[CPProt.net] The Art Newspaper bulletin: Censorship at the Biennale?

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From: tan text [mailto:news at theartnewspaper.com] 
Sent: 10 June 2005 18:36
To: info at museum-security.org
Subject: The Art Newspaper bulletin



Censorship at the Biennale?

Gregor Schneider’s project for the exhibition has been blocked by city
authorities

Gareth Harris and Cristina Ruiz

VENICE. German artist Gregor Schneider is claiming a work commissioned for
the Venice Biennale, the international exhibition of contemporary art which
opens to the public on Sunday, has been censored for “political reasons”.

Schneider was asked to create a work for the biennale by Spanish curator
Rosa Martinez, one of the exhibition’s two organisers. He designed a massive
50-foot cube made of scaffolding covered with black fabric entitled Cube
Venice, inspired with the Ka’ba, the central holy site of Islam in Mecca. It
was to be erected in the middle of St Mark’s Square in front of the
basilica.

The work has, however, been blocked by city authorities who may have felt
that it would offend Muslims and turn the city into a potential target for
terrorists.

Speaking to The Art Newspaper, a spokesperson for Schneider’s gallery in
Düsseldorf, Konrad Fischer, said that no reason had been given for the
work’s rejection. She added that it was not, however, turned down for
“artistic reasons”.

Details of the work were also excluded from the biennale catalogue. Instead
a short video documenting the project is being screened in the Arsenale, the
city’s former shipyard which houses one half of the exhibition. According to
a scrolling text on the screen written by the artist himself, the work was
rejected for “political reasons”. Schneider was unavailable for comment.

At a press conference this morning, The Art Newspaper asked Davide Croff,
president of the biennale, why the work had been rejected. He said: “the
decision was taken by city authorities and not by the biennale. It was not a
political decision. It was to do with health and safety.”

Speaking after the press conference, Rosa Martinez said: “I still want to
see this project happen. As a curator, of course, I support artists. I am
still hoping to do this. Bureaucracy is very slow in Italy and we did not
apply for permission in sufficient time. 

Anna Somers Cocks, chairman of the Venice in Peril Fund says: “The view
towards the Basilica of St Marks’s is one of the great sights of the world
and I can understand perfectly why the town council does not wish to block
it with a large installation especially since the previous administration
attracted such criticism for allowing an open-air cinema to be constructed
in the middle of the square a few months ago for the premiere of a film.”

An exhibition documenting Schneider’s project is at the Konrad Fischer
gallery in Düsseldorf until 23 July. To unsubscribe please follow the link
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