Video for Power, Taboo, and the Artist

In the summer of 2010, we asked artists and curators worldwide to record themselves responding and commenting on the following questions:

What are or should be the taboos honored by cultural institutions?
Why should public funds be spent to support artwork that might offend some segment of the general public?
Does “concern for the community” justify (self)censorship?
What alternative institutional models are emerging in the face of restrictive conditions attached to public funding?

The responses and creative comments of artists and curators worldwide are collected in Power, Taboo and the Artist, an ongoing video project produced by the National Coalition Against Censorship and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School.

The project is part is part of a series of events How Obscene is This organized on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the NEA Decency Clause and addressing diminished public funding for the arts and the culture of self-censorship or outright censorship that has taken hold in arts institutions. Besides the video, the series includes panel discussions and a censored film series.

See all the videos. Below is my contribution:

And if you need a refresher on Muddy Waters: