26th of April appeal

This initiative is coming from a French theater company called Brut-de-Béton that in the last 15 years dedicated half of its artistic activities to radioactivity dramas. This theater group is based in Clermont-Ferrand (in the very center of France).

For an artistic, intellectual, scientific and people’s insurrection against the pursuit of radioactive contamination of the planet

PRELIMINARY
This appeal is not issued by a political party, a trade union, a pressure group, a collective, etc. It originates from a French theatre company called Brut-de-Béton that, for the past 16 years, has dedicated 50 % of its artistic activities to the links between art and radioactive contamination.

The future of the planet, a future contaminated by radioactivity, is not a mere possibility, but a reality, of which only we can decide to stop. The alternative is to continue with business as usual and to prepare for more statistically forecasted accidents.

As of the 26th of April 1986, the Chernobyl disaster, and as of the 11th of March 2011, the Fukushima disaster went down in history. Two nuclear disasters which continue to traumatise populations. Those disasters, just like those forecasted accidents that are looming, have the distinctive feature of having a start date but no end date. They will not stop for hundreds or possibly thousands of years after the life (or “half-life” as they say) of the radionuclides that have been scattered into the atmosphere, the oceans and the soil!

We believe that every informed citizen would like to prevent this contaminated future, but do not know how to go about it. It is true that so far, we have been unable to stop this slow race towards the radioactive contamination of the whole planet!

The more time goes on, the more tangible is this feeling that we are sliding towards a “nuclear winter.” No democratic or bureaucratic activity, no tribunal, no university has been capable of stopping the nucleocrats’ promethean madness. Nothing seems to shake them. Not the major accidents. Not the threat of nuclear war. Not the astronomical financial losses. Not the building programmes that drag on and on. Not the stockpiling of waste. Not the scientific studies that refute their peremptory claims.

So what is there to do?

The appeal

It is time that individuals of our time, those that are enlightened and conscious of the imminence of a new nuclear disaster, both a civil and military one, have the courage to stand up! The year 2016 should be the year of awareness of the population. The 11th of March 2016 will be the day of commemoration, 5 years after the beginning of the Fukushima disaster, and the 26th of April, 30 years after the beginning of the Chernobyl disaster. Everywhere in the world, those dates will be celebrated in commemoration. It is not acceptable that the nuclear lobby should decide what to think, what to spread, what to say and what to write.

From today onwards, we : artists, journalists,teachers, photographers, musicians, actors, librarians, street artists, scientists, dancers, researchers, documentary film makers, circus artists, poets, cinema or theatre managers, festival organisers, politicians, activists and concerned citizens, will start working to enable the insurrection of consciences against the contaminated future. We will produce, come up with or welcome public readings, seminars, academic seminars, shows, conferences, exhibitions, screenings, dances, carnivals...

Between the 11th of March and the 26th of April 2016, for seven weeks, let texts be staged, others simultaneously read in different locations, films be screened, photographs be exhibited, debates and seminars be organised in university amphitheatres, schools and libraries, town halls, industrial wastelands.

Let an insurrection of artists, intellectuals and scientists convince citizens to prevent a future that is further contaminated by radioactivity. And let a thousand shows, books, pictures/paintings, ballets, concerts, report, balls, academic seminars, carnivals, poems, exhibitions and researches thrive!

P.S. This appeal is made now so that everyone is able to think, read, communicate, find support, funds, forums, places to stage and exhibit. Brut de Béton is offering to coordinate this appeal.

You can contact us on :

• brut-de-beton AT orange DOT fr c/o Bruno Boussagol
• Landline telephone (00 33) (0) 4 63 31 50 12 c/o André Larivière
• website http://www.brut-de-beton.net to see the programme of events.

Feedback section

(to be sent back to the organizers)

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