Description of Incident: Montreal's Cote St. Luc Library removed five of Candian-Iranian photographer Zahra Kazemi's photographs from a display after Jewish patrons complained of alleged "pro-Palestinian bias"; they left up the rest of the exhibition, which had already been displayed in Paris. Zahra Kazemi had been killed two years earlier under suspicious circumstances in an Iranian prison.

Results of Incident: Kazemi's son, Stephan Hachemi, called the removal of the Palestinian photographs "a violation of my mother's spirit" and rightly demanded that the library show the entire exhibit or nothing at all. So the library took down the entire show.

Description of Incident: The Gemeentemuseum's director Wim van Krimpen told reporters the museum will not exhibit Adam and Ewald in the next few years because "certain people in our society might perceive it as offensive".

Results of Incident: The exhibit is scheduled to open Dec 15, 2007 without Hera's work.

Description of Incident: Swenson was holding an exhibit titled Portraits in a Time of War at the Kennebunk Free Library. The exhibit includes 22 collages made from old American flags that Swenson purchased at flea markets.

Four days into his show, he received a call from Janet Cate, the Library Director, asking him to remove two of his collages, one of President George W. Bush and the other of Vice President Dick Cheney.

He suggested Cate to instead turn the portraits toward the wall. She refused and told him the portraits would be removed.

Swenson drove down to the library later and retrieved the portraits, which he said had been put in a storeroom.

Cate said the two pieces of art were excessively inflammatory and crossed the bounds of acceptable community standards. She felt that the collages were not appropriate . . . for the community because of the Bush familys connection with the area, and noted that they had been the subject of complaints from the public.

This is Mr. Bushs hometown, Cate said, referring to the Bush summer home on Walkers Point in Kennebunkport. It is very local, and thats the community part of the normative community standards.

Results of Incident: The collages were removed, and wo blank spots remained where the Bush and Cheney collages once hung.

Description of Incident: Lars Vilks was supposed to present his artworks at the Eslov Biennale, and art exhibition, in south Sweden. But the city council and the culture department cancelled his invitation, citing reasons of security and negative publicity. The city believes his attendance would be an "unnecessary provocation" and would create "negative attention" around the city.

Results of Incident: Vilks is prohibited from attending the exhibition

râce au ministre russe de la culture, une photo a fait le tour du monde. Elle a été ainsi publiée le 12 octobre en "une" du quotidien britannique The Guardian. Elle est l'oeuvre du collectif d'artistes sibériens Blue Noses, fondé en 1999 par Viacheslav Mizin (né en 1962) et Alexandre Shaburov (né en 1965), s'intitule Policiers s'embrassant (L'Ere de la miséricorde), et représente deux policiers mâles se roulant un langoureux patin. Le ministre Alexandre Sokolov a interdit qu'elle figure dans l'exposition "Sots Art" (l'art contestataire, de la période soviétique à nos jours), organisée jusqu'au 20 janvier à la Maison rouge, la fondation parisienne du collectionneur Antoine de Galbert, en collaboration avec le musée Tretiakov de Moscou. Selon le ministre, cette photo est "une honte pour la Russie". Et il ajoute : "Si une oeuvre fait partie d'un catalogue de la Tretiakov, son prix grimpe. Il s'agit donc d'une intervention d'intérêts privés dans la politique de l'Etat. Cette initiative n'est rien d'autre que de la corruption." Estimant son institution diffamée, le directeur de la Galerie Tretiakov, Valentin Rodionov, a porté plainte le 19 novembre contre son ministre !

A l'occasion de la deuxième Biennale d'art contemporain de Moscou (Le Monde du 13 mars), M. de Galbert, fasciné par l'exposition consacrée par le musée Tretiakov au "Sots Art", avait décidé de la présenter dans sa fondation parisienne. Le conservateur responsable de la version moscovite, Andreï Erofeev, était chargé de l'organiser. Or, une quinzaine de jours avant l'ouverture, le ministère russe de la culture refusait de délivrer plusieurs licences d'exportation (Le Monde du 11 octobre).

