Mask

Here some examples on how to wear a mask and the different models of masks.

Mohamed en Ali masks by Sooreh Hera

Jesus mask by Buy Nothing X-mas

Jake and Dinos Chapman

Who was first: Buy Nothing or Sooreh Hera?
Do you have another mask to share?,
Marisa Polin

ps: Sooreh Hera hits by Google are around 133,000 now. Strange enough, on images you can't find her photos yet.

Versions

Every day I read a different story about what happened to Sooreh Hera's photographs and what was said and done (or not) by the museum director Wim van Krimpen. So many versions that the only conclusion can be that there are many lies or at least many misinterpretations.
Let us give a chance to tell the definetely version about this every day more tricky subject.

Censorship booms the 'hits'

As I searched for "sooreh hera" on Google last Monday there were a bit more than 20,000 hits, today there are nearly 80,000! It is as far as I am concerned 'the talk in town' now in The Netherlands.
Hopefully there are many voices disapproving the not well though action of the museum director not to show the photos of the homosexual Muslims with masks of Mohamed and Ali. One of them is the with clear argument article on NRC Handelsblad of 5 december by Hedi de Vree: Beschem niet mij, berscherm mijn vrijheid. In Dutch. Not yet available on internet.
Take a look on my blog the entries of 3 and 4 of December.

Luckily the hope is not lost

The director of the MuseumgoudA in Gouda has declared that they welcome Sooreh Hera's work.

You can read more about it on
Elsevier: Geweigerde Iraanse homokunst welkom in Gouda.
Also Waterlog or Brechtje: Waarom de foto's van Sooreh Hera tentoonsgesteld moeten worden. Both in Dutch.
The video Allah ho Gaybar can be seen again, but not in YouTube.

Censorship and caution

The Iranian-Dutch artist Sooreh Hera was invited to exhibit at the Gemeente Museum in The Hague. Thus apparently not big news, she had just finished her studies at the Royal Academy in the same city, but a part of her work has been, before the opening already been removed of the exhibition by the director of the museum Wim van Krimpen.

Muslim homosexuals are portrayed (in The Netherlands) wearing Mohamed and Ali masks. Van Krimpen, who chose the works, is afraid to show the photographs because 'they can be sensitive for some people'.
It is so sad, that people are frightened and make such a coward actions but, the director of the museum...?

It brings me doubts of where I live. Is this Mexico City in the 80's when a friend of mine, Rolando de la Rosa, showed a Virgin of Guadalupe with a Marilyn Monroe face and a mob of traditional, right, and conservative women assaulted the Museum of Modern Art and the work was removed and the life of the artist was (partly) destroyed? And the director of the Museum was sacked because he supported the freedom of the artist!
(The example with Monroe, is not de la Rosa's work, but this one is made by Ahumada).
I don't have to go that far, last year was Hester Scheurwater's at the See me, feel me exhibition at Koorenhuis in The Hague kindly asked to show her video only at nightly hours.
At a clinic in 1993, I was asked to remove a painting of muscled man with naked torso and short trousers because 'it could hurt feelings' as it was (by chance) placed at the entrance of the gym. It was such an innocent painting. At least these two last cases were not religion related, but any way...
I am annoyed. Annoyed of the cowards.
Even YouTube removed the video of Sooreh Hera....

To read more about this and other sad examples go to
B-logos: My Sweet Lord: religión y censura.
Replica 21: Censura: 10 casos de la vida real. Both in Spanish.