Design Academy Eindhoven students, teachers and staff will come together to reflect on the horrific terrorist attack that struck Paris on January 7th.
WEDNESDAY 28-01-2015, 19.30 - 23.30 ours
DESIGN ACADEMY EINDHOVEN
5TH FLOOR
The world rallied as our belief in freedom of thought and expression, and a secular public space was massacred by Islamists. It was these core values as espoused by Voltaire that the cartoonists, writers and editors at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo fought for years to protect.
The magazine’s former publisher Philippe Val once told Jacques Chirac: “We cannot leave it to religious groups to dictate the laws of freedom of expression.”
So who do we leave it to? Who should decide? This is where an academy like ours, which revels in the free expression of individualism can and should play an important and powerful role.
Free speech absolutists believe in the validity of deliberate provocation, want the liberty to offend, and uphold the rights of iconoclasts. But even Pope Francis last week said, "You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others … and if you do, you can expect a punch."
What are your limits? And should limits ever be universal?