Dans un communiqué de presse, M. de Galbert s'en désolait : "Très attaché à la liberté d'expression des artistes", il ne pouvait "que déplorer la position du ministre de la culture". Les Blue Noses, eux, peuvent remercier M. Sokolov : aux dires de la galerie In Situ, qui les représente à Paris, le tirage de dix exemplaires serait épuisé.

Or, la photo incriminée ne figurait pas dans l'exposition de la Tretiakov. Elle a certes déjà été montrée, et souvent. On l'a vue, un peu plus grande que nature, dans la neige recouvrant le parc privé d'une datcha, à quelques kilomètres de Moscou, où se tenait en hiver 2005 le festival Kliazma, organisé par des artistes moscovites. A cette occasion, les Blue Noses avaient d'ailleurs offert aux spectateurs un feu d'artifice, tiré depuis le fond de leur pantalon. Un tir qu'ils ont, malgré les brûlures provoquées par le départ des fusées, réédité lors d'une Biennale à Venise.

"COMME SOUS KHROUCHTCHEV"

L'exposition des policiers amoureux n'a pas provoqué de remous en Russie. Pas plus que l'image de Vladimir Poutine, George W. Bush et Oussama Ben Laden s'ébattant dans un lit, un photomontage des mêmes qui, lui, figurait dans l'exposition de la Tretiakov, et fait aussi partie des oeuvres censurées par le ministre. C'est une photo très souvent et régulièrement exposée à Moscou, mais il semble qu'elle soit interdite de sortie du territoire : un marchand britannique qui s'y était risqué se l'est fait confisquer à l'aéroport de Cheremetevo. Grâce aux liaisons Internet, ladite image fleurissait en octobre dans les stands de la FIAC. Pour Alexandre Shaburov, de Blue Noses, cité par le Guardian : "L'Etat commence à administrer la culture comme il le faisait sous Khrouchtchev." Pour M. Sokolov, ces images "de portraits d'hommes politiques dans des poses obscènes sont ordurières".

Mais on voit mal pourquoi le ministre aurait pris ombrage d'une autre oeuvre des Blue Noses, La Cuisine suprématiste, qui figurait dans l'exposition de la Tretiakov et ne se trouve pas non plus à la Maison rouge. Il s'agit d'une reconstitution de la mythique exposition "0.10", organisée par Kasimir Malevitch (1878-1935), en décembre 1915, à Petrograd, l'actuelle Saint-Pétersbourg.

Les Blue Noses remplacent les formes géométriques peintes par Malevitch par des photos d'aliments : une tranche de pain noir figure ainsi l'iconique Carré noir, des tranches de jambon, de mortadelle ou des rondelles de saucisson reconstituent les formes des tableaux suprématistes. Rien de cochon, si l'on ose dire.

L'exposition de la Maison rouge est donc très différente de celle de Moscou, sans qu'on sache vraiment quelle part revient à la censure et laquelle à M. Erofeev. Elle donne aux Parisiens une version plus aseptisée, plus héroïque, mais hélas moins fidèle à l'esprit de bidouille et de bricolage qui caractérise le Sots Art.

Ce terme a été forgé en 1972 par les artistes Vitaly Komar et Alexandre Melamid pour désigner l'art non officiel prenant comme sujet le quotidien socialiste et les signes de la propagande officielle. A l'époque, les expositions "Sots" avaient lieu principalement dans des appartements privés et se voyaient régulièrement fermées par le KGB. En 1974, celle organisée par des peintres non conformistes sur un terrain vague de la banlieue moscovite fut dispersée par les autorités au bulldozer. L'événement, commenté dans la presse du monde entier, est devenu un symbole. Comme la censure récente du ministre Sokolov ?

Harry Bellet Article paru dans l'édition du 28.11.07

Description of Incident: sensorship

Results of Incident: The Guardian

En uno de ellos se ve un grupo vallenato de las Farc que, con el símbolo de la antigua Inravisión a sus espaldas, interpreta una canción de amor, mientras varias parejas bailan.

El otro es una presentación al aire ibre de la misma agrupación bajo una carpa de cerveza Poker, en la que canta una canción, que es más bien una arenga contra el gobierno y los paramilitares. En ambos, los intérpretes visten traje de camuflado y se ve cómo algunos bailan y llevan el ritmo con sus fusiles AK-47.

