By Kalsang Rinchen
Dharamsala, July 22 – A complaint from China has forced the organizers of an art exhibition to remove pictures of Tibetan nuns from an artwork called “The Art of Peacemaking: The Gun Sculpture” created by two artists from Edmonton, Canada.
The artists from Edmonton, Sandra Bromley and Wallis Kendal, say they’re “gobsmacked” that part of their exhibit has been removed in Vienna because of one complaint from China.
“The Art of Peacemaking: The Gun Sculpture” is on display at the United Nations Vienna International Centre. The creation features a five-tonne cube of small firearms, ammunition and landmines.
Two photos of Tibetan nuns captioned “imprisoned and beaten in prison” and “locked up as a teenager because of violent political beliefs” was objected by a Chinese delegation, a report by The Canadian Press said without elaborating who and where the delegation was from.
Sandra Bromley and Wallis Kendal say they were informed by e-mail that a board showing photos of victims of gun violence from around the world was taken down.
“We don’t understand it. We’re speechless, we’re furious and we feel it’s a real violent act to our exhibit,” Ms. Bromley said Wednesday.
The exhibit has three components – a massive gun sculpture created from 7,000 deactivated crime and military weapons donated from around the world; a large mural with photos of 114 images of victims and survivors of violence from around the globe; and a wall-sized blackboard for visitors to leave messages.
An Austrian paper, Der Standard, reported on July 13 that “a representative of the Chinese UN delegation in Vienna confirmed that the agency had complained to the UN about the sculpture,” but wouldn’t comment further, reported The Canadian Press.
The Gun Sculpture installation had its world premiere at Expo 2000 in Hanover, Germany. It then went to the Centennial Exhibition for the Nobel Peace Prize in Seoul, and it has also been on display at the UN’s headquarters in New York.
The two enraged artists wrote a letter to Antonio Costa, director general of the United Nations Office in Vienna, “It is ironic that an institution dedicated to protecting human rights should so quickly sacrifice the artist’s creative freedom, the right to ‘speak’ in the memory of those unable to defend themselves from abuse….”
The exhibition will end July 31, 2010.
