Director alongside Javier Moscoso of the Madrid Festival of Ideas, Marcela Vélez answers the phone after a turbulent morning. The statement that, early this Tuesday, was released by more than twenty participants in the scheduled activities, and to which more names were added, announced that they would suspend their participation unless the festival broke ties with the sponsor, the insurer Allianz, due to its links with Israel. The event will finally go ahead from this Thursday to Sunday with more than 100 activities and the sponsoring company has withdrawn.
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Question. Had you received any warning about the concern that the sponsor was causing among some participants?
Answer. No, and from the artistic direction we would have liked them to have shared it, but we understand their position.
Q. Has the sponsor also understood it?
A. We have spoken with Allianz and their withdrawal was a consensual decision.
Q. Had they not contributed financially yet?
A. The contribution had already been made and now we will return it. We will assume the large financial hole it represents, because we were not going to cancel the festival. Our commitment is to move forward.
Q. Were you afraid that, in addition to the events that would have had to be canceled, protests might occur?
A. We have been meeting all morning and have analyzed the alternatives, but that kind of possibility was not in our hands. We continue to bet on debate and reflection and there will have to be talk about what has happened, but it is not good to rush. We want to hold the festival and, once it is over, think and reflect with some distance. But we could not stand aside.
Q. In the editions held, the festival has echoed the Palestinian cause.
A. We have claimed a firm political commitment with the debates we have held, and we have wanted the program itself to speak. In addition, the Círculo de Bellas Artes is the institution that has most positioned itself in favor of the Palestinian people. Has this been overlooked? I don’t know.
Q. What precedent does what happened set?
A. We will see, but a moment opens to think about what the limits and demands are in the ethical sense of a festival of ideas.
Q. Has any participant wanted to waive their fees or have you considered proposing it if the sponsor withdrew?
A. This has not been considered, but some guests who have not signed the letter have contacted me to say that they wanted their fees to be donated to UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) and that they would make it public.
Q. One of the festival spaces at the Círculo de Bellas Artes was called Allianz Health and Wellness. Will it be changed?
A. The sponsor’s name disappears from everything possible, although some of the posters were already made. Specifically, that space continues with the planned program, but without the name Allianz. Activities designed by the artistic direction team, in which the sponsor has not intervened, will be held there.
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