Description of Incident: Los videos se los llevó el agregado cultural de la embajada, Edwin Ostos, por órdenes del embajador, Carlos Medellín, por que "El video contenía imágenes de promoción de las Farc con guerrilleros armados. Ellos son un grupo al margen de la ley, un grupo terrorista, incluso en Europa, y por razones legales la embajada no podía patrocinar ese material...Hay normas del Código Disciplinario Único y los funcionarios públicos no podemos mostrar ni promocionar las organizaciones al margen de la ley como las Farc".

La curadora, María Clara Bernal cree que el retiro es arbitrario. "Esta es una obra importante porque el video tiene características del trabajo de Wilson. Es una mirada muy neutra. El video no fue editado ni tiene palabras que no correspondan a la realidad. Es un documento de un suceso de Colombia. Retirar una cosa que es un documento con el argumento de que es una apología a la guerrilla lo hace censura. Si uno apoya un proyecto en el que se habla de desplazamiento en un país como Colombia, no puede esperar que las obras sean bodegones".

Results of Incident: En el lugar de los videos en la sala de exposiciones hay un cartelito escrito que más o menos reza: "Esta obra fue retirada por la embajada de Colombia en Inglaterra".

Description of Incident: "The Movie is unwelcome in Italy" said Raffaele Costa, Italian undersecretary to the Foreign Affair Department, in 1981; in 1982 Giulio Andreotti (Italian politician) banned the movie: the Italian government considering the movie insulting to the italian army's honor

Results of Incident: the movie was banned in Italy, no screenings allowed

Description of Incident: The painting has been damaged as the glue used to adhere the paper to the canvas will leave a tacky residue.

Results of Incident: A visitor glued a piece of black paper over the genitals of the man in the painting.

The Gentrification design, for example, says:

"In the beginning of the 21st century, with the financial and political support of the City of Providence, private developers purchased much of the industrial property in Olneyville, creating luxury living in the citys poorest neighborhood. How will we right this wrong?

Description of Incident: A city program called Neighborhood Markets gives federal grant money to local merchants associations to organize neighborhood improvement projects. Last fall, Olneyville received $45,000 from the program. The responsibility for using the money fell to the Olneyville Collaborative, an omnibus organization primarily run by the Olneyville Housing Corporation.

When Struever heard about the program, the developer donated $25,000 for whatever displays the local organizations saw fit to create, with no conditions.

Among the ideas was a project to create a series of 20 trash cans, created by local artists, administered through the Steel Yard. The Steel Yards Howie Snieder picked five of the groups artists, and asked them for ideas.

Among them was Lu Heintz, who founded the blacksmithing program at the Steel Yard.

Heintz submitted several early sketches of the cans: she planned to use text, wrapping around the receptacle, to present relevant facts about Olneyville. One sketch gave the definition of the word Woonasquatucket, the former name for Olneyville. Another referenced the number of manufacturing workers the neighborhood used to have. The director of OHC was satisfied with the early designs.

When the trash cans were completed, however, OHC rejected the work, saying that it was not in line with the conceptual designs they had seen.

Results of Incident: The trash cans remain at the Steelyard, while other cans that were ordered have been installed.

Description of Incident: The Presidential Security Group (PSG) inspected the painting the day before it was to be unveiled, and questioned certain leftist marks."

This prompted the NPC president, Roy Mabasa, to call the Angono artists to retouch the mural. Since none of them were available, he tapped another artist to retouch the mural overnight.

Results of Incident: The following changes were made to the mural:

1. Replacement of the International Federation of Journalists statement on a page of the paper being read by the central figure. The statement was painted over with a bird, and the alibata K on the arm of the figure of Andres Bonifacio was changed to a pierced heart. The alibata is the native Filipino alphabet.

2. Replacing the headline of the newspaper that Jose Rizal is holding, Press Freedom Fighters Son Abducted with Press Freedom Fight Is On.

3. Altering the faces of Edita Burgos and her missing son Jonas.

4. Erasing the name of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines from a banner of demonstrators.

4. Making Randy Davids hair and mustache longer.

5. Painting a beard and a mustache on the face of a man (depicted as columnist Juan Mercado) selling eggs and balut, and changing his hair color from white to black.

