LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Gillett Square in Dalston
25.02.2016
CATEGORIES: ART
An ONE-DAY ONLY exhibition of the censored artworks.
We like freedom, and we believe that freedom of expression is our primary goal or even mission.
We like the idea so much that – despite the fact that Metropolitan Police and New Scotland yard would like to censor it – we decided to show the forbidden art in London.
As Douglas Murray has observed in the Spectator: “The exhibition has a simple mission – which is to display the work of artists who are thinking seriously about freedom, what it means and how you lose it… but that is where Britain is now. The police can effectively censor a show if they cite the risk of ‘community tensions’ or ‘inflammatory content’. And so the police get to decide what you and I and everyone else should be able to see.“ The purpose of this exhibition will, therefore, be to consider the nature of freedom, how easily it can be lost and how hard it is to win it back.
On a freezing day in February 2015 in the metal container, we showed all the censored arts made by Mimsy. Together with Channel 4, we made a lengthy documentary about the event. Many of you already know that we were unable to display MIMSY’s six artworks at the PFF Festival 2015 due to significant pressure from both the police and the gallery. We were delighted to be able to present to you all of the censored artworks.
The event was succeeded and hundreds of people enjoy the fresh sense of humour by Mimsy.
“The place and time of the festival until the last minute were kept secret for security reasons”, says Camilla Forest, founder of Passion For Freedom. “Champagne and strawberries were replaced by coffee in paper cups, instead of a red carpet, we had a tin container. There were friends, visitors and random passers-by.” For eight years, the wild and exciting work on the festival felt like acting in a gangster movie.
The history of the festival is a very entertaining story about how stupid it is to be afraid of free art. At the end of the year, Channel 4 showed the documentary about the art which was censored by London police.