Submitted by steve mailto:steve.dietz@walkerart.org at 2002-04-26 23:33:07

steve writes "To: Subject: [thingist] RTMark vs. Berlusconi in the BIG Time/Torino Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2002 16:50:11 -0400 On the treatment of invitees to the BIG Festival of Torino: http://www.rtmark.com/torino/ The BIG Festival of Torino, curated by Michelangelo Pistoletto (Arte Povera, etc.), has kicked out of the BIG festival the artists' group Everyone Is An Expert (formerly No One Is Illegal) because of their slogan "Basta con Berlusconi." Also, BIG has successfully censored the work of an anonymous group accomplishing an RTMark project (a version of project DUBM), so that it no longer targets Berlusconi-owned Blockbuster stores. (Even before BIG knew what the Blockbastard project was about, the BIG team presented the project workers with a form to sign, promising not to calumniate any person or movement--i.e. Berlusconi and Forza Italia.) The RTMark management is very shocked to learn of these behaviors by BIG against our workers, and even more so against the group Everyone Is An Expert. The following points seem obvious: Italy is not a fascist state. But fascism's principal tool against its enemies is fear and self-censorship--making people police themselves. BIG's behavior is eloquent testimony to the efficacy of this tactic against them, and to the possibility that in Italy today, a very dangerous sort of conformism is already in place. As demonstrated by the Alleanza Nazionale's attack against the BIG Festival, these cretins need no pretext in order to attack; for them it is all entartete Kunst. Trying to prevent an attack by toning down work is completely futile. The left is strengthened by pushing the edges, not by creeping towards the center. It seems to us that the duty of Pistoletto and the other festival curators is to curate art, as they think art should be, at any price--and never as they think the Alleanza Nazionale or Forza Italia will tolerate it. If Berlusconi or his henchmen were to shut down BIG, this would show all Italians what these assholes thinks of civilization; by censoring themselves and their artists, the BIG curators are accomplishing Berlusconi's wishes, even his unexpressed ones. Cowardice is not unusual in today's Italy. Two other examples: We asked a passerby to say something on camera about the fact that the etoy installation was encircled by signs saying "Access Denied for filming of Berlusconi Spot 'Forza Italia'", attributed to Mediaset (Berlusconi's media company) and RAI (Italian national television, now under Berlusconi's control). After explaining what the signs said, the fellow said, unconvincingly, "Viva Mediaset." Twice. Off camera, he told us his fear of being arrested or having his television access shut off, if our program were broadcast in Italy. In Milan on April 21, our friends The Yes Men gave a speech in a venue funded by the local government. After the talk, the politician in charge of the speaking series took aside the organizer and told him that people did not want to hear such things--despite the obvious clapping, laughing, etc. on the part of the audience. This politician, obviously, was afraid of losing his job, since Berlusconi runs his government like a company. Still, bravery in today's Italy is not unusual either: "Basta con Berlusconi" is what one million people took to the streets of Italy to proclaim. Why not join this distinguished group? Finally, we would like to acknowledge that we (RTMark) are complicit; when our workers were told to modify their work to avoid references to Blockbuster video, we encouraged them to do so, so that we could recoup the US$2700 that the BIG Festival owed us. We encourage visitors to post this notice near the self-censored version of the project, so that it can serve as a little testimony to the current situation. (It is located at Bar Amantes, Via Principe Amedeo 24. Please be nice to Bar Amantes itself; our workers have told us that they are very, very excellent people who have done everything they could to help.) p.s. At the discussion that took place on April 24, Pistoletto said to Everyone Is An Expert: "The question for us was whether it was basic for your project to mention these names, or whether it was not so essential. If you believe it is necessary to mention the names of these three people who can do serious damage to our organization, this means that you don't understand the extent of the issue." http://www.rtmark.com/torino/ -------------------------------------------------- ------------------ t h i n g i s t message by "ricardo dominguez" archive at http://bbs.thing.net info: send email to majordomo@bbs.thing.net and write "info thingist" in the message body -------------------------------------------------- ------------------"