Marlene Dumas, included in the exhibition,
with one of her "obscenities."
Photograph: Martin Godwin.
June 30, 2009
"Presumed Innocents", the trial: 10 years later
Bordeaux Judge Reopens Decade-Old Child-Porn Charge
Against Curators Marie-Laure Bernadac, Henry-Claude
Cousseau, and Stéphanie Moisdon
Indicted at the end of 2006, after six years of investigations, long
period during which no element was produced that could have fed the
prosecution (the specialized unit for minors and the rectorship gave a
favourable opinion) and after the attorney general of Bordeaux called
for a not guilty decision in march 2008 the trial judge Jean-Louis
Crozier has just decided to refer before the magistrate's court
Marie-Laure Bernadac, Henry-Claude Cousseau, and Stéphanie Moisdon, for
having, within the exhibition entitled "presumed innocent- contemporary
art and childhood " organized 2000 in the CAPC contemporary museum of
art in Bordeaux exposed "violent and pornographic art works "*.
With this decision—which, in an extremely unusual move, disregards the
conclusions of a Parquet investigation—the entire national and
international artistic and professional community, together with the
cultural image of France, have come under attack and stand accused,
offended.
For the first time in France, two museum directors and a curator are to
be tried in a criminal court for exhibiting works of art that have
already been shown throughout the world or put on view since the
Bordeaux exhibition in art shows that have not elicited the least
unfavorable reaction from the public. The thinking that went into
preparing the incriminated exhibition, focused on a major subject of
art history, was developed collectively and was shared by the relevant state oversight authorities.
This court case from an earlier century, fiercely, relentlessly
prosecuted by a single judge in contempt of artistic creation and
individuals' right to accede freely to all forms of art, is indicative
of a dangerous obscurantist attitude. The trial will take place in Bordeaux under pressure from a local child protection association named La Mouette, in turn supported by an extremist press that has already been found guilty of libel against one of the accused.
How is it possible that what is considered viewable and acceptable
everywhere else should not be so in Bordeaux? What will be put on trial
in the Bordeaux magistrates' court a few months from now is the work
and personal and professional conviction of three figures of the world
of art and culture unanimously recognized for their commitment to that
world. They have already received thousands of messages of support from
all horizons.
This attempt to "criminalize" artists and other actors for their
creative work, together with the cultural sites that diffuse that work,
requires us to be extremely vigilant about censorship
of this kind, whose perpetrators are ever ready to use noble causes
such as child protection to authoritarian, liberticidal ends.
MARIE-LAURE BERNADAC, HENRY-CLAUDE COUSSEAU, STEPHANIE MOISDON
* including works by Christian Boltanski, Gary Gross, Paul McCarthy,
Mike Kelley, Cindy Sherman, Nan Goldin, Robert Mapplethorpe, Elke
Krystufek, Carsten Höller, Annette Messager, Ugo Rondinone…..
