SELECTION of
ART WORKS

Juan Carlos in an inappropriate situation

Artwork: Not dressed for conquering / HC04 Transport
Artist: Ines Doujak
Reason: Censored during an exhibition at MACBA 2015. The then Spanish King Juan Carlos is shown in an unmistakable pose.

The exhibition “The Beast and the Sovereign” was shown at the MACBA in 2015. The aim of the exhibition was to see how art questions the idea of sovereignty. I was also there at the time and, in fact, I can mainly only remember this sculpture because the entire press pounced on it. It went so far that the director even wanted to cancel the exhibition the day before it opened. Just because of this sculpture. The curators of the exhibition were against it and did not want to remove the work. The exhibition finally opened and the director resigned.

The sculpture by Austrian artist Ines Doujak criticises the power relations that arise in the context of colonialism. The sculpture shows a dog sodomising the Bolivian women’s leader Domitila Barroios de Chúngara, who in turn sodomises a man who can be identified as former King Juan Carlos I, who is vomiting on a bed made of SS officers’ helmets.

Female shoes and prayer rugs

Artwork: Silence Rouge et Bleu
Artist: Zoulikha Bouabdellah
Reason: Violent threats forced the removal of the prayer rug work. The work was shown in Clichy (France) at a group exhibition of female artists. Shortly after the attacks on Charlie Hebdo…

This work was also censored in 2015. Because it was the year in which 12 people died in the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack. A few weeks later, the exhibition “Femina ou la réappropriation des modeles” (“Femina or the Reappropriation of Models”) opened in Clichy, which focussed on the question of gender and cultural identities from the perspective of artistic creation. Zoulikha Bouabdellah was one of the 18 artists with this work, which aims to highlight the strength of Arab women.
2 days before the opening, the mayor warned of violent threats that could happen. The curators and the artist decided to remove the work from the exhibition – as a result, many of the other female artists stood behind Bouabdellah in solidarity and also withdrew their art.

The work was exhibited in other museums before and after and did not attract any threats.

Abused women

Artwork: The Statue of a Girl in Peace
Artist: Kim Eun-Sung & Kim Seo-Kyung, a Korean artist couple
The reason: Japan’s Aichi Triennale censors its own exhibition on censorship because of public threats against a sculpture. It was declared as anti-Japanese propaganda – this work was the cause of many diplomatic problems between South Korea and Japan.

The work is a tribute to the so-called “comfort women”. It is a term that emerged during the Second World War and the period of Japanese occupation of Korea. These were women who were forced into sexual exploitation by the Japanese armed forces and their allies in military brothels or “comfort women’s houses”. They came from various countries – mainly Korea and the Philippines. They were abducted and held captive in inhumane conditions and forced into prostitution for the Japanese soldiers. Even today – as we can see from this example – the issue is associated with many tensions. Since 1990, Korean activists have been trying to get an apology from Japan for these atrocities. In 2011, the first version of this sculpture was erected in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul. It finally materialised in 2015, along with the establishment of a foundation for the victims – but the sculpture was to disappear.

This sculpture from 2019 was shown at the “Freedom of Expression?” exhibition in Aichi, Japan. However, the mayor wanted to remove it – the organisers received threatening letters. In the end, the sculpture was shown – with a high level of security.

There are now dozens of replicas of this sculpture all over the world. And you can now see it here and sit next to the woman.

Pay attention to the wall texts: every detail of the sculpture has a specific meaning! The badly cut hair, for example, is a reminder that all the victims were “cut off” from their families against their will. The bird symbolises peace and the butterfly represents the hope of the survivors.

At this point, I have to explain my laughter in the chair: I came into the room and still had no idea when I was told you could sit there… And you just laugh when you’re photographed. It was only afterwards that I read what it was all about…

McDonalds on the cross

Artwork: McJesus
Artist: Jani Leinonen
Reason: A crucified Ronald McDonald’s causes outrage in Israel.

In 2019, the Christian community in Haifa, Israel, demanded that the work be removed from the “Sacred Goods” exhibition because it was too offensive. The exhibition brought together works of art that criticised our consumer culture and the values of capitalism. It was only when this work from the exhibition started doing the rounds on Facebook that the protests began. It even went so far as to attempt an attack on the museum. The Minister of Culture wanted to have the work removed as this attack went too far. The museum refused – that would be an attack on freedom of expression. It even went all the way to court.
It was only because of the Finnish artist that the McJesus was taken down. The artist did not want to be part of the exhibition because he supported the boycott of Israel and did not want his works to be exhibited in Israel.

In the same room of the exhibition at Prohibit, we also find a Raquel Welch on the cross – the photo also made waves in the press. The picture was taken in 1966, when the actress and photographer Terry O’Neil decided not to publish it. However, it came out 30 years later and made it onto the cover of the Sunday Times Magazine and made big waves.

Other works by better known artists, but with less impact for now…

Work: Caprichos
Artist: Francisco Goya
What happened: Goya was interrogated by the Inquisition because of this

Work: Filippo Strozzi in Lego
Artist: Ai Weiwei
What happened: LEGO didn’t want to sell Ai Weiwei any more bricks, they didn’t want to appear politically. Ai Weiwei then appealed to the public, and a lot of bricks were sent to him.

Work: Mao
Artist: Andy Warhol
What happened: Chinese authorities banned the exhibition of some Mao portraits in 2013 because they were not respectful to Mao Zedong. In the end, these works really were not exhibited.

Work: Floating nude with outstretched arms (study for “Medicine”)
Artist: Gustav Klimt
What happened: In 1894, the state ordered three works by Klimt to decorate the University of Vienna. The works were considered pornographic and 87 professors at the university demanded that they not be displayed. The originals were burnt at the end of the Second World War.

Work: Suite 347
Artist: Pablo Picasso
What happened: The series was exhibited in a gallery in 1968, but only in a separee that was only accessible to adults. In 2012, this series was shown in Russia, also only open to people aged 16 and over. The Orthodox Church demanded that the exhibition posters be taken down.

Work: Untitled
Artist: Keith Haring
What happened: Behind his seemingly naive and colourful works, the artist hid a denunciation of social issues, such as the fight against the AIDS epidemic, from which he himself suffered. He was labelled a provocateur for defending the gay community, and was arrested several times for his graffiti in New York underground stations.

Work: Smiling Copper
Artist: Banksy
What happened: Police violence is a recurring theme in Banksy’s work. He often depicts police officers to denounce the abuse and contradictions of the system. This work is part of a series featuring heavily armed police officers, but all wearing a smiley face.

THE COLLECTOR
FORMATION OF THE MUSEUM

It all started when the entrepreneur and journalist Tatxo Benet acquired an artwork by the artist Santiago Sierra in 2018. The title was “Presos Políticos en la España Contemporánea” (Political Prisoners in Contemporary Spain). Shortly after the acquisition, however, the gallery removed the artwork from all media – the words “political prisoners” led to censorship, and they no longer wanted to show it to visitors.

This triggered the collector and led to the idea of creating a collection that focuses on censorship of all kinds, and the initiative to display it in a museum was born. For this purpose, Tatxo Benet has gathered almost 200 artworks.

Their intention – the mission, so to speak – of the museum is to open up the possibility for us to view artworks that have been rejected in other public museums or exhibitions.