Lidwien van de Ven's Censored Bloomberg Exhibition
Monika Szewczyk's essay examines Lidwien van de Ven's 2011 exhibition at Bloomberg SPACE in London, part of the COMMA series. The show features Untitled (Mount Merapi), a hazy photograph of Indonesia's Mount Merapi; a video of women at Jakarta's Istiqlal Mosque; a black square; and a white square. The white square replaces a censored photograph, Berlin, 02/10/2010 (die Freiheit), depicting a gathering for the German far-right party Die Freiheit, linked to Dutch politician Geert Wilders. Bloomberg executives deemed the image 'too sensitive' due to 9/11 associations. Szewczyk argues this contradicts Bloomberg's stated principles of transparency and artistic freedom, highlighting how corporate sponsorship can constrain critical art. The essay connects the work to Dutch Golden Age painting and Magritte's On the Threshold of Freedom, framing the censorship as a symptom of democratic crisis in Europe.
Key facts
- Lidwien van de Ven's exhibition at Bloomberg SPACE in London was part of the COMMA series.
- The exhibition included Untitled (Mount Merapi), a video of Istiqlal Mosque, a black square, and a white square.
- The white square replaced a censored photograph titled Berlin, 02/10/2010 (die Freiheit).
- The censored image depicted a gathering for the German far-right party Die Freiheit, linked to Geert Wilders.
- Bloomberg executives deemed the image 'too sensitive' because Bloomberg staff were victims of 9/11.
- The essay was written by Monika Szewczyk and published on Afterall on March 25, 2011.
- The exhibition curator was Sacha Craddock.
- Szewczyk draws parallels to Dutch Golden Age painting and Magritte's On the Threshold of Freedom.
Entities
Artists
- Lidwien van de Ven
- Jacob van Ruisdael
- Pieter Jansz. Saenredam
- René Magritte
Institutions
- Bloomberg SPACE
- Bloomberg
- COMMA
- Afterall
- Partij voor de Vrijheid
- Die Freiheit
- Museum Boijmans van Beuningen
- Deutsche Bundesbank
- Christian Democrats (CDU)
Locations
- London
- United Kingdom
- Jakarta
- Indonesia
- Berlin
- Germany
- Netherlands
- Rotterdam
- Bangalore
- India
- Ramallah
- Occupied Territories
- New York
- United States
Sources
- Afterall —