The work of Ines Doujak,
The work of Ines Doujak – LUIS GENE / AFP

Alice Coffin with AFP

The show The beast and the sovereign will finally well held at MACBA, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona. A sculpture of King Juan Carlos sodomized by feminist activist and trade unionist responsible Bolivian Domitila Barrios itself penetrated by a dog, decided by the director of the institution, Battomeu Husband, to cancel the event. He returned this weekend its decision.



“A very sensible image” for the museum director

“The opinion came from many different sectors of society, from the world of art and culture up ‘in politics and the media, as well as those international professionals from the world of art made me reconsider my initial decision not to open the exhibition, “said the director of the MACBA Saturday Bartomeu Mari, in a open letter.

The work paper mache of the Austrian artist Ines Doujak called Not Dressed for Conquering / Haute Couture 04 Transport had already been presented to the public in December at the Sao Paulo Biennial. Its creator had explained that she “plays with the power relations and subverts them.” After learning that she was among the works of 30 international artists composing the exhibition organized in partnership with the Wurttembergischer Kunstverein, the German city of Stuttgart, Bartomeu Mari asked the commissioners they get “this very sensitive image” according to Spanish media.

A controversy decision that has sparked heated debate in Spain

Commissioners, Iris Dressler, Hans D. Christ, Paul B. Preciado and Valentín Roma, have refused, prompting the director to cancel the entire exhibition. In public statement repeated on le-beau-vice.blogspot.fr, they explain: “Each piece of the exhibition called into question by its own means, different uses of sovereignty. In the case of Ines Doujak, this is the first white male sovereignty in relation to sexual and colonial exploitation; in the case of Kazakhstan artists Viktor & amp; Yelena Vorobyeva, it is the exercise of totalitarian power; in the case of Sergio Zevallos, use of a sacred and military iconography as much as a normative sexuality, to name just a few of these works. “

” I have never seen my gesture as an act of censorship, Bartomeu Mari provides in his letter. I perceived it as a disagreement about the presence of a concrete implementation and consequences of its possible readings. “He presented his” sincere apologies “by offering his resignation to the museum, which had still not ruled on this Sunday issue.