Exeunt Magazine: When I started writing this article, I became fascinated with the metaphor of the fire as a way to understand how controversies over the arts spark into life. What are the elements that cause them to ignite, and are such reactions an indication of something far more concerning; the growing tendency for fascist views to exist in the zeitgeist of our society? The media do not provide the oxygen for a fire, but they do provide fuel to an agenda that flames against difference.
2 comments:
The results of this installation are troubling. Censorship is a big deal to me, and supposedly to a lot of far right and centrist Americans. Sadly, the far right groups often believe that the right to free speech should not be extended to publicly funded programs. While some may view this as a non-issue, to me it shows a budding disdain for all things liberal which is highly concerning. Yes, this installation was commissioned, but it was commissioned by the government and therefore should not be subject to any kind of stipulations. The values and beliefs of government officials should not be censoring or in any way hindering what I see or what others choose to produce. This article will hopefully help people see the ramifications of the current administration. It starts with the censorship of the arts. It will end with revoking the right to protest, something President Trump has already been campaigning for. Stay informed and vote.
Sadly, it isn’t surprising to me that this festival stimulated the right-wing media to lash out against it. I think that this response from the festival’s organizer was composed and rational while addressing what the media was attacking. Festivals like this are on the front edge of pushing the boundaries of performance art. This makes them incredibly valuable to the artistic community but also very experimental and therefore controversial. As the author says if you go into this festival looking to be offended then you will find many things to be offended by because conforming to the normalizing of society is the opposite of what this festival is trying to do. They’re trying to create artistic commentary on the flawed world surrounding them in provocative ways. Often these artists are individuals who mainstream society marginalizes which informs their artwork but makes them initially an outsider before they created their artwork which frequently right-wing media already labels these individuals as outside the normal and therefore dangerous.
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