Yesterday, Twitter announced that it will start censoring tweets in certain countries as a concession to governments as the service expands globally. Some, including Ai Weiwei, are not happy.
censorship
We were notified this morning via Twitter that the Istanbul Modern has released the following statement.
There are claims of censorship in Istanbul as eight artists and an artist collective have made a joint decision to withdraw from the Istanbul Modern museum’s Reality and Dream exhibition. The debate has since snowballed into a discussion about the role of contemporary art in Turkey and the problems associated with corporate sponsorship.
We caught up with the Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour, who as we reported on Wednesday is the artist that the French luxury apparel label Lacoste wanted to exclude from the 2011 Lacoste Elysée Prize for being “too pro-Palestinian.”
Yesterday, performance artist Amber Hawk Swanson began her latest performance that was to feature the transformation of a life-sized sex doll of her likeness into a small replica of a bull orca at SeaWorld Orlando. Sure, the performance may sound out of the ordinary for veterans of the “there’s nothing I haven’t seen before” art world, but the artist, who was using the free Ustream livestreaming service, encountered an unexpected obstacle. Two hours into her performance, the online broadcast stopped and viewers where provided with a message that clearly states that the broadcaster was “banned due to violating terms of service.”
![Post image for Getting Naked for Ai Weiwei [NSFW]](http://hyperallergic.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/ainudity8-HOME.jpg)
BEIJING — When Ai Weiwei’s assistant, Beijing artist Zhao Zhao, was brought in for questioning recently, the supposed charges were simple: distribution of pornography. The image in question was “One Tiger, Eight Breasts,” a shot of Ai with four young women, all of them naked. I first saw the photo in August 2010, when he tweeted a link to it and said “Trusting each other fully,” though the link to the image no longer works.
MANILA, PHILIPPINES — What has the response to Ai Weiwei’s tax case been like in China? We’ve seen the thrilling surge of netizens lending over a million dollars to the artist, and he recently made a deposit while he contests the bill. The artist has returned to Twitter, posting actively once more. Many reports have emphasized that Ai’s name is blocked on searches on Sina Weibo, but, as with the Wenzhou train collision last year, netizens are using images to circumvent censorship and show their support.
Here we go again. Almost a year after the controversy at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, Catholic groups in New York have started to raise alarm over David Wojnarowicz’s “A Fire In My Belly” (1986-7) that will appear in the Brooklyn version of Hide/Seek.
Last week, the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo published an image of Mohammad on its cover saying, “100 lashes if you don’t die of laughter!” Sadly, some right-wing muslim zealots firebombed the headquarters of the magazine, but don’t think that shut up the publication. No siree, this week the magazine has upped the ante and published a cartoon of the publisher making out with Mohammad under the banner, “Love is stronger than hate.” That’s right, baby. Fuck the fundamentalists.
Popular angst rock group Radiohead has just joined Sina Weibo, China’s popular microblogging service—and their account has attracted nearly 70,000 followers after a single post.
