Brazil-based artist Valesuchi has posted a critique to Instagram.
Dekmantel Festival has been criticized for failing to book Latin American talent at its 2019 edition, despite hosting a festival in São Paulo as well as multiple events in South America, reports Resident Advisor.
Chilean-born, Rio de Janeiro-based artist Valesuchi posted the criticism to Instagram following the reveal of the 2019 lineup on Tuesday (January 22).
Valesuchi, who played at both of Dekmantel’s Brazilian events in 2017 and 2018, asked: “What did you actually come to do here in Latin America? You didn’t like us? Nor the music we play and do? Was there any intention of any kind of true cultural exchange in time?”
Dekmantel has responded with an apology in the comments of the producer’s Instagram post. “We at Dekmantel never intended to just drop our name in other parts of the world and gain money or cultural cache”, reads the comment.
“It is now clear to us that inviting Latin American artists at our European events is an essential part of the cultural exchange, and we need to do better in strengthening and enriching these exchanges.”
Read the entire statement below:
“@valesuchi We’ve seen this post and the consequent reactions, have thought about it and would like to bring our perspective:
We at Dekmantel never intended to just drop our name in other parts of the world and gain money or cultural cachet. Our horizons have been immeasurably broadened as a result of our collaborations.
It has been rightly pointed out that we didn’t include any South American-based artists on the initial Dekmantel Festival 2019 line-up. We are sorry for this. It is now clear to us that inviting Latin American artists at our European events is an essential part of the cultural exchange and we need to do better in strengthening and enriching these exchanges.
Our team has placed an enormous amount of time, energy, and care into our events spanning São Paulo, Santiago, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Lima, Medellín, Bogotá amongst other cities in South America and do so in close collaboration with locals. Everything our local partners have undertaken in these wonderful cities with us sprang from an ongoing shared intention to showcase the calibre and extraordinary quality of artists far beyond our home turf of Amsterdam. We hope this could be felt at each event. Our commitment to Brazil and the wider network we have established in Latin America remains completely firm.
We respect every opinion on our doings, but we hope that with providing these thoughts we have made clear that our intentions are sincere as we keep working on and improving the ethical elements of our role in the Brazilian and Latin American scene.”
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