struggle for artistic freedom
and a direct response to the unlawful political exploitation of her work.
Your signature would help this week’s launch of an international
platform and legal defense fund you may consider donating to, initiated
by Ewen Chardronnet (author, editor, Makery.info <http://makery.info/>),
Jens Hauser (curator), Dalila
Honorato (Taboo-Transgression-Transcendence, Ionian University), Tatiana
Kourochkina (Quo Artis) and Uros Veber (producer, Projekt Atol):
https://openletter.earth/in-defense-of-artistic-freedom-support-legal-action-against-political-abuse-56f1c0d0
https://artkinship.org/
Thanks in advance for your support and solidarity,
Jens HAUSER
+33 6 79 85 79 39
https://ku-dk.academia.edu/JensHauser
PS: Life is Other
<https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783689240110/html?lang=en>,
just published; including an edited version of the Hybrid Family blog
<https://www.majasmrekar.org/k-9topology-hybrid-family> with Maja
Smrekar & Jens Hauser
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