News:
"Pornographic" posters in Austria
January 14, 2006
Poster by Carlos Eires, reportedly showing George W. Bush, Queen Elizabeth II., and french president Jacques Chirac. Poster by Tanja Ostojic |
European countries take turns holding the presidency of the European Council, and from January 1 until June 30, 2006,
this is Austria's job.
To celebrate the event, an organisation calling itself 25 Peaces invited artists from the 25 member countries to design posters which are on display on 400 rolling boards in Vienna from December 27, 2005 until January 31, 2006. You can download all of them from the above web site, although it took me almost an hour because of their painfully slow host. Two posters, shown at left, were withdrawn by their designers after heavy public criticism, with the artists complaining about "public censorship". However, the most obscene part of the story is, in my humble opinion, that this poster exhibition was supported by the Austrian Government with a contribution of 500'000 Euros, as reported in the Neue Zuercher Zeitung.
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