Description of Incident: The project caught the attention of Kellog's, Wal Mart, and Price Chopper for it's fair use of their products and stores.Wal Mart's attorney was threatening with a law suit if the website was not pulled down.

Results of Incident: The original website was pulled down.

Description of Incident: Psychatric clinic

Results of Incident: presumed mental illness

Description of Incident: Rude was invited by the Oregon Arts Commission to hang some works in the Governor's reception room at the Oregon State Capitol.

The first day the woodcut was displayed went by without any comments, positive or negative. Then a staff member in the Governor's office filed a complaint and requested the work be removed. Other staff members stuck up for Rude and an inter-office battle quickly developed. An aide called the Oregon Arts Commission and requested the piece be removed. While all this was happening, no one from the Arts Commission or the Governor's office called Rude. He found out everything second-hand though a friend in Salem who checking on the piece.

After two weeks, the piece was taken down. The explanation offered to Rude was that Governor Kulongoski felt uncomfortable speaking at memorials for soldiers who had lost their lives while the piece hung in his office. After speaking with the Governor's office regarding the removal of his piece, Rude picked up the phone and called every newspaper he could think of.

Results of Incident: The case was widely covered by the press and broadcast media, but the piece was not returned to display.

This was Rude's first experience with having his work physically removed from a space, but it isn't his first brush with censorship. While working as an EMT in Northern California in the early 1990s, Rude began to think about encounters with death. This lead him to consider works about religion and the afterlife, and he developed a particular interest in the cross. The cross is a symbol predating Christianity, though its now commonly associated with that religion. Rude created several pieces that used the cross as a center. One featured a bible suspended from a cross, and another featured a photocopy of Rudes hands at either end of the cross with a copper heart and a skull in the middle. The works were displayed in a local gallery and while they were referred to as disturbing, they ultimately served as starting points for conversations. Rude says this was a perfect example of art doing its job: serving as a means to provoke thought and discussion.

Description of Incident: When Milligan was asked to be part of a show produced by 2 Gyrlz Performative Arts, to be held at the now-defunct Medicine Hat Gallery on Alberta Street, in a racially and economically mixed neighborhood experiencing change and strain, he submitted the Jesus painting for the show. Citing concern that members of a local church would be offended and try to block the Medicine Hat's pending liquor license, the Medicine Hat asked him to leave the piece out of the exhibit.

Milligans second attempt unfolded similarly. Caffe Scozia, a coffee shop on East Burnside street in Portland, requested he not hang his psychedelic Jesus on the grounds that several nuns from a nearby abbey were regular customers.

Optic Nerve, a tattoo parlor and gallery on Alberta Street, commissioned a show of Milligan's works. They wanted something edgy, something that would give observers pause. When Milligan brought in "Sweet Jesus...," it was rejected as being too tame and not controversial enough.

Results of Incident: The Red and Black Café, a worker-owned cooperative coffeehouse in Southeast Portland, allowed him to show the painting.

The group said,"We wanted to show that here's an era of mercy coming after the harsh 1990s, and two people are kissing. I admit there is something provocative in this. But if people just take it as pornography or eroticism, then it's just silly in the end."

Description of Incident: The Russian Culture and Press Ministry withdrew 17 works of modern art from an exhibition due in France for being too "provocative."

The pictures, photographs and installations, brought together by the Tretyakov Gallery, were due to be shown in the Maison Rouge exhibition hall in Paris as part of France's "A Year of Russia."

But officials said the 17 exhibits would bring disgrace on Russia and were a "political provocation" by the artists.

"If this exhibition appears there, it will bring shame on Russia, and in this case all of us will bear full responsibility," Culture and Press Minister Alexander Sokolov said at a news conference.

He said "it is inadmissible ... to take all this pornography, kissing policemen and erotic pictures" to Paris.

Lidia Iovleva, deputy head of the Tretyakov Gallery, said: "To my regret, this is a sheer political provocation [by the artists], and a state-sponsored museum has no right to condone this. We are not a private gallery."

Results of Incident: The works were pulled from the show.