Freedom, censorship and the instrumentalization of art: a view of the FIARI Manifesto in the light of the theatrical work of Bertolt Brecht

Abstract

The essay aims to reflect about freedom of creation and artistic production in totalitarian contexts, and the relation between social engagement and art instrumentalisation from the Manifesto for an Independent Revolucionary Art, written by Leon Trotsky and André Breton, in 1938; and also the theatre practice of Bertolt Brecht. The text aims to think about the Manifesto and the Brecht’s work searching for connections between the past and our present, which has been shown closely to authoritarian ideologies in this new phase of the international capitalism. The text also seeks to reflect about possibilities of artistic practices, especially in theatre, by understanding that any artistic survivals at the forefront of authoritarian regimes depends on the independency of the artist in relation to creation and modes of production. In this way, Walter Benjamin’s considerations about Brecht are centrals in the text.