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Censorship: Madrid art fair pulls photo exhibition of Spain’s political prisoners

Madrid's International Contemporary Art Fair (ARCO) has pulled a photo exhibition called "Political Prisoners in Contemporary Spain" amid controversy because it includes images of Catalan politicians that are currently in jail.

Published: 21 February 2018 17:57 CET
Censorship: Madrid art fair pulls photo exhibition of Spain's political prisoners
A woman observes the exhibit before it was taken down. Photo: Santiago Sierra/Facebook

The decision to remove the exhibition within hours of the art fair opening to the press has prompted charges of censorship against the government-funded body which operates IFEMA, a vast exhibition space on the outskirts of Madrid.

The polemic exhibit contained 24 black and white portraits  by Spanish conceptual artist Santiago Sierra,  displayed in the stand assigned to the Helga de Alvear gallery.

Gallery organisers were asked to remove the exhibit on Wednesday just hours after a press preview ahead of the art fair opening to the public.  


The exhibit was taken down on Wednesday. Photo: AFP

“The controversy sparked by the display of this artwork is diverting attention away from the exhibition as a whole,” read a statement released by IFEMA.

The gallery owner agreed to the request by authorities to dismantle the show.

“I guess someone wants to avoid a fracas over Catalonia,” explained the owner of the gallery in a press conference.

“I'm in someone else's house and if Ifema does not want the exhibit there then I’ll take it away. But in my own house, nobody takes anything from me. “

Madrid City Hall, which is run by a far-left coalition, has demanded a full explanation from IFEMA.

The artist included images of Deposed vice president of the Catalan government Oriol Jonqueras, and two officials Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sanchez, who are all behind bars on sedition charges over staging the illegal referendum on independence in Catalonia last October 1st.

Other portraits included those who had fallen foul of Spain’s unpopular ‘gag law’ including two puppeteers who faced charges last year after including references to Basque terrorism in a children’s theatre show.

Sierra said such censorship by authorities was damaging for Spain's reputation.

“I've just learned about the censorship of my work,” the artist wrote on his facebook page. “I believe that this decision seriously damages the reputation of this international fair and of the Spanish state itself.”

“It shows a lack of respect towards the gallery owner, who was among the founding members of this art fair, as well as to the maturity and intelligence of the pubic.

He added: “Finally, acts of censorship like this bring sense and reason to such a piece, which exists to denounce the climate of persecution suffered by cultural artists in recent times.”

The decision to pull the exhibit, which had already been sold in its entirely to one buyer for €80,000,  came amid further outrage over censorship.

Earlier this week, a court ruled to uphold a three-and-a-half year jail sentence for a rapper for “glorifying terrorism and insulting the king”.

Several people have faced charges and jail terms in Spain in recent years because of song lyrics and tweets, particularly over glorifying terrorism.   

READ MORE: The ten most repressive points of Spain's gag law

Leftwing figures have branded the prosecutions an attack on freedom of expression. 

“Censoring a book because it speaks of corruption, sending a rapper to jail for a song, or taking down a work of art because it's uncomfortable. The gag laws of the PP are incompatible with a fair and democratic country,” tweeted hard-left party Podemos deputy Irene Montero. 

READ ALSO: Spanish rapper jailed over glorifying terror and insulting the king

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ART

African-born director’s new vision for Berlin cultural magnet

One of the rare African-born figures to head a German cultural institution, Bonaventure Ndikung is aiming to highlight post-colonial multiculturalism at a Berlin arts centre with its roots in Western hegemony.

Published: 8 July 2023 10:13 CEST
African-born director's new vision for Berlin cultural magnet

The “Haus der Kulturen der Welt” (House of World Cultures), or HKW, was built by the Americans in 1956 during the Cold War for propaganda purposes, at a time when Germany was still divided.

New director Ndikung said it had been located “strategically” so that people on the other side of the Berlin Wall, in the then-communist East, could see it.

This was “representing freedom” but “from the Western perspective”, the 46-year-old told AFP.

Now Ndikung, born in Cameroon before coming to study in Germany 26 years ago, wants to transform it into a place filled with “different cultures of the world”.

The centre, by the river Spree, is known locally as the “pregnant oyster” due to its sweeping, curved roof. It does not have its own collections but is home to exhibition rooms and a 1,000-seat auditorium.

It reopened in June after renovations, and Ndikung’s first project “Quilombismo” fits in with his aims of expanding the centre’s offerings.

The exhibition takes its name from the Brazilian term “Quilombo”, referring to the communities formed in the 17th century by African slaves, who fled to remote parts of the South American country.

Throughout the summer, there will also be performances, concerts, films, discussions and an exhibition of contemporary art from post-colonial societies across Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania.

‘Rethink the space’

“We have been trying to… rethink the space. We invited artists to paint walls… even the floor,” Ndikung said.

And part of the “Quilombismo” exhibition can be found glued to the floor -African braids laced together, a symbol of liberation for black people, which was created by Zimbabwean artist Nontsikelelo Mutiti.

According to Ndikung, African slaves on plantations sometimes plaited their hair in certain ways as a kind of coded message to those seeking to escape, showing them which direction to head.

READ ALSO: Germany hands back looted artefacts to Nigeria

His quest for aestheticism is reflected in his appearance: with a colourful suit and headgear, as well as huge rings on his fingers, he rarely goes unnoticed.

During his interview with AFP, Ndikung was wearing a green scarf and cap, a blue-ish jacket and big, sky-blue shoes.

With a doctorate in medical biology, he used to work as an engineer before devoting himself to art.

In 2010, he founded the Savvy Gallery in Berlin, bringing together art from the West and elsewhere, and in 2017 was one of the curators of Documenta, a prestigious contemporary art event in the German city of Kassel.

Convinced of the belief that history “has been written by a particular type of people, mostly white and men,” Ndikung has had all the rooms in the HKW renamed after women.

These are figures who have “done something important in the advancement of the world” but were “erased” from history, he added. Among them is Frenchwoman Paulette Nardal, born in Martinique in 1896.

She helped inspire the creation of the “negritude” movement, which aimed to develop black literary consciousness, and was the first black woman to study at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Reassessing history

Ndikung’s appointment at the HKW comes as awareness grows in Germany about its colonial past, which has long been overshadowed by the atrocities committed during the era of Adolf Hitler’s Nazis.

Berlin has in recent years started returning looted objects to African countries which it occupied in the early 20th century — Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Namibia and Cameroon.

“It’s long overdue,” said Ndikung.

He was born in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, into an anglophone family.

The country is majority francophone but also home to an anglophone minority and has faced deadly unrest in English-speaking areas, where armed insurgents are fighting to establish an independent homeland.

One of his dreams is to open a museum in Cameroon “bringing together historical and contemporary objects” from different countries, he said.

He would love to locate it in Bamenda, the capital of Cameroon’s restive Northwest region.

“But there is a war in Bamenda, so I can’t,” he says.

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