Artist: Osip Mandel'shtam Confronting Bodies: Joseph Stalin Date of Action: 1934 Specific Location: Soviet Union Description of Artwork: Mandel'shtam wrote a short, 16-line epigram critiszing Stalin. He wrote: "Our lives no longer feel ground under them. At ten paces you can't hear our words. But whenever there's a snatch of talk it turns to the Kremlin mountaineer, the ten thick worms his fingers, his words like measures of weight, the huge laughing cockroaches on his top lip, the glitter of his boot-rims. Ringed with a scum of chicken-necked bosses he toys with the tributes of half-men. One whistles, another meows, a third snivels. He pokes out his finger and he alone goes boom. He forges decrees in a line like horseshoes, one for the groin, one the forehead, temple, eye. He rolls the executions on his tongue like berries. He wishes he could hug them like big friends from home." Description of Incident: Mandel'shtam shared the poem with a group of friends, one of which leaked it to the secret police. The epigram reached Stalin, declared it counter-revolutionary.
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Artist: Santiago Reyes/Santiago Reyes/Galo Carrión Confronting Bodies: Municipalidad de Cuenca-Ecuador y la Novena Edición de la Bienal de Cuenca Date of Action: Abril 2007 Specific Location: Cuenca, Ecuador (Sur América) Description of Artwork: Una fotografía que muestra a dos hombres durmiendo y tomados de la mano.
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Artist: Adnan Hassanpour and Abdolvahed Hiva Botimar Confronting Bodies: Sanandaj's Tribunal of Revolution Date of Action: July 2007 Specific Location: Kurdistan, a province of Iran Description of Artwork: Adnan Hassanpour and Abdolvahed Hiva Botimar were journalists known for writing articles and books on the subject of Kurdish discrimination in Iran.
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Artist: Alex Au Confronting Bodies: Singapore Media Development Authority Date of Action: July 2007 Specific Location: Singapore Description of Artwork: Over 80 photographs of same sex couples kissing. The models are fully clothed.
Former Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is also attempting to introduce a bill in Parliament to remove the ban on gay sex in Singapore.
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Artist: Dusan Makavejev Confronting Bodies: Yugoslav Ministry of Culture Date of Action: 1973 Specific Location: Yugoslavia Description of Artwork: The W.R. in "W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism" stands both for World Revolution and for Wilhelm Reich, who the film starts with a documentary about. Reich was a Marxist who believed in free love. The use of this footage is to make statements on social and sexual liberation, totalitarianism, and free love in a communist atmosphere. Later in the film one of the characters declares, "Communism without free love is a wake in a graveyard." It also contains scenes of nudity and explicate sexuality weaved in with documentary footage of communism. As a whole, "W.R." is a critique of communist sexual repression. It is not a sex film, but rather a film about sex.
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Artist: John McNaughton Confronting Bodies: British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) Date of Action: 1991 Specific Location: Great Britian Description of Artwork: "Henry" is loosely based on the exploits of serial killer, Henry Lee Lucas. Although containing scenes of extreme violence, its controversy comes from it being shot in such a manner so that the viewer sees the violence in the film with the same cold detached view of a serial killer. It has been described as "a morally blank film"
In Britain, the BBFC decided not to ban the movie completely, although the director of the board thought that would be the best move. They began by removing any scene that would associate sex with violence, explaining that this would dehumanize women in the minds of the viewers. However, after interviewing forensic psychiatrists who explained that the film reflects the same lack of morals that serial killers operate under, the board decided more would need to be cut for the video release.
The board explained that they believed watching the scene of a video taping on a video would make it seem considerably more real than being on a film screen. This would allow a small proportion of viewers, they say, to live out their sick fantasies over and over again. As a result, the video of "Henry" is more censored than the film version in Britain.
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Artist: Algerian Committee of Free Fighters for Human Dignity and Human Rights Confronting Bodies: Jean-Loius Debré, the French minister of the interior Date of Action: 1995 Specific Location: France Description of Artwork: "The White Book on Oppression in Algeria" tries to explain the Algerian Civil war that started in 1992. During the 90's, thi conflic was very difficult to get information and the only available explanation came from the Algerian government. This book, written by rebels, gives details of the Algerian government killings and torture from the years 1991 to 1994.
