The controversy unleashed by a work by the Argentine artist Ana Gallardo about prostitution has ended with the decision of the University Museum of Contemporary Art (MUAC) to definitively withdraw the piece from the controversy and apologize to those it considers “aggrieved.” The MUAC has also removed another work by the creator, which is part of the exhibition A delirium trembled hereorganized in collaboration with the Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (CA2M) in Madrid and which brings together 20 years of work by the artist based in Mexico. The museum announces in a statement issued this Tuesday that “in an extraordinary session of the Curatorial and Programming Committee it was agreed to remove the works Extract for a failed project, 2011-2024 and Untitled2011, after evaluating the debates that the pieces have raised.”
The protests point to Gallardo’s method and point out that the artist recorded a sick sex worker without her permission. On Sunday afternoon, a group of protesters protested at the headquarters of the artistic venue and stained the walls with critical messages. Some call for “total respect for sex work” and “non-discrimination against sex workers.” The MUAC has reported that it has met with the representatives of Casa Xochiquetzal, where Gallardo worked for a few months as a volunteer, and the exhibition’s curatorial team, made up of Alfredo Aracil, Violeta Janeiro and Alejandra Labastida, as well as the chief curator , Cuauhtémoc Medina, who “acknowledge a significant failure and offer an apology to the aggrieved people.”
The museum authorities have said that “the criticism made it visible that the aforementioned pieces, made more than a decade ago and exhibited in various contexts, are today questionable in view of the discussion about the limits of artistic practice and the implications of language.” of the present, particularly in relation to the struggles for the rights of socially vulnerable populations and sex workers.” The MUAC has stated that Gallardo, together with the directors of the MUAC, Tatiana Cuevas, and the Dos de Mayo Art Center in Madrid, Tania Pardo, “adhere to the recognition of this situation.”
“The curatorial team estimates that, when giving space to these works, it was not considered that their characteristics were offensive to those who are protected by Casa Xochiquetzal, to the community of activists around the movements of those dedicated to sex work and, in general. , to a broad sector of the public concerned about the danger of extractivism in contemporary cultural practices. The fact that the works have caused offense is contrary to the purpose of the curatorial project, to the intentions of the artist and the institution. It was necessary to evaluate whether the works were susceptible to being exhibited under the conditions of an ever-changing cultural reality,” says the museum.
#MUAC #removes #works #Argentine #artist #Ana #Gallardo #apologizes #aggrieved #people