Friday, September 09, 2005

Is It donut or is it art?


Why it's art, Richard Deacon's All Sorts to be specific and it is also part of one of the most ambitious exhibitions of Western art seen in Iran since the revolution. Read all about it at the BBC. Catch the gist here:
A collection of modern art that has spent much of the past 25 years in a vault has gone on public display in Iran for the first time. The exhibition at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Arts includes works by Van Gogh, Picasso, Gauguin, and Warhol. Most of the 188 works were purchased to further Iran's cultural activities by the wife of the late Shah. But the Shah's fall saw the collection locked away by an Islamic government opposed to Western influence. But with a recent shift to a hardline government, the future for similar displays is uncertain.

"It's a sensational show for all of us and, considering the political situation, it could be quite a controversial show as well," said Mr Samizar.

Read about the No Nudity Clause here.

The show includes work from 13 British artists, their pieces carefully selected to conform to Iranian sensibilities - not an easy task when much of contemporary art focuses on the nude body. "We're not showing raw sex and full-frontal nudity," said Andrea Rose, visual arts director at the British Council.

And we're pc, too!
"We're taking it as far as we can," she added. Some pieces were withdrawn including two that featured a wheelchair and rubber crutches, because they were considered offensive to victims of the Iran-Iraq War
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I'm with this guy.
"But surprisingly for some, they allowed Mona Hatoum's Deep Throat - an endoscopic film of a journey through the artist's own body, projected onto a dinner plate. "This is not art," said an elderly man, as he looked incredulously at the video.