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October 16, 2005
Morocco: British Art Offends Marrakesh's Muslim Faithful
One of Britain's most notorious clique of conceptualists in the Brit-art stable is Tracey Emin. She rose to fame after having an exhibition in which she had a tent, upon which were the names of all the people she had ever slept with emblazoned on its interior. Then came the infamous "bed" installation - a recreation of her bed, which she had slept in for a whole weekend while depressed. The highlights of the bed were two pairs of feces-stained panties.
Half-Turkish and originally from Margate, Tracey is a provocateur. I used to see her regularly walking around the backstreets of Brick Lane in East London, where she has a studio. She is quite unassuming on a normal day, but when drunk she is a handful. But now she has caused another outrage with one of her pieces, which has been exhibited in Britain before with little complaint.
The work in question is a photograph entitled "Money" and features Tracey squatting with her legs open, and inserting five-pound and ten-pound notes into her private regions, like letters into a post box. It has gone on show in Morocco, in an exhibition in Marrakesh, near one of the holiest sites in the country. Visitng Muslims were so appalled, the work was withdrawn.
The exhibition is curated by Vanessa Branson, the sister of the millionaire "balloonist", Sir Richard. According to today's Sunday Times in marrakesh's main museum, as part of a festival to build cultural links between Britain and Morocco. Called Arts in Marrakesh, the festival has the backing of King Mohammed VI.
Though Tracey's picture has gone from the walls, its image remains on the catalogue. Another withdrawn work featuring an upside down George W Bush, by US artist Jonathan Horowitz, It was removed for "political provocation". Other works to cause offense are by Grayson Perry, the sweet transvestite who accepted the Turner prize while wearing a fabulous child-style dress (which he made himself), who has an image of a naked woman on a ceramic pot, and a work by Dinos Chapman, in which a statue of a person has a nose morphing into a penis, and a photograph of a man's genitals by Sarah Lucas.
Such work is common in Brit-art, and raises little more than the odd raised eyebrow when shown here, but the poor Moroccans are finding it a little hard to take, especially as now is Ramadan, their holiest month.
"We're not in Morocco deliberately to upset people," said Branson. "Yes, of course I'm conscious that this exhibition goes a step beyond what's usual. But we did want to expand people's visual understanding."Hmmm..... What more can I say on this?"British art is very, very different from Moroccan and is very stimulating," said Fabrizio Bizzani, who runs a gallery in Marrakesh. "But some is gratuitously provocative and does not take into account local feeling."
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at October 16, 2005 7:05 AM
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