A “comfort woman” statue that will be displayed at the 2019 Aichi Triennale set to open Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, on Aug. 1, 2019. (image: artist Kim Un-seong)
SEOUL, Aug. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — Artists participating in the Aichi Triennale 2019 are demanding that their work be withdrawn following the organizers’ removal of the Statue of a Girl of Peace.
South Korean artists Park Chan-kyong and Lim Min-ouk asked the Triennale secretariat to remove their work from the exhibition as a protest against censorship.
On August 10, an American non-profit broadcasting agency decided to remove its animated works at the exhibition.
Nine European and South American artists also demanded that their work be removed from the exhibition.
The removed artworks include signature pieces that have represented the Triennale on posters or backgrounds at the opening ceremony.
Among the 90 artists participating in the Triennale, 11 have asked the exhibition to remove their works.
The Statue of the Girl of Peace, the removal of which sparked the censorship controversy at the Triennale, was recently purchased by a Spanish moviemaker Tatxo Benet, according to the Spanish media.
“An artwork has been censored, and the exhibition with the message of going against censorship has also come to an end. It’s a double contradiction,” said Benet in an interview with EFE.
“I heard that the statue was removed from the exhibition, so I contacted the artists and purchased it.”
Benet plans to display the statue at the Freedom Gallery that he will open in Barcelona next year.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
