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Avant-Garde Lawyers

We are an international NGO that protects the right of artists to imagine and create freely.

26/08/2026

AGL is excited to share a new interview with , a lawyer from AGL Global Network.

Ekaterina is a French lawyer and a member of the Marseille Bar. She practices immigration law, and supports international artists dealing with the French administration. In her interview, she sheds light on immigration pathways for artists wishing to relocate in France, including artists at risk, and shares practical tools to navigate complex administrative and bureaucratic issues.

The full interview is available on YouTube (link in bio).

11/08/2026

AGL : Abdelrahman ElGendy

Abdelrahman ElGendy is an Egyptian writer and translator whose work examines state violence, empire, and exile, attending to the entanglements of local and global oppressions and the solidarities that emerge across them. His new, critically-acclaimed book, Huna, is both a memoir of his experience with revolution and his more than six years spent as a political prisoner in Egypt, and a literary exploration of what it means to inhabit a space designed to erase you and still find ways to be.

While imprisoned, Abdelrahman turned to writing as a means of survival, smuggling out his pieces. Since his release in 2020, he has published dozens of pieces for outlets including The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Nation.

Avant-Garde Lawyers (AGL) is proud to have supported Abdelrahman in his pursuit of safety and the opportunity to continue his creative practice in an environment free from fear.

The quotes featured in this post are from AGL’s interview with Abdelrahman. You can view the full interview at the link in bio.

Penguin Random House
David Ebershoff
Hogarth Books

31/07/2026

AGL is pleased to see its work on the case of the artist and activist Emma Shapiro featured in The Art Newspaper article by Aimee Dawson

On 17 June 2026, AGL filed a complaint with the Spanish Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (CNMC) on Emma’s behalf, claiming that Meta failed to comply with the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) when it suspended and subsequently terminated , the Instagram account of her long-running artistic project Exposure Therapy, an art project that confronts gender bias in online content moderation practices.

As artists increasingly lose access to their online platforms, especially when their work explores sensitive topics such as nudity, sexuality, and gender expression, AGL’s legal strategy in this case challenges the termination of an artist’s entire account, which has erased years of essential artistic and advocacy work on the matters of public interest. The case also tests how the Digital Services Act’s rules on transparency, effective redress, and proportionality apply when platforms impose account-level sanctions.

Read more on Emma’s case and AGL’s involvement at The Art Newspaper at https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/07/30/artist-starts-legal-case-against-meta-for-deleting-her-instagram-account.

26/06/2026

Out now: « Art on Trial: A Strategic Litigation Toolkit for Artistic Freedom »

A new Avant-Garde Lawyers resource for lawyers, artists, civil society organisations and advocates working to defend artistic expression through strategic litigation.

The Toolkit is available through a solidarity-based access model, with free access available for artists, activists, civil society organisations, independent practitioners and others for whom cost may be a barrier.

Immensely grateful to the for its support in making this Toolkit possible.

Access it at the link in bio✨

18/06/2026

🚨FILING ALERT 🚨On 17 June, AGL filed a complaint against on behalf of , the Spain-based artist, activist and editor of .art, to contest the termination of the Instagram account associated with Exposure Therapy, an art project that confronts gender bias in online content moderation practices.

📣In our complaint, we assert that, in removing the Exposure Therapy account, Meta has failed to comply with several of its obligations under the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA). These include not providing a clear statement of reasons for its decision, denying Emma access to an effective internal appeal process and failing to act in a diligent, objective and proportionate manner when suspending and removing the account without prior warning.

🎨As artists increasingly rely on digital environments to create, disseminate and monetise their work, protecting artistic freedom online is more important than ever. By pursuing this case, AGL hopes to ensure proper enforcement of platforms’ obligations under the Digital Services Act and to raise awareness of the chilling effect that automated content moderation and opaque platform policies can have on artistic expression.

🤝HOW CAN YOU GET INVOLVED?

- Like and share this post to raise awareness
- Read more about the case at the link in bio
- Follow .garde.lawyers to stay up-to-date on case developments
- Are you an artist who has been impacted by content moderation on an online platform? Send us a message, we might be able to help.

05/06/2026

Last week in Lucerne, Avant-Garde Lawyers had the honour of joining and the Human Rights Orchestra for a powerful charity concert in support of .ukrainian and .contatto.

Across several days of rehearsals, conversations and music, AGL’s Executive Director, Andra Matei, and Secretary General of Manfred Nowak spoke with the orchestra about music and human rights: from Beethoven’s Fidelio, an opera about political imprisonment and liberation, to Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony, often read in relation to fear, repression and artistic survival under Stalin.

