Jacques Charlier, Sexe d’artiste N° 02, 1973-2009, © Jacques Charlier.
Jacques Charlier, Sexe d’artiste N° 42, 1973-2009, © Jacques Charlier.
Jacques Charlier, Sexe d’artiste N° 84, 1973-2009, © Jacques Charlier. |
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Centre for Fine Arts
10, rue Royale Koningsstraat
02 507 82 00
Brussels
100 Sexes d'Artistes
Jacques Charlier
June 16-September 13, 2009
Jacques Charlier's controversial project 100 Sexes d'Artistes ran into opposition from both the organisers of the Biennale and the city of Venice. The 100 posters — imaginary portraits of the sexual organs of well-known international artists — present a humorous perspective on the art of the 20th century. By censoring the project, the Biennale has denied the public the opportunity to judge for itself; its organisers have demonstrated a patronising attitude to the artists concerned and have interfered with Jacques Charlier's artistic freedom.
BOZAR is glad to support this artistic project; throughout the summer all 100 posters will be on display in its exhibition spaces and can be seen, free of charge, by all visitors.
In 1973, Jacques Charlier began a series of drawings of “artists’ genitalia. Using caricature, he set himself the task of making imaginary portraits of the “procreative organs” of artists whom he considers to have been major figures in 20th century art since Marcel Duchamp. Through the years, Jacques Charlier has put together a veritable gallery of portraits based on conceptual analysis and personal interpretation of the “artistic attributes” of major representatives of modern and contemporary art, thus enabling, among other things, a humorous and satirical re-reading of recent art history.
The Ministry of Culture and Broadcasting of the Frenchspeaking Community of Belgium was in favour of the idea of showing 100 of these drawings in the form of posters in the public space of Venice. A little open air museum, with a rather theatrical aspect perfectly adapted to the Venetian atmosphere, could have been presented to visitors of the Biennale, the inhabitants of the Serenissime and passing tourists.
The project was officially submitted to the collateral events section of the 53rd International Art Exhibition. However, in a letter dated December 18, 2008, the director Daniel Birnbaum said that he regretted “to inform that after careful evaluation of the proposal he does not believe that it is possible to include it in the collateral events”.
The project developed by Jacques Charlier, a self-taught, multidisciplinary artist from Liège, was turned down by the Venice Biennale for its "off" programme. The posters might offend the artists concerned, according to the director, Daniel Birnbaum, and the chairman, Paolo Baratta. The city of Venice also banned the posters, on the grounds that they "would be offensive to public decency".
In response, Charlier contacted the artists concerned to ask them whether they actually felt offended; this turned out not to be the case with the overwhelming majority — quite the contrary. Those in charge of the Biennale, however, stuck to their point of view, thus censuring the project on fallacious grounds.
"Surprised by this awkward formulation and convinced that it must be a misunderstanding," said Charlier and his project's curator Enrico Lunghi, curator, "we offered to resubmit the project to the Biennale with updated information, accompanied by a letter of support from the relevant Ministry." Birnbaum agreed to re-examine the dossier, but in his reply of February 21, 2009, “he regrets to confirm his original judgement”. During a telephone conversation, the director affirmed that “it was the president Paolo Baratta who opposed the project because he believed there was a risk of offending the artists concerned”, an argument that Daniel Birnbaum subsequently confirmed by email. Charlier and Lunghi wrote to the President to try to convince him to change his mind. However, on April 8, 2009 he replied that “the validation of the projects fell exclusively to the director”. It seemed no one wanted to take responsibility for this piece of censorship.
"However, in spite of the problems of organization, presentation and visibility due to this rather arbitrary exclusion, and thanks to the unconditional support of the Ministry of Culture and Broadcasting of the French-speaking Community of Belgium, we have continued working on the project," said Charlier and Lunghi, "As we believe that the artists are adult enough to decide for themselves what offends them or not and are free to reply, in their own manner, to any possible provocation, we wrote to them (with the exception of some who are impossible to contact, such as the late lamented Marcel Duchamp)."
"As the City of Venice also refused to give us the public advertising space required for the billposting, said Charlier and Lunghi, "by arguing that 'certain posters could offend the shared sense of public decency,' we also wrote to the mayor, Massimo Cacciari, to ask him (among other things) where this 'shared sense of decency' begins and ends, how it is constituted and who decides its limits." All answers received plus the documents related to the project were available for consultation, from June 3-7, 2009, on the boat serving as a refuge for the 100 Sexes d’Artistes project. The boat was moored at the Riva dei Sette Martiri in Venice, near the Giardini.
"What is more, galvanized by this inadmissible censorship," said Charlier and Lunghi, "we contacted other cities and art institutions that have agreed to present the 100 Sexes d’Artistes project in public space with no hesitation. Which just goes to show the ridiculous nature of the Venetian position. During the month of June 2009, the posters will therefore be on display in Antwerp (B), Belgrade (SR), Bergen (N), Linz (A), Luxembourg (L), Metz (F) and Namur (B). Their inhabitants can participate in the photo game 'Free Venice' and win a catalogue published for the occasion. Other cities will certainly follow suit.
"It only remains for the art world and journalists to ask themselves what values the Venice Biennale is promoting if it censors an artistic project in such a dubious and irresponsible manner, said Charlier and Lunghi, "Is it up to the Biennale to castrate artists by deciding for them what might offend those whose very existence consists of forever extending the limits of freedom?
"Members of the public (for the Biennale, but also passing tourists and the inhabitants of the Serenissime) might wonder to what extent the Biennale and the local authorities in Venice intend to infantilize them by denying them the possibility of being confronted with a humorous and satirical project that is full of references to art history from Marcel Duchamp to the present day," said Charlier and Lunghi, "Do they henceforth only have the right to be exposed to advertising and art that is formatted, digested and castrated?"
In any case, the posters, along with full documentation of the correspondence with the Biennale principals, the city, and the artists concerned, were, nevertheless, on display during the Biennale. Charlier moored a boat, which had been transformed into a documentation centre, in the centre of Venice, on the Riva dei Sette Martiri, where the public could find out about the development of the whole project.
The Mayor of the city of Brussels, Freddy Thielemans, has also decided to show the posters in the streets of the city centre on more than 25 locations, until November 22, 2009. |
