A pair of crosses in León Ferrari’s ‘The West and Christian Civilization’ (2004), which he described as blasphemous, exclaimed the current Pope and then-Cardinal Bergoglio, and captured in a performative photograph by the American Andrés Serrano, a cross filled with his own urine. ‘Piss Christ’ (1987), for which he sank himself into a tank and received death threats for it, are two clear examples of religious censorship. More political was Austrian Inés Doujak’s ‘Undressed to Conquer’ statue, a caricature of honorary king Juan Carlos I mounted by Bolivarian unionist Domitila Barrios, which resulted in the resignation of Macba Bartomeu’s then manager in 2015. Marí and the cancellation of the ‘Beast and Monarch’ exhibition. They are three of them 42 works from the more than 200 collection of journalist and businessman Tatxo Benet (Lleida, 1957) are now on display free of charge in the new and pioneering Museum of Forbidden Art It opens its doors in Barcelona this Thursday.
In the heart of the Eixample Quadrat d’Or, the Garriga Nogués house, a modernist work built between 1899 and 1901 by architect Enric Sagnier (which previously housed the Mapfre Foundation), reopens its doors to house this unique exhibition centre. route 2,000 square meters. Spread over two floors, the exhibition includes paintings, sculptures, installations, audio-visuals, engravings and photographs by artists such as Picasso, Ai Wei Wei, Banksy, Robert Mapplethorpe, Tania Bruguera, Miquel Barceló and Andy Warhol, as well as stories of forbidden stories. Complaints, controversy and censorship for political, social, sexual or religious reasons.
Most of them date from the second half of the 20th and 21st centuries., but there are also some from the 18th-century Enlightenment; Like the 15 ‘Caprichos’ that Goya withdrew from sale through self-censorship for fear of the Inquisition. As the artistic director of the project, Carles Guerra, puts it, “this is the oldest work, but also the most modern, because it embodies the critical capacity of the Court painter of that time.” society in crisis and caricature the vices of the clergy and the government.
The collection from the Reina Sofia Museum, supporting the Museum of Forbidden Art directed by Rosa Rodrigo, was initiated by Tatxo Benet, co-founder of the Mediapro audiovisual group and organizer of the Ona bookstore and Suma Llibres publishing group. In 2018, he purchased Santiago Sierra’s work ‘Political Prisoners in Contemporary Spain’ at the ARCO fair in Madrid. “After half an hour, they censored it and removed it from the exhibition,” says the businessman. Consisting of 24 photographs, including those of Oriol Junqueras, Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sànchez, who were imprisoned for the Procés, it is currently on loan and on display at the Lleida Museum, but he foresees this to continue in the future. He will probably come to Barcelona.
At this ARCO, Benet also acquired a work by Pere Llovera, the only artist to withdraw his works in solidarity with Sierra. “Therefore, I did not think of creating such a collection, but I started looking for banned works on the internet. I learned that Zoulikha Bouabdellah’s work ‘Silence rouge et bleu’ was withdrawn in France in 2015, and I bought it.” The work touches on the situation of women in Arab countries. 30 shiny stiletto shoes on 30 prayer rugs, now occupies a large room in the new museum; The work was shown at Clichy shortly after the ‘Charlie Hebdo’ attacks on caricatures of Muhammad and the French-Algerian artist, and the curator agreed to remove the work from the exhibition for fear of violent reactions after receiving ‘warnings’ from the Muslim community.
“Censorship continues to be implemented in various forms. It is difficult to imagine a world without censorship,” says Guerra, independent curator and chief curator of Macba. That is why the Museum of Forbidden Art does not limit itself to exhibiting works, but offers art lovers a variety of possibilities through a free guide and an application. All the stories and shows that
She notes that some of the works “reference the state of women’s bodies in the Arab world, while others allude to the conservative wave in the United States in the ’80s, along with attempts at censorship by artists such as Mapplethorpe.” Thus, on the stairs of Garriga Nogués’ house stands a large photograph; She is one of the black women glorified by South African Zanele Muholi with her portraits. artist, who fight against intolerance towards lesbiansHard drives containing five years of work were stolen from the homes of the LGTB+ community, who were subjected to ‘corrective violations’ in their country. At the bottom of the stairs, near the museum entrance, is a statue of a Francoist censor, the work of the Crónica Team.
There is room for a few satraps on the ground floor: ‘Always Franco’, the statue of the dictator inside a Coca-Cola refrigerator, is a work by Eugenio Merino that the Franco Foundation unsuccessfully requested to be removed from ARCO in 2012. Dialogues with David Cerny’s ‘Shark’, a formaldehyde tank in which Saddam Hussein swims in his underwear with his hands bound, are a ‘remake’ of Damien Hirst’s shark. With Fear of disturbing MuslimsShortly after protests against the Muhammad caricatures, the mayor of Middelkerke, Belgium, banned the display of the caricatures in 2006.
The aim is approximately The works exhibited are renewed every year. To show off the rest of the Benet collection. They also envisage a program of travel programs and loans to other museum centers. Not only to attract visitors from outside Barcelona, general admission is in the mid-to-low range of 12 euros (the discounted one is 9 euros).
As a result, 50 posters denouncing world injustices are temporarily displayed on one wall. Amnesty InternationalIt was designed by Picasso, Miró, Tàpies, Fernando Botero and Alexander Calder, among others.