The new French censorship
Larry Clark, photographer and director of Kids, Bully, or more recently Wassup Rockers, is being exhibited in a large retrospective at Musee d’Art Moderne de Paris. This exhibition has caused outrage, as Mairie de Paris has prohibited under 18’s from viewing the show. This is an echoe of the controversy that haunted the Presume Innocent exhibition at CAPC in 2004. This current censorship by Mairie de Paris has been brought on by the idea that teenagers must be protected from Larry Clark’s explicit sexual representations. This is a misguided view, as art can not be compared with pornography, it is not the same intention, process, and result. This censorship is not in the interests of teenagers. The best way to protect is not to ban them from shows like this, but to show them the dangers, notably of drugs, that Larry Clark so much focuses on. Under the pretext of protecting the curators and the museum directors, Mairie de Paris is complaisant with the regression speech in France about art as a space of free expression and representation. It implies the progressive judiciaries on the art sphere. Clark’s work studies and portrays the conflictual relationships teenagers go through. He represents kids without puritanism and judgement, so much so that a teenagers around the world relate to his vivid and real take on life. This censorship builds a new boundary between the real and its representations, and between the adults and teenagers ethos. Kiss The Past, Hello runs until January 2 2011 at Musee d’art Moderne de Paris. Text Pierre-Alexandre Mateos
(Source: purple-diary)
