Cassils and Robin Black, advertisement: Hommage to Benglis, a part of the series "CUTS: a standard Sculpture," 2011, six-month durational performance.
©2011 CASSILS AND ROBIN BLACK/COURTESY THE ARTIST AND RONALD FELMAN best ARTSDays earlier than the opening of a traveling exhibition on the background of homosexual and queer identity, the demonstrate's promotional poster has stirred rather a bit of of controversy in Germany.
The exhibition, "Homosexuality_ies," which is traveling from two Berlin museums to the LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur in the northwestern German city of Münster, makes use of the work of Canadian trans artist and activist Cassils. even though the equal advertisement became prominently on screen in Berlin closing fall, the railroad company Deutsche Bahn AG, which operates national and overseas traces during Germany, announced this week that it will now not allow the adverts to be displayed in its teach stations. The piece, titled advertisement: Hommage to Benglis, suggests the artist wearing most effective a jockstrap and brilliant-red lipstick, with short brown hair and one nipple pierced. In reply to a question from the LWL on Twitter, Deutsche Bahn pointed out the explanation for the ban on exhibiting the work was that they deemed it "sexualized" and "sexist," in accordance with a statement from the Schwules Museum, some of the organizers of the exhibition. the press release added that Deutsche Bahn talked about that the German public had turn into lots extra delicate concerning "sexism" after the events that occurred in Cologne on New yr's Eve, wherein there have been over eighty pronounced situations of sexual assault on girls. In a statement released to international press on Tuesday, can also 10, the Schwules wrote, "We, the Schwules Museum, nevertheless believe the allegation and the ensuing commercial ban wrong and inappropriate.… it's enjoyable that the Deutsche Bahn AG has no issues showing people—with nudity—in ads when they conform [to] heterosexual norms. Yet an image that obviously questions such norms is being 'censored' and considered unacceptable for public display." The work displayed in the commercial is a part of Cassils's "CUTS: a traditional Sculpture" collection, which began as a six-month efficiency through which the artist reinterpreted Eleanor Antin's work Carving: a normal Sculpture (1972) b y means of focusing on bodybuilding and nutrition, as an alternative of weight-reduction plan like within the original work, for 23 weeks. during this time, Cassils received 23 kilos of muscle and documented the alternate in a time-lapse video. The poster, made in collaboration with Robin Black, continues the tradition of Cassils revisiting the works of seminal lady artists by way of looking at Lynda Benglis's famous advertisement (1974), which depicts Benglis naked with short blond hair maintaining a double-headed dildo and ran in that yr's November problem of Artforum. In a statement despatched to ARTnews, Cassils, who identifies as a gender-nonconforming trans masculine visual artist, wrote, "whereas Benglis's normal advertisement acted as a commentary on sexist gender-based barriers in the paintings world, Cassils's Hommage makes use of the identical options to intervene in the gendered policing of trans and nonconforming our bodies on this planet at huge.… This faux -feminist opposition to the screen of the image is a obtrusive incident of transphobia, no longer simply homophobia. The phobic response to Cassils's photograph here calls to intellect broader circumstances of transphobia which are seeking for to limit the presence of trans and gender-nonconforming our bodies from public areas." In an announcement sent to press yesterday morning, the Schwules gave an update, announcing that the Deutsche Bahn had lifted its ban on the poster and that it may now be displayed in teach stations all through Germany. The release referred to, however, that the advertising spots that had prior to now been reserved for the exhibition had already been resold to other advertisers. Deutsche Bahn additionally announced this information in reply to a tweet from Queerspiegel, the LGBTQ blog of German booklet Tagesspiegel. Deutsche Bahn has now not released any respectable statements to the click surrounding the controversy and did not respond to requests for r emark. "The total handling of the incident through the Deutsche Bahn AG has left us with a bitter aftertaste," the museum mentioned in the press unencumber. "This, amongst other difficult statements, raises the suspicion that the Deutsche Bahn AG only modified its policy to prevent a public debate and harm to its graphic as a state-owned enterprise. considering that the posters can't be displayed to promote as a minimum the opening of the exhibition, the surprising turnaround of Deutsche Bahn AG is little comfort." Cassils introduced, "paintings equivalent to that introduced with the aid of Cassils is essential to the venture of working in opposition t transphobia, and the contemporary try to ban these photographs from the public sphere simplest underlines their necessity.… The artist invitations you to down load the banned photo, print it, and paste it over any image you discover 'sexist' presently displayed in the Deutsche Bahn." "Homosexuality_ies" first op ened as a two-venue display in Berlin, jointly on view at the Deutsches Historisches Museum and the Schwules Museum, last fall. the primary area, at the Deutsches Historisches Museum, addressed important moments in homosexual liberation within Germany, with a focus on part a hundred seventy five of the German penal code, which made "gay acts" between men illegal and turned into in effect from 1872 to 1994. The 2nd area, on the Schwules, checked out ongoing struggles for the LGBTQ group and protected work with the aid of contemporary artists, including Louise Bourgeois, Andy Warhol, and Nicole Eisenman. The exhibition at the LWL, which opens to the public Friday, may additionally 13, will exhibit a a little bit extra condensed version of the exhibition.
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