“And we have the dream to touch”
/Photographs: Carles Barbero
Democracy is not built only in parliaments or, every four years, at the polls. It is also held in libraries, theaters, squares, schools, and athenes; where people meet, dialogue, disagree and create. That’s why cultural rights are not only a sectoral issue, but are, above all, a democratic issue.
Over the last few years we have come a long way to place this idea at the center of the public debate. It is becoming more and more evident that culture is not a luxury reserved for those who can access it, nor a complementary service that can be reinforced when everything else has already been resolved: culture is an essential condition for full participation in social life.
This conviction is what, together with the other representatives of the culture commission of the Catalan Foundations Coordinator, we shared a few days ago in the Parliament of Catalonia, where we emphasized our position on the Cultural rights bill. Beyond the legislative debate, the very existence of this law in the process is great news. It shows that, as a country, we are beginning to assume that cultural rights deserve their own framework and that culture is part of the democratic contract that unites us.
Now, precisely because it is a historic opportunity, it is also the time to ask ourselves the most demanding questions. That is why it is worth noting that this proposal faces two fundamental challenges. the first is to prevent cultural rights from becoming a catalog of principles that are impeccable but difficult to exercise. The right to participate in cultural life only fully exists when a person has the resources, time, spaces, education and opportunities to exercise it. If these conditions do not exist, the whole thing remains an open promise.
The second risk is more subtle, but equally important: using the law to certify that the cultural system is already functioning properly. Laws should not be used to congratulate us on the path taken, but to force us to look at where we still fail. We should ask ourselves who continues to be left out of cultural spaces, which voices are still not heard, which territories have fewer opportunities, which economic, social, educational, physical or linguistic barriers continue to limit the exercise of cultural rights. Uncomfortable questions are often what move public policy forward.
To avoid these two risks, the deployment of the future law will have to be accompanied by some essential conditions. First of all, it should be noted that, without sufficient and stable funding, cultural rights will hardly be effective. It is also particularly important that the cultural system is recognized as a plural ecosystem, where administrations, creators, companies, entities and foundations contribute, from their specificity, to guaranteeing these rights. I consider that, in addition, two strategic dimensions need to be strengthened: access to knowledge in Catalan and the role of the arts within the education system. Because cultural rights do not start when we enter a cultural facility; they begin much earlier, when we learn that culture is a way of inhabiting the world.
From the Carulla Foundation, we have been working with a sustained conviction for years: that culture is not only an area of expression, but an infrastructure of social transformation and democratic construction. For this reason, the current moment is particularly relevant. The possibility of Catalonia adopting a cultural rights law opens a window of opportunity that is not only legislative, but political and cultural in a broad sense. But this opportunity will not be measured by the text that is approved, but by the collective ability to turn it into stable practices and effectively enforceable rights.
Because cultural rights are not a complement to other rights. They are part of the dignity, freedom, social cohesion and democratic quality of a country. And we have the dream to touch.
Marta Esteve
Director of the Carulla Foundation