Four years after AGL was one of the organisations supported by this concert, it was deeply meaningful to return, and to connect these histories with AGL’s work supporting musicians and artists facing censorship, threats, prosecution or exile.

With gratitude to , Musicians for Human Rights, the Human Rights Orchestra, all the musicians and .

Warm congratulations to Gen.Ukrainian and Fondazione ConTatto, whose essential work gave the evening its urgency and purpose.

Slide 1: AGL Gender Expert , Manfred Nowak and Andra Matei;
Slide 2: Orchestra conductor Alessio Allegrini, Andra Matei, Vice President of Musicians for Human Rights Alberto Danelon and Manfred Nowak
Slide 3: Andra Matei speaking with Manfred Nowak
Slide 4: Music scores for the evening’s program: Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, From the New World.
Slide 5: Rehearsal, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with
Slide 6: The audience begins to rise for a standing ovation after the concert, inside the interiors of .

29/05/2026

Last week, AGL attended the conference Confronting the Destruction of Gaza: Art, Reception, and Commitments (Faire face à l’anéantissement de Gaza : créations, accueils, engagements) hosted by as part of . The conference discussed artistic creation and the destruction of cultural heritage in Gaza, the challenges of welcoming artists in emergency situations in France, and broader questions of cultural solidarity with Palestine.

For AGL, events like this, bringing together artists, researchers, lawyers, cultural institutions and CSOs, are essential for building networks of solidarity and support systems for artists at risk. For a year now, AGL has been supporting Palestinian artists who are still trapped in Gaza despite their admission into institutions in France and the merit of their artistic work, as all evacuations from Gaza to France remain blocked.

AGL is grateful to partner with conference organiser on this work and remains committed to supporting artists from Gaza seeking to continue their artistic practice in safety.

We cordially thank all the speakers who contributed to this event including .albanese.unsr.opt, , , , .kempf, .jarada, and others, as well as Palestinian poets , .elassy, and Yousef Alqedra who concluded the event with readings of texts by eighteen Palestinian poets, some still in Gaza.

Artwork credits: Re-Lighthouse by , a recreation of the monumental Lighthouse sculpture built in Gaza and destroyed at the start of the war in 2023. It will travel from Marseille to other cities across France and Europe, with the hope of one day returning to the port of Gaza.

22/05/2026

🎨✍️

Are you an artist, academic, researcher, curator, lawyer, writer or activist thinking critically about artistic freedom and cultural rights? Avant-Garde Lawyers is currently inviting submissions for our Art*Blog.

The Art*Blog is a space for accessible and thought-provoking writing on the protection and promotion of artistic freedom around the world. We’re interested in pieces that explore the intersections of art, law, politics, censorship, protest, human rights, technology, culture and social change.

We welcome:

- Critical essays and opinion pieces
- Case studies and research-based writing
- Reflections from artistic or activist practice
- Commentary on current events affecting artistic freedom
- Interviews, reviews, and experimental formats

Whether you’re responding to a current issue, sharing research, or reflecting on your own practice, we want to hear from voices across disciplines, geographies and artistic communities.

Please send an e-mail with a short proposal on the piece you would like to submit to [email protected].

We look forward to collaborating with you!

04/05/2026

In April, Avant-Garde Lawyers convened its first Strategic Litigation Surgery, bringing together experts working to protect and promote artistic freedom through legal interventions.

Over three days, we discussed what it means to pursue strategic litigation in the context of artistic freedom, the core elements of a robust and multidisciplinary litigation strategy, and applied these learnings to two cases that AGL is preparing to file in different European fora.

AGL is most grateful to the for its generous support and to all of the participants who shared their time and knowledge with us.

21/04/2026

On 30 March, US-based Chinese artist Gao Zhen, detained in China since August 2024, was tried in a closed-door, one-day trial on charges of “defaming national heroes and martyrs”. Zhen faces trial for works created between 2006 and 2009, despite China’s law on the protection of heroes and martyrs being enacted only in 2018.

Some of his most renowned works, made in collaboration with his brother Gao Qiang as the duo “the Gao Brothers”, are satirical sculptures of Mao Zedong.

has submitted an individual complaint to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on behalf of Zhen, urging them to declare his detention arbitrary and in breach of international law.

On 15 April, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a press release on Zhen’s case, expressing concern about the retroactive application of criminal law and the use of criminal sanctions to punish artistic expression, and urged the authorities to release the artist.

Photo credits: Xiao Ke

AGL’s Don’t Go Breaking My Art series highlights recent events of art censorship and suppression around the world.

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