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Artist: Norman Lindsay Confronting Bodies: Victoria authorities and influential individuals Date of Action: 1930 Specific Location: Australia Description of Artwork: "Redheap" is a comical novel that mocks country life in Australia. Lindsay based the work off his old hometown of Creswick, Victoria.
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Artist: Gyorgy Ligeti Confronting Bodies: The Composers' Union, a committee set by the communist regieme to review music. Date of Action: Late 1940's and Early 1950's Specific Location: Hungary Description of Artwork: Ligeti's music had been influenced by the works of modern composers such as Strauss and Bartok. When these were censored he turned instead to the uncensored music of the Renaissance and Middle Ages. Most of his early pieces were for chorus or experimental.
For the next several years, Legeti decided his serious works must be written in secret and were locked in his drawers. He left Hungary for the West in 1956 after the Hungarian revolt had been put down. He kept his works with him, hiding them as he crossed the boarder into Austria.
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Artist: Li Jiantong Confronting Bodies: Yan Hongyan (A leading party official), Kang Sheng (director of the Central Committee's Ideological Group), and Mao Zedong. Date of Action: 1962 Specific Location: China Description of Artwork: The novel is a biography of the revolutionary Liu Zhidan, who had been a popular leader of communist guerrillas in the 1930's.
Kang Sheng spoke in public about the novel and described it as "anti-party." He said it would spread negative ideologies and denounced it for portraying some of the party's enemies in a positive light. These accusations came to Mao Zedong's attention and led him to order an investigation surrounding Li Jiantong and her accomplices.
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Artist: Li Zhi Confronting Bodies: Censorship official Zhang Wenda Date of Action: 1602 Specific Location: China Description of Artwork: Li Zhi is a Chinese philosopher who rejected conventional Confucian teachings. Instead, he blended conventional Confucianism with Buddhism to develop his own ethical philosophy. This idea was that there is no absolute truth to be found in the standards of Confucianism except through careful introspection. He published books with knowledge that they would be regarded as dangerous (Two of them are named "A Book to be Burned" and "A Book to be Hidden Away.")
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Artist: Hanoch Levin Confronting Bodies: The Israeli Theater and Film Censorship Board, the National Religious Party (Hetzofeh branch), and ultra-Orthadox Jews. Date of Action: 1982 Specific Location: Israel Description of Artwork: "The Patriot" was called into question over it' story involving an Israeli who wants to emigrate to America. The American consul forces him to do things such as spit on his own mother and torture and Arab boy and murder him to prove his loyalty to Israel. One scene that found particular resistance involved him torturing the Arab boy using Sabbath candles. The play harshly satirizes and calls into question Orthodox rituals.
After this, the censorship board gave the play another chance, provided it would cut the scene with the Shabbat candles, in addition to a few others.
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Artist: Around 80 children who have grown up with parents addicted to drugs or alcohol. Confronting Bodies: Glasgow city council Date of Action: July, 2007 Specific Location: Glasgow, Scotland Description of Artwork: The exhibit features artwork by children who have grown up in families that were torn apart by drug abuse. The artwork is not toned down and some of the issues addressed in it is not comfortable material.
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Artist: Mikhail Lermontov Confronting Bodies: Tsar Nicholas I and Russian beurocrats. Date of Action: 1837 Specific Location: Russia Description of Artwork: "Death of a Poet" was written in response to the death of Aleksandr Pushkin (A famous poet and author) in a duel. Most of it was developed while Pushkin was merely wounded and this portion merely praises him and insults his opponent. However when Pushkin died three days after the duel from wounds he sustained, Lermontov added a new section in a fit of rage. This passage denounces the aristocrats around the throne (Who apparently supported Pushkin's opponent) as the executioners of freedom and genius.
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Artist: Lars Vilks Confronting Bodies: Exhibition organizers Date of Action: July 2007 Specific Location: Karlstad, Sweeden Description of Artwork: The pieces in question are three sketchy drawings depicting Mohammed as a dog. Another drawing by Vilks has Mohammed and Hans Christian Andersen are visiting the Carlsberg brewery in Copenhagen.
The Orebro (Sweeden) newspaper Nerikes Allehanda publishes the drawing as part of an Aug 19, 2007 editorial criticizing several Sweedish art galleries for refusing to display a series of prophet drawings by Vilks. In response Muslims stage a demonstration and demand the editor apologize and never publish a similar image. The editor refuses to do that. |