PROTECT PROMOTE PARTICIPATE Photo from the Gezi Park protests in Turkey 2013. By Iranian photographer Hossein Salmanzadeh, ICORN artist-in-residence in Dalarna, Sweden 2014-2016. ICORN is a network of cities and regions working to promote freedom of expression by offering shelter to writers and artists who are at risk as a direct consequence of their professional activities. icorn.org WHO IS IT FOR? WHY DOES THE WORLD NEED ICORN? Any writer or artist who is threatened or persecuted for expressing their opinions or ideas, through professional and/or artistic work, is invited to apply for an ICORN residency. “It is our common task to make sure Creative writers Non-fiction writers that their voice is heard, and becomes the Novelists, poets, screen Journalists, academic writers, object of interest for mass media, authorities and playwrights, essayists, bloggers, prose-writers, dramaturgs, filmmakers. technical writers. and ordinary people of the free world.” DANUTA GLONDYS, KRAKOW CITY OF REFUGE/ ICORN BOARD MEMBER Musicians Editors, publishers Composers and musicians and translators of all genres. Writers, journalists and artists often become are located across Europe, the United States, the first targets when authoritarian regimes Canada and Latin America, and will expand Artists and repressive groups clamp down on freedom towards South Africa, Australia and Asia Photographers, cartoonists, of expression. They are on the front line, giving in the coming years. visual- and performance artists, voice to ideas and critique, which frequently new media artists. challenge existing societal norms and concepts. The ICORN residency programme, run by This makes them subject to censorship, the individual member cities, enable writers persecution, imprisonment and even death. and artists to continue their work and keep up the fight for freedom of expression, so As a response, ICORN offers temporary, vital to the health of a free society. long-term safe residencies to writers, “More than 170 writers and artists have been offered a residency journalists and artists at risk, so they can ICORN cooperates closely with PEN continue their work without fear of International and local PEN centres, in an ICORN city. They play a vital role, both in highlighting persecution. as well as a large number of civil society human rights and free speech violations in their home countries, organisations within the fields of human By 2017, more than 60 cities had joined the rights, arts and migration, and with public, and in supporting their in-country colleagues. They bring new network, to host writers and artists who face governmental and intergovernmental bodies, energy to the host cities; build bridges between countries, threats and persecution. The Cities of Refuge locally and internationally. cultures, politics and people, and contribute insight and new perspectives to the local debate.” HELGE LUNDE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ICORN 2 3 ICORN WRITER/ARTIST: SVETLANA ALEXIEVICH ICORN WRITER/ARTIST: SVETLANA ALEXIEVICH “The fact that ICORN’s values ultimately boil down to the protection of one writer or artist’s voice, relying on that voice and story to stand for all artists and writers, is what most symbolises ICORN’s importance to me.” CHRIS GRIBBLE, NORWICH CITY OF REFUGE/ICORN CHAIR OF BOARD but returned to Belarus in 2011. but returned in exile since 2001, she lived government, the Lukashenko from threats severe Facing Journalist and writer from Belarus. The Nobel Laureate I am grateful because, in adversity, I found Here in refuge, we find not only asylum and Literature 2015 for “her polyphonic Literature shelter in Europe and was able to work and the means to work, but also salvation of the writings, a monument to suffering to finish my epic: The Encyclopedia of soul. We save our capacity to see the world, Awarded The Nobel Prize in Prize Nobel The Awarded Red Civilization. to see all human nuance. and courage in our time”. My conflict with the authorities in Belarus I came back to my country, but in fact there arises because my books break the myths of is even less freedom than when I left. We Great Russia, of the Great Utopia. They give discovered a new Putin, a strengthened voice to the ordinary people to whom nobody Lukashenko after 20 years in power. I am in had ever listened. We see now that the Great full rupture with this power. I cannot express Utopia, when people are not mature, results myself on television, and only rarely am able in a blood bath and millions of corpses. to meet my readers. Even after my Nobel Prize award, the authorities completely I had to leave the barricades because they ignored me. But now, when I meet people, are dangerous for an artist. They prevent in shops or cafes, they hold me in my arms ICORN writer-in-residence in Gothenburg City of Refuge 2006-2008. the artist from seeing and hearing. From and say, “thank you, you saved our dignity”. the barricade, you only see the target. This makes me happy. Excerpt from Svetlana Alexievich’s address to the 2016 ICORN General Assembly in