Protests at an exhibition
Arra Porter | 15.03.2001 15:19
By Thursday mid-afternoon it was still unclear whether the police had obtained a permit to seize items from the "I am a camera" exhibition in Swiss Cottage, north London.
At mid-day some supporters, from the "Freedom to be yourself" group, which campaigns for liberalisation of laws and attitudes toward nudity, staged a public disrobing at the gates of the Saatchi Gallery. This was met with lots of press photographers but then, unexpectedly, a small bunch of passing "News of the World " readers began to throw unwarranted accusations, based on the kind of false arguments that provoked the police action to begin with. Undaunted, the campaigners proceeded to walk around the gallery in their state of undress.
Also distributed were copies of the "Manifesto for a free, revolutionary art", written in 1938 by Andre Breton and Trotsky, which in drawing the connection between artistic and political censorship, remains remarkably relevant today.
By about 2pm the press began to grow weary of waiting for a police raid that might not transpire. Among them were correspondents from "Liberation" (France) and the usual tabloids. One from the latter seemed to avoid addressing the matter of state censorship and kept pushing for hypothetical answers about criminal acts: It must be stated that there is no question here of any criminality on the part of the artist, the gallery, or the visitors; the only question (as with any exhibition on any theme )is whether it is good art, and that is not the business of the state or puritan mobs to decide.
Also distributed were copies of the "Manifesto for a free, revolutionary art", written in 1938 by Andre Breton and Trotsky, which in drawing the connection between artistic and political censorship, remains remarkably relevant today.
By about 2pm the press began to grow weary of waiting for a police raid that might not transpire. Among them were correspondents from "Liberation" (France) and the usual tabloids. One from the latter seemed to avoid addressing the matter of state censorship and kept pushing for hypothetical answers about criminal acts: It must be stated that there is no question here of any criminality on the part of the artist, the gallery, or the visitors; the only question (as with any exhibition on any theme )is whether it is good art, and that is not the business of the state or puritan mobs to decide.
Arra Porter