The
Museum of the Moving Image put up a controversial art installation on January
20th – the day Donald Trump was sworn in as our 45th
president – but was yanked just three weeks later amidst controversy and safety
concerns. Is this all it takes to
silence free speech or the display of art – just complain or threaten others
and it disappears? The museum needs a
backbone.
The
museum is reacting to a real concern, to be fair to them. The exhibit, called He Will Not Divide Us, was a collaborative effort between actor Shia
LaBeouf and artists, Luke Turner and Natsja Sada Ronko. It was intended to provide a video forum to
criticize the president. The exhibit
consisted of a video camera mounted on the outside wall of the museum. Passers-by were invited to spew on Trump’s
presidency and to repeat the phrase “he will not divide us.” It appears the
exhibit divided us.
But
it’s not into dividing between pro-Trump and anti-Trump. No, it’s something bigger – there are pro-speech,
pro-art defenders pitted against a growing faction that doesn’t believe in
defending such rights and freedoms.
LaBeouf
was arrested for confronting opponents.
Dozens of threats of violence were cited by the museum as its reason to
fold the exhibit up. Sure the museum
doesn’t want people to physically fight on the street over this, but why should
it run away from this golden opportunity to promote a debate on art and the First Amendment? It appears the museum
needs a primer for itself.
The
art was supposed to be substituted for people punching each other in the
face. People can let out steam by
participating in or viewing the video.
Maybe its existence actually helped avoid some fights.
By
shutting art down and closing off a debate, it appears a blame-the-victim
mentality is at play here. We know not
to deride a rape victim because her dress or beauty invited it. And we don’t blame Americans for being
attacked on 9/11simply because they displaced or expressed a lifestyle that terrorists disagreed with. And when the
Charlie Hebdo shooting took place we didn’t say the Islamist terrorists were in
their right to silence a newspaper because it disagreed with its right to speak
freely and engage in a conversation through political art. No, we must protect free speech at all costs.
We
know that liberals hate the idea the country is run by a man-baby, self-destructive narcissist. Conservatives
don’t like that too many whiny liberals complain while he gets to carrying out
his elected mandate. Is art the new battleground – and not Capitol Hill?
The NEA
is under threat. The news media is under
fire. Trumpwellian statements come out of the White House without apology or
embarrassment. And a simple art
installation can’t survive a few verbal threats. This is pathetic.
What
if, instead of the crowd-sourced video art exhibit there was an effort to
create a book through the contributions and comments of hundreds or thousands
of strangers but the book was never published or it was and then yanked from
bookstores because others didn’t like it, because they threatened bodily
harm? Will artists and writers simply be
bullied?
Of
course, it’s easy for me to have this debate safely from my blog. I don’t have any consequences to deal
with. People aren’t sending me death
threats or menacing contributors to a book or art installation. But don’t we need to take a stand? Don’t we need to not see cancelling art, a
book, or a public appearance as not the solution to a problem?
By
having books, free media, and public art we can challenge ideas with
ideas. Once we go straight to violence,
chaos breaks out. If artists can be
threatened, do those who make these threats understand they are also subject to
violence or arrest?
To keep the peace, we need more art – not less.
To keep the peace, we need more art – not less.
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Overcome Book Marketer's Block in 10 Easy Steps http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2017/01/overcoming-book-marketers-block-in-10.html
Brian Feinblum’s
views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of
his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him
at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the
third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog 2017©. Born and
raised in Brooklyn, now resides in Westchester. Named one of the best book
marketing blogs by Book Baby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs
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