[spectre] Curators and artists of the Israeli Biennial accept to be supervised by Ministry of Defense

[Andreas Broeckmann]

From: VagRearg <vagrearg at colordepth.com>
Subject: <nettime> Curators and artists of the Israeli Biennial 
accept to be supervised by Ministry of Defense
Date: Mon, 1 Dec 2003 22:11:26 +0200


Art Focus 4, the fourth international biennial of contemporary art in
Jerusalem, is to be held this year in the Museum of Underground Prisoners
- a facility owned by the Israeli Ministry of Defense.

Using this proposition (and in accord with the event's curators), the
ministry decided to have the artworks censored by its clerks in order to
have changed(!) works that may, in their opinion, "damage the spirit of
the site".

All the participating artists where sent the contract stating that the
Ministry of Defense "reserves the right to request from the artist to make
changes in his/her work". Interesting enough, most of the artists have
agreed to these terms and have signed the contract.

An independent activist organization "The Cultural Front" put up a
web-page with the contract's clause and its English translation as it was
published in one of the Israeli Newspapers (Haaretz). Ironically, the page
is located under the "would be official" domain of the biennial, which its
organizers did not care to reserve: http://artfocus.co.il/

VagRearg.

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