The freedom of artistic expression, as irritating as it can be, is the foundation for the work of a gallerist too. If this freedom is under threat, the work of a gallerist in mediating and promoting artistic agency is threatened to the same extent.
This is why Egbert Baqué Contemporary Art in Berlin have decided – also to keep this important subject on the agenda – to postpone our planned mid-October to mid-December 2012 exhibition and instead organize a Benefit-Exhibition in support of Pussy Riot.
With more than 70 works from eleven artists – Abetz & Drescher, Wiebke Bartsch, Selket Chlupka, Claus Feldmann, Yago Hortal, Wolfgang Neumann, Tim Plamper, Fernando M. Romero, Snapple and Franziska Strauss – , partially presented in Petersburg hanging, The Journey to St. Petersburg is by far the largest exhibition the gallery has ever shown.
In China, the artist Ai Weiwei is harassed, in Russia there are others – such as the women of the punk rock band Pussy Riot.
The legal proceedings against and ultimate condemnation of Maria Alyokhina, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova resulted in a two year prison camp sentence for the young artists on August 17, 2012. This process was a revealing farce and an act of despotism, a demonstration of authoritarian power, which could hardly be surpassed in obscenity.
The fact that the penalty for Yekaterina Samutsevich was suspended on October 10th to probation, takes nothing away from this political show trial of scandalous disregard for any rule of law and does not change the situation for Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, who are now in prison camps known to be particulary severe.
It is also by no accident that the opening of the exhibition is scheduled on a date charged with political symbolism: Friday November 9th 2012
https://www.berlin-contemporary-art.com/
Egbert Baqué Contemporary Art
Fasanenstrasse 37
10719 Berlin
Leave a Reply