{"id":12083,"date":"2019-02-28T09:54:51","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T07:54:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.switchonpaper.com\/?p=12083"},"modified":"2020-10-20T17:34:02","modified_gmt":"2020-10-20T15:34:02","slug":"censorship-and-resistance-in-rio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.switchonpaper.com\/en\/society\/deprivation-of-freedom-of-speech\/censorship-and-resistance-in-rio\/","title":{"rendered":"Censorship and resistance in Rio"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the arrest of artist Maikon Kempinski<\/a> for \u201cobscene acts\u201d, or the controversy surrounding Wagner Schwartz<\/a>\u2019 performance at MAM S\u00e3o Paulo<\/a>, now it is the Queermuseum: Queer Tactics Toward Non-Heteronormative Curating\u00a0exhibition under pressure.<\/p>\n

Built primarily as an ode to singularities and a hymn of diversity, Queermuseum<\/em> is nevertheless accused of exhibiting works deemed libidinous, pernicious and offensive to the moral and religious order. A major media campaign led by ultra-conservative groups sparked public outcry over the event, which was underway at the Santander Cultural space in Porto Alegre, forcing it to close its doors.<\/p>\n

It is a classic case of \u201cslander\u201d, claims the exhibition curator Gaud\u00eancio Fid\u00e8lis<\/a>, full of \u201chasty and biased interpretations\u201d. Even the courts refuse to recognize any legal offence. This is a case where the fate of art is a sign of things to come: \u201cWe should not only fear for the future of art, but for the future of democracy!\u201d adds Gaud\u00eancio.<\/p>\n

A movement generating considerable support has gathered momentum, with protests and a participatory financing campaign launched by artists like Adriana Varejao<\/a> or Vik Muniz<\/a> reaching people well outside the contemporary art circuit thanks to the popular singer Caetano Veloso<\/a>, for example.<\/p>\n

The exhibition was set to re-open in Rio de Janeiro at MAR<\/a>, but given the magnitude of the threats, and despite the popular support mobilized in favor of the exhibition, the National Museum turned its back. This is unsurprising considering that one of the people trying to undermine the movement is Rio\u2019s very own mayor, Marcelo Crivella, who already made headlines the day after his election by refusing to be present at the Carnival opening parade and by slashing the budget for Samba schools. By attacking one of the largest symbols of Brazil\u2019s most popular and important festival, he set the tone: Marcello Crivella, former minister for fishing and aquaculture, but also a Gospel singer, engineer, taxi driver, senator from the Brazil Republican Party and\u2026 Evangelical pastor, has taken office as the Mayor of Rio in the sensual beginning of 2017 and intends to make the winds of austerity and hyper-control blow through his city.<\/p>\n

Thanks to private funds collected via crowdfunding, the Queermuseum<\/em> exhibition finally re-opened at the School of Visual Art where it can be visited for free but under close video surveillance and in the presence of a couple dozen security guards. The school\u2019s director is happy to have received fewer menaces than MAR, and Gaud\u00eancio Fidelis remains optimistic: \u201cIt is a big moment for Brazilian democracy, a strong gesture that shows that the most progressive sectors of society do not accept censorship (\u2026) for such an important and serious act of censorship hasn\u2019t been seen since the dictatorship.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Cover:\u00a0Screenshot of Queermuseum crowdfunding project presentation video.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After the arrest of artist Maikon Kempinski for \u201cobscene acts\u201d, or the controversy surrounding Wagner Schwartz\u2019 performance at MAM S\u00e3o Paulo, now it is the Queermuseum: Queer Tactics Toward Non-Heteronormative Curating\u00a0exhibition under pressure. Built primarily as an ode to singularities and a hymn of diversity, Queermuseum is nevertheless accused of exhibiting works deemed libidinous, pernicious<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101027,"featured_media":12124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1847],"tags":[1853],"corpus":[],"post_types":[1329],"associate_editors":[],"authors":[1626],"class_list":["post-12083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society","tag-deprivation-of-freedom-of-speech","post_types-chronique-en","authors-isabelle-rodriguez-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchonpaper.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchonpaper.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchonpaper.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchonpaper.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101027"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchonpaper.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchonpaper.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchonpaper.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchonpaper.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchonpaper.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchonpaper.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12083"},{"taxonomy":"corpus","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchonpaper.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/corpus?post=12083"},{"taxonomy":"post_types","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchonpaper.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_types?post=12083"},{"taxonomy":"associate_editors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchonpaper.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/associate_editors?post=12083"},{"taxonomy":"authors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchonpaper.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/authors?post=12083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}