“All that is forbidden is art. Be forbidden!”

After our lecture on Laibach, I realised that I was completely and utterly ignorant, I knew nothing about art from the former Soviet Republics, and I thought I should.
Firstly I researched the censorship of certain forms of art within Russia and it’s surrounding countries. I read about Yuri Samodurov, and Andrei Yerofeev, both residing in Moscow who faced up to five years imprisonment in 2007 for "debasing the religious beliefs of citizens and inciting religious hatred" through their exhibition “Forbidden Art”. Almost thirty years prior to this in Slovenia, former Yugoslavia, the collective Laibach was formed, as we were told Laibach were banned in numerous countries because of the content and influences associated with their work, blatantly indicating that very little has changed in relation to the censorship of certain forms of art making and expression within eastern Europe. Tamás Szentjóby, Hungarian born Fluxus artist stated in 1968 “All that is forbidden is art. Be forbidden!”.
The three members of a really fascinating artist collective known as Ztohoven from Prague faced three years in jail for scaremongering and attempted scaremongering in 2007, after they hacked into a national television station and replaced the regular morning weather report with an image of an atomic bomb explosion over the mountain range that divides the Czech Republic and Poland. Through this radical display the group were attempting to bring to attention the gullibility of the public, and the general acceptance of what society is exposed to daily through mass media.




Ztohoven are a prime example of the idea that the more you repress the harder the rebellion will be. I feel as though it’s human nature to want what you can’t have and to do what you’re not allowed to, it’s a lot more fun. I find myself baffled by idea that in certain places there is no freedom of speech and that societies ability to express themselves in whatever way they deem fit is taken from them, this in turn seems to cause the nationals of these countries to go against what is being enforced in the most extreme way possible. This leads me to think that our western culture is completely desensitized, everyday we see the atrocities of war in what ever capacity, countless acts of violence and stupidity, as well as the ramifications of our societies actions on the natural world, pretty much if you participate in any form of media (which it is almost impossible not to do) you’re fucked, will we one day lose our ability to feel compassion and sympathy all together? Will we just forget how to be sensitive towards any issues at all? Let’s not close on this let’s look back and finish with my new favourite quote,
“All that is forbidden is art. Be forbidden!”

http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2010/06/blasphemy_moscow

http://www.readrussia.com/magazine/winter-2008/00043/