1/19/2004: Swedish art provokes Israeli ambassador

[Undertoad]

The Israel's ambassador to Sweden was kicked out of Stockholm's Museum of National Antiquities after he attacked the above artwork.

It consists of blood-colored water, a sailboat called "Snow White" and an image of a woman suicide bomber who killed 21 people last October.

Of all the takes on this event, I like Agenda Bender's the best.

The museum's director was displeased unto even more comical exaggeration:

Museum director Kristian Berg suggested that Mazel endangered those in the museum. "He pulled out the plugs and threw one of the spotlights into the fountain, which caused the entire installation to short-circuit and made it totally life-threatening," Berg told Swedish news agency TT, AFP reported.

The ambassador's version:

I felt that I was standing in front of a horror, I felt that I was standing in front of an exhibit that, while it was in an historic and big museum in the heart of Europe, was glorifying genocide. I was standing before an exhibit calling for genocide, praising the genocide of me, you, my brothers and sisters. I pulled the plug on the three spotlights and plunged the exhibit into darkness. I think one of the spotlights fell into water.

This little event made the international news, but AB has it right: the real outrage here is that it's utterly crappy art.

The other artist, Feiler's Swedish wife Gunilla Skoeld Feiler, told daily Expressen that the work was "not a glorification of the suicide bomber."

"I wanted to show how incomprehensible it is that a mother-of-two, who is a lawyer no less, can do such a thing," she said.

"When I saw her picture in the paper, I thought she looked like Snow White, that's why I gave that name to the piece," she added.

That "sailboat = incomprehensible" metaphor is just nutty. It seems to me the wife/artist produced a provocative piece and then decided to lie about the intent of the work instead of defending it. Either that, or it's just plain bad art. Or both. Yeah, both.

[Kitsune]

Either that, or it's just plain bad art.

Had I been there, I could have improved on the art a bit with the aid of a Zippo.

[Beestie]

The Israel's ambassador to Sweden was kicked out of Stockholm's Museum of National Antiquities after he attacked the above artwork.

Artwork? That's not artwork.

A cricifix in a glass of HIV-laced urine - now THAT's art.

Perhaps the Ambassador should have taken a dump on the boat then put the woman's picture upside down into the feces. Then, I suppose, it would rise to the level of art.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Like most "ART" of this sort, everyone gets their own message. The artist got one, the Ambassador another and I don't get it at all. However, the Ambassador was completely out of line.

[Chewbaccus]

The other artist, Feiler's Swedish wife Gunilla Skoeld Feiler, told daily Expressen that the work was "not a glorification of the suicide bomber."

"I wanted to show how incomprehensible it is that a mother-of-two, who is a lawyer no less, can do such a thing," she said.

"When I saw her picture in the paper, I thought she looked like Snow White, that's why I gave that name to the piece," she added.

I get what she's trying to do - setting the bright white of the photo, the woman's face, and the boat (the woman's prior life) against the blood-red of the water (the action, which will define the woman among the public and history from now on) and using the stark contrast to generate a sense of unreality, of incomprehensibility.

But, just because I get it doesn't mean I really like it. Call it one of my slivers of conservatism, but I'm just of the mind that art shouldn't have high and low tide.

[russotto]

The ambassador's bit of performance art is better than the original. And if he pulled the plugs before dumping the spotlight into the water, it's hardly life-threatening.

BTW, anyone else think the picture resembles Michael Jackson?

[pdaoust]

actually, this struck me as one of the more comprehensible pieces of so-called 'art' I've ever seen; it seems to actually have a message. But the message I got (I don't know if it's the messages the artists intended) was completely different from the ambassador's: I thought it was supposed to depict this killer thinking she was pure and holy and commendable for killing twenty people (hence the white), yet she's stained with, and swimming in, blood.

That's what I got anyway.

[ndetroit]

I get what she's trying to do - setting the bright white of the photo, the woman's face, and the boat (the woman's prior life)

what is the symbolism of the boat? (aside from the fact that it's convenient to have the picture of the woman floating on something in the "blood"?)

but why the boat, and not a barge, or a raft, or door, or a bathtub, or .. whatever... ?

[quzah]

One person floating in a sea of blood is basicly what I get. It would have been better to have countless faces in a sea of blood, to represent the entire middle-east. But that's just my take.

Quzah.

[elSicomoro]

Originally posted by ndetroit
what is the symbolism of the boat?

Ship of fools?

I agree with Bruce...if the ambassador didn't like the artwork, he could have simply voiced his dissent peacefully, rather than being destructive.

From the BBC: Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon praised the ambassador's actions, saying that anti-Semitism was such a problem "it would have been forbidden not to have acted on the spot".

So, is anything considered anti-Israeli also considered anti-Semitic these days? And did Mr. Mazel even bother talking to the artists about the exhibit before losing it?

From Haaretz: The envoy told Haaretz that his protest was not spontaneous; he had planned the act after learning about the exhibit in the local press.

It seems to me that Mr. Mazel is a fucking idiot. Whether the Feilers were trying to be provocative is open to interpretation, as is the artwork itself. How would Mazel like it if someone started attacking the Wailing Wall?

[xoxoxoBruce]

From the BBC: Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon praised the ambassador's actions, saying that anti-Semitism was such a problem "it would have been forbidden not to have acted on the spot".

Maybe Jews acting like this is why anti-semitism continues to be such a problem.

[emmtayoe]

BTW, anyone else think the picture resembles Michael Jackson?

At a first glance, yes it really did. After looking at it, however, I noticed the nose is much too wide.

[elSicomoro]

I understand that anti-Semitism has been growing recently in Europe (particularly in France). And I understand the problems that Jews (and Israelis) have had throughout history. But it seems like anything that criticizes Judaism/Jews/Israel/Israelis is almost automatically labeled "anti-Semitism." And I find that disturbing...it's as if Israel and/or Judaism are beyond reproach. If this sort of attitude persists, there will never be peace in the Middle East.

(Not that the Israelis are the only ones with a shitty attitude...)

EDIT: I didn't like my original second paragraph, so I changed it.

[bjlhct]

I wonder if he also finds dislike of Nazism harmful discrimination against white aryans.

[Beestie]

OK, I've had all day to think about the exhibit and here's what I see:

I see the "pure" (white) Palestinian woman sailing around in a "pure" (white) boat on a sea of blood. The blood is obviously Jewish blood.

The boat would seem to be the plight or mission of the Palestinians which intercedes between the "pure" Palestinian and the (not pure) blood of her Jewish victims. The boat, the "purity of her mission) elevates her above her Jewish victims. This is not my sentiment - this is what I think the artist is attempting to convey.

I think if the ownership of the blood and the pic are appropriately modified (e.g., Osama on the boat and the blood of 9/11 victims), just about anyone could be incited to trash it. I dunno - maybe that makes it less of art and more of ... well, trash.