{"id":256130,"date":"2018-02-24T11:58:05","date_gmt":"2018-02-24T16:58:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/?p=256130"},"modified":"2020-08-12T12:02:44","modified_gmt":"2020-08-12T16:02:44","slug":"art-piece-of-turkish-dictator-erdogan-with-banana-in-buttocks-removed-from-german-fair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/sv\/art-piece-of-turkish-dictator-erdogan-with-banana-in-buttocks-removed-from-german-fair\/","title":{"rendered":"Art piece of \u2018Turkish Dictator\u2019 Erdogan with banana in buttocks removed from German fair"},"content":{"rendered":"

RAEL\u2019S COMMENT:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Censorship is back\u2026 thankfully the Internet is there\u2026<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

An art piece featuring Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with a banana in his buttocks and titled \u2018Turkish dictator\u2019 caused a stir at the Art Karlsruhe fair in Germany and was removed from the exhibition.<\/p>\n

Gallerist Michael Oess said he took down the provocative painting by Thomas Baumgaertel, a prominent Cologne-based graffiti artist known for his signature spray-painted bananas, \u201cto avoid trouble.\u201d The piece is part of the \u2018Despots Series \u2013 Trump, Kim and Erdogan.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a certain responsibility toward other visitors,\u201d he told German news agency DPA. A Turkish journalist had complained about the picture on Thursday, and later used his cell phone to broadcast live video footage from the public display, according to Oess.<\/p>\n

A couple of women also allegedly voiced their unease about \u201cdesecrating\u201d the Turkish flag, which was in the background of the artwork. But the gallerist shrugged it off as \u201ca staged event\u201d and claimed the females were \u201cagents.\u201d The painting was later sold for \u20ac5,900 ($7,200), he said.<\/p>\n

Baumgartel, aka the Banana Sprayer, was outraged over the decision to have the piece removed, even \u201cwithout him being informed\u201d and tweeted that he severed ties with the gallery after the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just can\u2019t be true that everyone is tucking their tails between their legs as the populists destroy artistic freedom and freedom of expression\u201d the artist told DPA. The fair organizers said it was not their decision, but that of the gallery owner, \u201cto take down the caricature.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah reported on the \u201cso-called painting,\u201d saying that to Turks it constituted a \u201cracist and vulgar attack\u201d on their president, Erdogan. Around three million Turkish people live in Germany.<\/p>\n

In 2016, Erdogan submitted a criminal complaint against German comedian and TV host Jan Boehmermann, author of a satirical poem about the Turkish president, aired on Boehmermann\u2019s ZDF Neo Royale program.<\/p>\n

The \u201cDefamatory Poem,\u201d which featured sexual references, accused Erdogan of repressing Turkey\u2019s national and religious minorities \u2013 Kurds and Christians. Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus claimed back then that the comedian\u2019s poem insulted all 78 million Turks, labeling it a \u201cserious crime against humanity.\u201d Ankara demanded the comedian be prosecuted for insulting a foreign head of state.<\/p>\n

The German government later granted a Turkish request to allow the prosecution of Boehmermann. Chancellor Angela Merkel herself greenlighted the proceedings for which she received strong condemnation from German politicians and journalists, who said she was compromising freedom of speech. The case was later dropped.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/419740-erdogan-banana-german-artist\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RAEL\u2019S COMMENT: Censorship is back\u2026 thankfully the Internet is there\u2026  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":256131,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-256130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/sv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/sv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/sv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/sv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/sv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/sv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/sv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/sv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/sv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/sv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}