Paris, damages Miriam Cahn's work because he disagrees with the content

He damaged a work by Miriam Cahn exhibited at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris by disagreeing with its content: it happened yesterday around 3:30 p.m., when a visitor, described as “elderly” by Agence France-Presse, which reported the news, spray-painted purple paint on the work, damaging it. The painting in question is titled Fuck abstraction! and has been at the center of much controversy in recent weeks, as we also reported on these pages: it is a denunciation against Bucha’s horrors committed during the war in Ukraine (and in particular against the violence of war rapes), and depicts a man forcing a woman to perform fellatio on him. The work has stirred controversy because according to child protection associations it depicts a child (Cahn, on the other hand, explained that the smaller size of the figure undergoing the violence alludes to the fragility of the oppressed and victims of the war): the affair has also had judicial aftermath, but first the Paris court and then the Council of State have agreed with the artist and the museum, since the Palais de Tokyo takes appropriate measures to inform the public of the sensitive content.

According to France-Presse, the man who damaged the painting was “in disagreement with the sexual depiction of a child and an adult that he said were depicted on the painting.” The man would not be part of any activist group, despite the fact that several associations have moved against the Palais de Tokyo. After the action, the man was stopped by museum security officers, who called the police, who then took the vandal away. The museum has indicated that it will file a complaint for damage and obstruction of freedom of expression.

“We regret the extreme consequences of this controversy,” said Guillaume Désanges, president of the Palais de Tokyo, who also said he was eager “to support art [...] with enthusiasm, awareness, and responsibility towards all audiences. In agreement with the artist, the Palais de Tokyo will continue to display the painting with the signs of damage until the scheduled end of the exhibition on May 14.”

Condemnation toward the act also came from the country’s highest authorities, starting with President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron, who wrote this morning on Twitter, “On this May 8 when we celebrate the victory of freedom, I condemn the act of vandalism committed yesterday at the Palais de Tokyo. To attack a work is to attack our values. In France, art is always free and respect for creativity is guaranteed.” The minister of culture, Rima Abdul Malak, went to the Palais de Tokyo, recalled that the courts had “confirmed that this painting, insofar as it was contextualized, could be presented to the public,” and then attacked the far-right opposition (“the Rassemblement National used this painting to stir up controversy and attack the creative freedom of artists”: in fact, the controversy had started from the very party long chaired by Marine Le Pen. “Without this instrumentalization by RN,” the minister added, “we certainly would not have come to this.”) Miriam Cahn’s exhibition has had 80,000 visitors so far.

Pictured below: the damaged artwork

Paris, damages Miriam Cahn's work because he disagrees with the content

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