The police in Venice closed an art installation in the form of a functioning mosque on Friday morning, after city officials declared the art project a security hazard and said that the artist who created it, Christoph Büchel, had not obtained proper permits and had violated laws by allowing too many people inside the mosque to worship. — NYT
"There is no mosque in Venice, so the thousands of Muslim tourists visiting Venice must pray in a converted factory in Mestre, which is the polluted part of Venice.
This until the swiss artist Buechler converted an abandoned and unused former catholic church into a functioning mosque for the duration of this year's Art Biennial.
Short lived though, Venice Municipal Authorities just yanked the permit.
Reason: Security andSafety-it was too popular, too many people wanted to see it or pray in it.
As usual security trumps everything"
As quoted by a friend.
17 Comments
From the Nation article,
‘Christoph Büchel’s work ‘The Mosque’ is intended to shed light on institutionalized segregation and prejudices in society, including the conflicts that arise due to policies regarding immigration, which are pivotal in national and religious disputes all over the world,’ the statement said. ‘It is fair to say that this goal has been achieved.’
what if we did a Mormon tabernacle art installation in Mecca? or a Buddhist temple art installation in Jerusalem? or Scientologist thingy in MOMA?
isn't that what this was, putting some cultural thingy in what amounts to a museum - Venice as museum of some glory days in Italy....it was a short lived exhibition, whatever point this guy was making he just showed us what it really was - an art project to turn a few heads....might as well jack off under a staircase or something...
security always trumps bullshit. religion is bullshit. it's a choice...and frankly so is culture...
god's everywhere, pray anywhere....never heard of Buchel until this....
we as society give religion and invented cultural habits far too much precedent and importance...
haha Rita....then when the world does not need oil anymore everyone will swim to these Catholic church island havens and convert. at this point maybe rhe Catholics will be in control of something the world needs like oxygen,or maybe the Mormons will find abundant amounts of oxygen out in Utah and make tons of money off its distrubition......you will get two guys in black suits with name tags with every fresh bag of oxygen. ....talk about systemic apparatus - this religion cultural thing - now an art project.
jacking off reference...meant ramp not stairs.........."In this legendary sculpture/performance Acconci lay beneath a ramp built in the Sonnabend Gallery. Over the course of three weeks, he masturbated eight hours a day while murmuring things like, "You're pushing your cunt down on my mouth" or "You're ramming your cock down into my ass." Not only does the architectural intervention presage much of his subsequent work, but all of Acconci's fixations converge in this, the spiritual sphincter of his art. In Seedbed, Acconci is the producer and the receiver of the work's pleasure. He is simultaneously public and private, making marks yet leaving little behind, and demonstrating ultra-awareness of his viewer while being in a semi-trance state." - Jerry Saltz A video of the piece itself shows no sexual content; it all is merely suggested.[2
From Huffington Post,
'Swiss-Icelandic artist Christoph Buechel's exhibit inside a former Roman Catholic Church creating the first mosque ever in the historic center of Venice sparked controversy from the outset. The chairman of the Icelandic Art Center, which commissioned the project, complained that Venetian authorities "have tried to prevent its realization rather than assist in making it possible," under the claim "that the Icelandic Pavilion is not art."
"Perhaps most disappointingly, the administration of La Biennale di Venezia ... has not supported this artistic endeavor in the way that would have been expected for an organization of its stature and proclaimed advocacy of contemporary art," Icelandic art center Eirikur Thorlaksson said in a statement.
He said the closure indicated that the Biennale, one of the visual art world's premier events, "is not a venue for truly free artistic expression."
Iceland chose the deconsecrated Church of Santa Maria della Misericordia for the exhibit titled "The Mosque" in Venice, which for centuries served as a crossroads between East and West and is infused with Middle Eastern architectural influences. The project envisioned a working mosque for the seven months of the Biennale, which opened May 8 and comprises national pavilions as well as a curated main exhibit."
yeah! boo for being Italians and Catholics and having principles etc...
Orhan, I don't get it? This is a bullshit art piece based on controversy.