Paris. PHOTO: MARION STALENS STALENS MARION PHOTO: 5 THE ICORN NETWORK THE ICORN NETWORK HARSTAD: CITY OF REFUGE SINCE 2014 Harstad is the world’s first City of Refuge for musicians at risk. It is run by the municipality, with support from Troms County. In Harstad, as in all Norwegian ICORN Cities, Tromsø Luleå the writers and artists arrive as quota refugees. HARSTAD Piteå Levanger Molde Trondheim Reykjavik Skellefteå Surrey Bergen Dalarna Gävle Haugesund Umeå PITTSBURGH Lillehammer Stavanger MALMÖ: Skien Oslo Karlstad Uppsala CITY OF REFUGE Bø SINCE 2010 PITTSBURGH: Sigtuna Drøbak CITY OF REFUGE Ithaca (NY) Eskilstuna The ICORN programme SINCE 2003 Kristiansand Stockholm Ørebro is financed and anchored in the cultural department The ICORN programme Norwich Västra Götaland County Norrköping has support from the city of the municipality, and co- of Pittsburgh, but is run by Uddevalla operate with local, national City of Asylum/Pittsburgh. Helsingør Linköping and international cultural Helsingborg actors. In 2014, the city They provide sanctuary to Aarhus Gothenburg Jönköping´s Län multiple writers and artists decided to run two MALMÖ residencies simultaneously, simultaneously, and run Växjö cultural prgrammes in the Mexico City (Casa Africa) Copenhagen one for writers and one community. It is funded by Skåne for artists/musicians. Amsterdam the founders of CoA/ Hannover Pittsburgh, city funds and Mexico City (Casa Refugio Citlaltépetl) Rotterdam private sponsors. Brussels Wrocław Oaxaca Frankfurt PARIS KRAKOW Girona Luzern Belo Horizonte Ljubljana PARIS: Barcelona KRAKOW: CITY OF REFUGE SINCE 2011 CITY OF REFUGE SINCE 2011 Region of Tuscany Anchored in the Mayor’s Office, the The residency programme is run by the Villa Decius in close programme is financed and managed by the New cities are continuously Chiusi cooperation with Krakow Festival Office, which is part of city administration, in cooperation with joining the network. the city administration that deals with the organisation and partners within the media, human rights and promotion of major cultural events in the city. the cultural sphere. 6 7 ICORN WRITER/ARTIST: ZINEB EL RHAZOUI ICORN WRITER/ARTIST: ZINEB EL RHAZOUI “What is being protected is my freedom to be irreverent, and freedom of expression, so I should exercise this even more because I enjoy this protection.” ZINEB EL RHAZOUI Journalist at Charlie Hebdo, Paris. The Charlie Hebdo survivor She is constantly on the move and under where she co-authored the comic book “The 24-hour guard as one of the most closely Life of Mohamed” with Charb, the editor of protected individuals in France. Zineb El Charlie Hebdo, Stéphane Charbonnier, who Rhazoui is a Charlie Hebdo journalist who was killed in the attack against the magazine. happened to be away on January 7 2015, the day terrorists “avenging the Prophet” El Rhazoui, who collaborated on the first massacred her colleagues at the satirical issue of the magazine following the attack, ICORN Writer-in-residence in Ljubljana 2011-2013. magazine in Paris. She believes she has a duty has said that she feels she does not have the Repeatedly censored, harassed, and to defy the Islamists desperate to silence her. right to renounce her struggle, or give up her arbitrarily arrested by the Moroccan freedom. Due to direct and specific threats Government for her political activities, The journalist, born in 1982, co-founded the to her life, she has been forced to live under El Rhazoui fled the country in 2011. human rights activist writer, Journalist, pro-democracy, pro-secularism movement strict protection from the police. Morocco. from MALI before joining Charlie Hebdo in 2012. After a series of threats, police intimidation, She has said that the protection afforded and arrests by the Moroccan Government, her speaks to the French authorities’ emphasis she went into exile in Slovenia. on the right to free expression. El Rhazoui was ICORN writer-in-residence in the city of Ljubljana from 2011-2013, ©SAVAGE FILM, PHOTO FROM DOCUMENTARY NOTHING IS FORGIVEN FEAT. ZINEB EL RHAZOUI EL ZINEB FEAT. FORGIVEN IS NOTHING DOCUMENTARY FROM PHOTO FILM, ©SAVAGE 8 HOW TO BECOME AN ICORN CITY HOW TO BECOME AN ICORN CITY CONTACT ICORN ESTABLISH LOCAL SECURE FINANCES BACKING TO RUN THE PROGRAMME ICORN members have unique models of hosting The municipality, cultural Financial sources may come and ICORN will advise institutions, PEN centres, ZIEMIAŃSKI GRZEGORZ PHOTO: from public and/or private on the process to establish and higher education insti- funders, cooperation a city of refuge. tutions are among possible partners for the project. partners, in kind. FIND COORDINATING FORM A SUPPORT- PRACTICAL SIGN WITH ICORN EMPLOY INVITE A WRITER INSTITUTION(S) NETWORK PREPARATIONS COORDINATOR(S) OR ARTIST The city officially joins the to be managing partner to assist in the different Provide a relevant workspace, who will be responsible for on recommendations from network when the ICORN of the ICORN programme, aspects of running the and find accommodation for the daily running of the the ICORN Secretariat.