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Breaking! The Aesthetics of Terror at The Chelsea Art Museum Cancelled

by Art Fag City on September 25, 2008 · 8 comments

aestheticsofterro.jpgThis just in: The Aesthetics of Terror, an exhibition scheduled for launch this November at the Chelsea Art Museum has been canceled. by museum president Dorothea Keeser. Artists were informed yesterday morning that Museum president Dorothea Keeser felt the show “glorified terrorism and showed disrespect for its victims.” Amongst the better known artists included are Martha Rosler, (whose new show just received a glowing review in Time Out), Harun Farocki, Jenny Holzer, and Jon Kessler. The museum’s chief curator Manon Slome has resigned in an act of protest. I have calls in to Slome and Keeser for comment and have posted the complete list of artists after the jump. Via: MBS

Josh Azzarella
Daniel Bejar
William Betts
Blue Noses
Jake + Dinos Chapman
Zoya Cherkassky
Jeanette Doyle
Harun Farocki
Coco Fusco
Johan Grimonprez
Kent Henrickssen
Jenny Holzer
Fransje Killaars
Jon Kessler
Yitzik Livneh
Naeem Mohaiemen
Claude Moller
Richard Mosse
Yves Netzhammer
Miguel Palma
Cristi Pogacean
David Reeb
Roee Rosen
Martha Rosler
Stephan Shanabrook
Ivana Spinelli
Avdey Ter-Oganyan
Jan Tichy
Sharif Waked
Catherine Yass

Artists Talk Real Estate Tomorrow at Starr Space Art F City at The L Magazine: Bogus Journeys Warhol-themed Perrier Bottles Are On The Way

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  • Kine

    Rent a place a do the show! screw Dorothea Kesser.

  • Kine

    Rent a place a do the show! screw Dorothea Kesser.

  • http://www.artpricejr.com art blog

    Quite interesting how political it all becomes in the end. If art can’t deal with these subjects then who will?

  • http://www.artpricejr.com art blog

    Quite interesting how political it all becomes in the end. If art can’t deal with these subjects then who will?

  • http://www.johndaquino.com John Everett Daquino

    What an outrage!!! I am very curious to know how the cancellation came about. Given the fact that the Chelsea Art Museum is not a gigantic institution, I assume the director knew very well the details of the project, which I hear was about two years in the making. So, what made her decide to cancel it now? I wonder who was funding the exhibit and what pressure did they exert onto the director? As a curator and someone who thinks about issues relating to visual culture and the aestheticization of violence, I was looking forward to this exhibit and the accompanying catalog. Just as the ICP exhibition of the photographs depicting torture at Abu Ghraib sparked an intellectual conversation on the nature of the imagery, so too would have this exhibit at the Chelsea Art Museum. I hope people raise hell over this issue…. what should we do?

  • http://www.johndaquino.com John Everett Daquino

    What an outrage!!! I am very curious to know how the cancellation came about. Given the fact that the Chelsea Art Museum is not a gigantic institution, I assume the director knew very well the details of the project, which I hear was about two years in the making. So, what made her decide to cancel it now? I wonder who was funding the exhibit and what pressure did they exert onto the director? As a curator and someone who thinks about issues relating to visual culture and the aestheticization of violence, I was looking forward to this exhibit and the accompanying catalog. Just as the ICP exhibition of the photographs depicting torture at Abu Ghraib sparked an intellectual conversation on the nature of the imagery, so too would have this exhibit at the Chelsea Art Museum. I hope people raise hell over this issue…. what should we do?

  • Jonelle Freeman

    We don’t see these images all the time, there has been active censorship in the media. The forum that a museum can provide for sensitive, thoughtful dialogue is just about all we have left when the ‘War on Terror’ includes the relinquishment of our own freedoms.

    I am really not surprised by these events. This excuse for a museum doesn’t deserve a real curator, after all it is just Dorothea’s vanity project for Miotte. When a serious curator who has independent and controversial ideas that may actually provide a worthwhile discussion comes along, they are censored and forced to leave. Why doesn’t the Chelsea Art Museum just give up the farce and rent their building out full time for weddings and fashion shows.

  • Jonelle Freeman

    We don’t see these images all the time, there has been active censorship in the media. The forum that a museum can provide for sensitive, thoughtful dialogue is just about all we have left when the ‘War on Terror’ includes the relinquishment of our own freedoms.

    I am really not surprised by these events. This excuse for a museum doesn’t deserve a real curator, after all it is just Dorothea’s vanity project for Miotte. When a serious curator who has independent and controversial ideas that may actually provide a worthwhile discussion comes along, they are censored and forced to leave. Why doesn’t the Chelsea Art Museum just give up the farce and rent their building out full time for weddings and fashion shows.

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