By ASSOCIATED PRESS, 15/07/2010
'NaziSexyMouse' poster causes stir in Poland.
WARSAW, Poland — A huge outdoor art poster that blends Mickey Mouse's image with that of a swastika and a nude woman's body is causing a stir in Poland, where memories of the suffering inflicted by Nazi Germany remain strong.
The poster, which went up in June in the western city of Poznan just steps from a synagogue, is an Italian artist's take on what he calls the "horrors" of the American lifestyle and is one piece of artwork in a contemporary art exhibition opening in the fall.
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But the reaction shows that there is little appetite in Poland for satirical or artistic uses of images linked to Nazi Germany, which invaded Poland in 1939 and built ghettoes and death camps across the country in which millions were murdered.
"This art provocation is a form of violence against the sensitivity of many people," said Norbert Napieraj, a city council member who asked prosecutors to ban the poster.
Prosecutors, however, determined that the poster is art and does not violate the country's laws against glorifying Nazism.
The poster has been vandalized twice since it first went up, and on Tuesday was no longer stretched across a building in the city center. Despite the uproar, gallery director Maria Czarnecka said she plans to put it back up.
"Art should be provocative and controversial," she told The Associated Press, insisting that the poster does not seek to propagate Nazism but instead wants to explore "symbols and how they work."
"The Mickey Mouse head and swastika are on the same level — they don't mean anything and they are both part of the globalized world," Czarnecka said.
Jewish leaders, who have been outraged at the poster, would disagree, saying the swastika still means something very real to many Poles, Jews and non-Jews alike.
The head of Poznan's Jewish community, Alicja Kobus, 64, described being overwhelmed by revulsion when she first saw the poster. She had just been with Jewish visitors from Holland to the synagogue, which the Nazis turned into a swimming pool.
"It is a shock for people who still scarred by the hell of the Holocaust," she said.
The work — "NaziSexyMouse" by Italian artist Max Papeschi — is part of a series works that blend iconic American cartoon figures with images of warfare or destruction.
Papeschi explains on his website that the series — which he dubs "Politically-Incorrect" — is meant as commentary on the United States, revealing "all the horror of this lifestyle."
His images — Mickey Mouse as a Nazi or Ronald McDonald as a machine-gun bearing soldier in Iraq — lose "their reassuring effect and change into a collective nightmare," Papeschi said.
"NaziSexyMouse" also went on show this week in Berlin as part of an exhibition at a sister gallery. But the image has not been displayed publicly there and has sparked no outcry.
A Berlin art gallery manager said older people often do not understand that the combination of pop culture icons like Mickey Mouse and historical symbols like the swastika are meant to be
satirical.
"For the younger generation, this painting is just a joke; older people sometimes don't like it or don't find it funny, but nobody has taken any offense so far," said Agnes Kaplon, manager of the Abnormals Gallery in Berlin.
A Russian art exhibition that also used Mickey Mouse's image has also been at the center of a legal case in Russia. Two Russian curators who angered the Russian Orthodox Church with an exhibition that included images of Jesus Christ portrayed as Mickey Mouse and Vladimir Lenin were convicted Monday of inciting religious hatred and fined, but not sentenced to prison.
A Russian court fined a man for having a swastika tattoo and ordered it removed. In ordering the removal, the Novgorod court cited a rarely applied law that prohibits the public display of Nazi symbols, according to the UCSJ: Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union. UCSJ cited a report published Monday by the Sova Information-Analytical Center. The fine of 1,000 rubles is equal to about $32. The judge justified the decision by pointing out in the verdict that the tattoo is on the defendant's right hand and therefore is "visible to people around him."
DES MOINES, Iowa — A billboard created by a conservative Iowa tea party group that compares President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin is drawing sharp criticism — even from fellow tea party activists who have condemned it as offensive and a waste of money.
The North Iowa Tea Party began displaying the billboard in downtown Mason City last week. The sign shows large photographs of Obama, Nazi leader Hitler and communist leader Lenin beneath the labels "Democrat Socialism," ''National Socialism," and "Marxist Socialism."
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Beneath the photos is the phrase, "Radical leaders prey on the fearful & naive."
The co-founder of the roughly 200-person group said the billboard was intended to send an anti-socialist message. But Bob Johnson admitted Tuesday that the message may have gotten lost amid the images of fascist and communist leaders.
"The purpose of the billboard was to draw attention to the socialism. It seems to have been lost in the visuals," Johnson said. "The pictures overwhelmed the message. The message is socialism." He said he didn't know of any plans to remove the sign.
But others in the tea party movement criticized the sign.
"That's just a waste of money, time, resources and it's not going to further our cause," said Shelby Blakely, a leaders of the Tea Party Patriots, a national group. "It's not going to help our cause. It's going to make people think that the tea party is full of a bunch of right-wing fringe people, and that's not true."
Blakely also expressed outrage at linking Obama to Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany who oversaw the killing of 6 million Jews and whose invasions of neighboring countries led to World War II.
"When you compare Obama to Hitler, that to me does a disservice to the Jews who both survived and died in the Holocaust and to the Germans who lived under Nazi regime rule," Blakely said.
John White, an Iowa coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots, said that he can understand the North Iowa group's perception that Obama is "Hitler-esque," but he thinks the billboard is offensive and unproductive. White said that he planned to discuss the matter with national tea party officials.
"I fear they may end up in some kind of trouble over it, because it's basically slanderous," White said. "I don't know that it's the message we want to send. I'd much rather see billboards that say 'Remember in November. Get Out and Vote.'"
The billboard is owned by Waitt Outdoor of Omaha, Nebraska. Waitt general manager, Kent Beatty, said the company didn't have a problem with the message.
"We believe in freedom of speech," Beatty said. "It doesn't reflect our views, necessarily."
The White House declined to comment on the sign.
One person who welcomed the billboard was Dean Genth, a Democratic activist from Mason City, a city of 30,000 people just south of the Minnesota border, who said he thinks the sign lays bare the views of tea party supporters.
"I welcome them to continue to spew that kind of stuff because I think it's going to do a lot of good for the good Democrats around the state," Genth said.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
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