But that was in the summer of 1997, before the October attack in Australia and the later attacks in Sweden and now France. Your vandals have saved you. They have saved your art. And I think you know it. After the attack on “The History of Sex” exhibition in Sweden, you wanted the galleries re-opened with the slashed prints on display. “It’s important” you said, “because the damaged works make a statement in and of themselves. It’s a different statement than the original intent of the work, but now the work has been transformed and politicized, and it’s important for people to be able to see the works that they’ve been reading about in the paper.” Thinking that showing the damaged photos would “do a favor for the Nazi people” who destroyed them, the museum curator refused. You were right, she was wrong. The damaged works do make a statement but it’s not a different statement than your prints, it’s the same statement only better. The work that should have been on display in Sweden wasn’t the damaged prints, re-hung on the gallery walls (and for people to gawk at, and chat about, and buy) but instead that video that the vandals shot and edited of their rampage and posted for free on YouTube.
A still from the video of the vandalism in Sweden posted on YouTube
Those vandals completed your violation. They finished your “against.” The one still that is cut from their YouTube piece and remains accessible on the web has more drama and passion and artistic strength than any of “The History of Sex” photographs I’ve seen. Their anger and violence and daring, documented in their film, these things are their