‘El Sexto’ dedicates his award to his jailers to show them that he is not alone

'El Sexto' dedicates his award to his jailers to show them that he is
not alone / 14ymedio
Posted on May 28, 2015

14ymedio, Havana, 27 May 2105 – The Cuban artist Danilo Maldonado, known
as El Sexto, could not collect the 2015 International Vaclav Havel Prize
for Creative Dissidence, in the ceremony organized by the Oslo Freedom
Forum. The prize, awarded by the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) of New
York, was received by the activist Lia Villares, since the graffiti
artist has been in prison since last December, charged with contempt,
for trying to stage a performance with two pigs decorated with the names
"Fidel" and "Raul."

After presenting a brief music video, with the refrain repeating "Three
years [in prison] for two pigs, no," and closing with the images of a
rally to demand freedom for the artist and the phrase, "Contempt should
never be avoided," Villares read a letter written by El Sexto from Villa
Marista penitentiary.

"I want to dedicate this prize also to those who have me in prison, to
remind them that I am not alone," the artist said. The graffiti artist
also thanked the Ladies in White, his daughter, the writer Angel
Santiesteban (who is also in prison) and the artist Tania Bruguera
(arrested this Sunday in front of her house and released shortly afterward).

The other award winners, members of the Sudanese non-violent resistance
movement and the Indonesian comic Girifna Sakdiyah Ma'ruf, personally
received a representation of the Goddess of Democracy, the iconic statue
erected by Chinese students during protests in Tiananmen Square in June
1989.

The Oslo Freedom Forum, which opened Monday in the Norwegian capital and
will close on Wednesday, gathers the proponents of freedom and human
rights from several countries. This year's gathering is the Freedom
Forum's seventh, and focuses "on those places where it is impossible to
stage protests, which are silenced or attacked, as in Cuba and Russia,"
according to its founder, Thor Halvorssen.

Source: 'El Sexto' dedicates his award to his jailers to show them that
he is not alone / 14ymedio | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/el-sexto-dedicates-his-award-to-his-jailers-to-show-them-that-he-is-not-alone-14ymedio/