Production of Art in Conditions of Unfreedom

In NO NIIN Issue 19, our writers engage with the political, legal, and creative processes of those working under the conditions of unfreedom, be it Ahmed Rabbani, a Pakistani resident who was held without charge at Guantánamo Bay between 2002 and 2023 and whose artworks depicting imprisonment and torture were confiscated by the U.S. military, or a group of cinephiles in Kirkuk who want to screen films, and by doing that, register everyday life, facilitate long-term solidarity, and manifest subtle instances of individual resistance. In his interview, Liryc Dela Cruz questions bureaucracy and racial discrimination with regard to the Filipino diaspora, particularly domestic workers in Italy, and the importance of holding the West accountable for its colonial past. The issue includes a research paper on the lyrical dimension of artistic research and the research dimension of the lyric poem, followed by two poems by Jared Maxilom.