Titled The Beast and the Sovereign , a controversial exhibition opened Saturday at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona after its director rectify its decision to cancel because a sculpture of King Juan Carlos I sodomized.
“The opinions expressed by many different sectors of society, from the world of art and culture to politics and the media and international art professionals have made me reconsider the original decision not to inaugurate “said the director of the MACBA, Bartomeu Marí, in an open letter.
Your decision to cancel the exhibition on Wednesday, the eve of the originally scheduled for inauguration date when the works of 30 international artists were already assembled in the halls, sparked controversy within and outside Spain.
This had been motivated by the presence among the works of a sculpture depicting Juan Carlos, King of Spain for 39 years until his abdication in June, naked, on all fours and penetrated by the Bolivian union leader Domitila Barrios.
She aa turn sodomized by a German shepherd dog, on a bed of Nazi helmets.
Made of paper mache by Austrian artist Ines Doujak and entitled Not Dressed for Conquering / Haute Couture 04 Transport , the controversial work had already been presented in December at the Biennial of Sao Paulo, where its creator said that “playing with power relations and subverts “.
By knowing their presence in the exhibition, organized jointly with the Wurttembergischer Kunstverein in the German city of Stuttgart, Mari asked the commissioners to withdraw this “Very sensible image,” according to Spanish media.
They refused, motivating that the museum director decided to cancel the exhibition as a whole.
” I never believed that my gesture was censorship, “said Mari in his letter. “He perceived it as a disagreement with the presence of a particular work and the effects of its possible readings,” he said, expressing his “sincere apologies” and putting his resignation to the museum who on Saturday had not ruled on the matter.
With works by Peggy Buth, Martin Dammann, Eiko Grimberg, Ghasem Hajizadeh, Prabhakar Pachpute, Mary Reid Kelley, Wu Tsang, Stefanos Tsivopoulos and Yelena Vorobyeva, among many others, “this exhibition explores how contemporary art practices challenge and break the Western definition and metaphysics of political sovereignty, “explains the MACBA in his presentation of the sample.
For decades respected for his role in the return of democracy in Spain after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975, Juan Carlos was heavily damaged its image in recent years by a multiplication of scandals led by involvement in a case of alleged corruption of his daughter Cristina and her husband were Iñaki Urdangarin.
In June 2014 he succeeded by his son Philip VI.
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