Contents
War is brutal. During conflicts there is little time for art. Museums and theatres are flattened by bombs, a trend we have been covering in Index for some years now. On the ground, people often have more pressing concerns like finding food or repelling the enemy. But war can also inspire the most incredible artistic endeavour, as painters and poets are forced to look again at a fragile world and bear witness to the atrocities that warring parties would rather keep hidden.
In this issue, Martin Bright talks to Magnum photographer and artist Nanna Heitmann about her work The Machinery of War, which presents uncomfortable truths about propaganda and the Ukraine war.
As Salil Tripathi writes from the USA, writers and artists are able to discuss the Israel-Hamas war much more freely than they could during the Iraq war a quarter-century ago, and are less likely to face blanket censorship. After 9/11, Tripathi observes, George Bush essentially threw down the gauntlet. War is often talked about in stark black and white terms, but artists are able to give nuance.
Maria Sorenson makes this point while highlighting work about war that has been censored in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine because it does not toe the official patriotic line. “Narrowing life into ideology, flattening human complexity into slogans, symbols and sanctioned truths is what propaganda does best. Art has always been – and still remains – one of the ways to resist that,” she writes.
Enjoy the magazine. It has reports and discussions from around the world about how censorship works today, and about how brave artists continue to struggle to explain the complexity of the world
Up Front
The art of war: Sally Gimson
Artists across the globe fight back against censors in times of war
The Index: Mark Stimpson
All the latest free expression news, elections and people to watch
Features
Complacency, culture wars, and money troubles are killing theatre: Sally Gimson
An investigation into suppression of political theatre in the UK
More haste, less free speech: Amy Fallon
The phrases “globalise the intifada” is banned in Queensland
Prove who you are: Sajad Hameed, Rehan Qayoom Mir
The Kashmiri shawl sellers driven out of business for being Muslim
AI brings the disappeared back to life: Amy Booth
AI imagines the victims of Argentina’s military junta
“Factually incorrect and dangerously one-sided”: how lawyers face down art: Freddie Lowe
How the law is used against artists
Putin’s Russia is policing women’s right to choose: Olga Borisova
Russia wants women to have children, if they want to or not
The long reach of Rwanda: Martin Plaut
Nowhere is out of reach of attacks by Kagame’s government
Outwitting the censors: Mkhululi Chimoio
The artists censored in Africa for a quarter of a century
The UK is a hunting ground for authoritarian regimes: Clive Stafford Smith, Roshaan Khattak
Transnational repression, from Pakistan to Cambridge with love
The monster unleashed
Şener Özmen’s uncompleted story: Kaya Genç
A profile of the Kurdish artist persecuted for his love of Tracey Emin
The war in Sudan – artists and censorship: Danson Kahyana
Sudanese artists speak about their life in exile
Ways of seeing – Iranian cinema’s struggle to reflect its country: Tara Aghdashloo
The Iranian filmmakers fighting censorship, no matter the cost
Art and anarchy in troubled times: Maria Sorensen
The Ukrainian artists sticking it to the man
Putting beauty – and brutality – in the eye of the beholder: Martin Bright
The War Is Peace? exhibition at Oslo’s Nobel Peace Centre
Who gets to speak? American art and writing in times of war: Salil Tripathi
Suppression of critical voices in the USA in the wake of 9/11
Comment
Murdering the messenger: Oren Persico
The reasons Israel killed more journalists than any other country last year
Why can’t art be beautiful: Marc Nash
A review of John Byrne’s Useful Art: How Activists Artists Can Change the World
The secret world of royal finances: Norman Baker
The Royal Family should be more open about money
Taking a stance against the banning of books: Katie Dancey-Downs
Index investigates a Manchester school that banned twilight
The wild west: Jemimah Steinfeld
Banning Kanye West could be a slippery slope
The power of a book: Sarah Wynn-Williams
Wynn-Williams’ acceptance speech, about fellow award-winner Virginia Giuffre
Shadows called woman: Kaya Genç, Maryam Ranjbari
A painter detained multiple times for her paintings in Iran
Culture
Being queer in Ukraine – tales of citizenship and resistance: Connor O’Brien, J Lester Feder
War, civic duty, and the desire of authoritarian regimes to suppress LGBTQ+ voices.
Don’t forget the women of Afghanistan: Ruth Green, Marzia Babakarkhail
The author meets an exiled champion of women’s rights
Unrequited love: Steve Komarnyckyj, Khrystia Alchevska
A romantic short story by poet Khrystia Alchevska
More Tea?: Sophie Tea
The TikTok sensation talks about inclusivity in her art