It is equal to having a cartoonists session on drawing the prophet or god or whatever in Texas to entrap guys show up who are dumb enough and blind enough and big enough assholes to shoot people over a cartoon....who then get shot and die, and guess what...no one cares.
that's what this art is. it's not saying what you think it should be saying.
it's saying, I need attention so I took this project as a swiss-icelandic guy to get my work noticed.
since this is an architecture forum, by permit did he get a public assembly approval or just a work permit? since religion is a choice its up to Italy how the religions operate in their country. if they feel a religion is dangerous to their society they can ban it or limit it. pretty sure Scientology was or is banned in Germany. how is this any different?
what does this have to do with art? shouldn't religious structures be built for people to congregate and practice their religion, rather than for immature cries for attention?
to curtkrams point....nevermind my Religion is bullshit position, i at least grew up in a very strict fundamental religious environment and could provide an alternate position here........if your religion is your Faith and Truth in Being,then having an Art Installation to make a political point about freedom of expression may actually be blasphemous. this waters down your truth and equates your truth to all other religions claiming to be the truth. this makes your relgiom part of all the others instead of being the OnLy ONE.....for this reason as well perhaps the Italians acted appropriately for security reasons....perhaps this is offensive a truly devout person whose very Being is Islam and not something they do between their 9-5 job.......i went to church with people one move away from David Kuresh....making your religion an art piece is something Satan would do....
STATEMENT by the Icelandic Art Center:
"With the closing of the Icelandic contribution to the 56th Biennale di Venezia, it has also become clear that the Biennale itself, which has for over a century been the premier stage for the visual arts worldwide, is not a venue for truly free artistic expression. Artists chosen to participate in the Biennale now appear only to be allowed to address issues that are acceptable to the local authorities.
It will now become the task of the Icelandic Art Center to resolve the current state of the Icelandic participation in the Venice Biennale.
The Center will report its findings and recommendations to the Icelandic Ministry of Education, Science and Culture.."
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Here is a comment by a reader on the article in hyperallergic titled "Why I Don’t Buy the Premise of Christoph Büchel’s Icelandic Mosque Pavilion"
"Little is mentioned in the press about the real reasons for the installation's early demise. A Venetian professor of religion and art history, Mr. Tamborrino is the individual who got this exhibit shut down by bringing a penal suit to the organizers and the city of Venice a few days after it opened. He argued that the "installation" was in fact not an art installation but a mosque, ergo an unauthorized religious establishment, because it was imposed to him to take his shoes off at the entrance: an Islamic act of faith. His "Denuncia" got the bureaucratic and legal machine started. Otherwise it would have only been idle talk. The matter is legal, and the suit is well founded. That is why, rhetoric aside, nobody that is informed of the full facts is backing Iceland on this. The suit will certainly continue in court as the professor believes his human rights were affected. May I add that the day after Tamborino brought suit, he started being followed around Venice by men in Islamic dress code. He left the city for a few days as he was concerned about his safety. So it could be argued that Iceland's careless and illegal installation ultimately risked sponsoring terrorism in a foreign country. Good intentions and political correctness can indeed create monsters and Iceland should cease this clumsy Jihad to promote Islam concealing its motives as "enhancing dialogue" abroad. The result has been a call for boycott of its products (mostly dried fish) by Venetians lots of expenses and a law suit."
yep. /\ liberal westerners are often very naive about the loaded meaning and power behind more faith orientated cultures. this may have started as a joke but didnt end that way,did it? there is no dialogue with those wgo are cetain the immoral end times are upon us and it is their duty to protect the faith at all costs. liberal westerners become just stupid ailly pawns....orhan you moderated this well.
just to re-iterate the often naive behavior of over the top western liberals, here's a verse from the bible that appears to be playing out, no?
Isaiah 17:1King James Version (KJV)
17 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
(went King James, as that's what I'm familiar with)
a good part of this planet takes this shit seriously.
oddly enough blaring INXS jam "Devil Inside"...daughters going for 1+ hours straight on swing set....
oh lord...and now "Personal Jesus" - Depeche Mode...must be fuckin' 80' mix.
Mr. Tamborrino, in my opinion God is on your side.
My position, in this case, is explained with my modified title of the NYT article;
"Police Shut Down Art Installation at Venice Biennale"
Btw, works those make it to Venice Biennale are developed, realized and exhibited within the realms of art discourse, and I will stay away from discussing its legitimacy as an artwork. For me, there is no such unproductive doubt that it is art or not.
it's not art, and the shit ain't funny.
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