Queer Museum Controversy

On 10 September 2017 in the city of Porto Alegre, the “Queermuseu” (Queer Museum) art exhibition was cancelled, a month ahead of its scheduled closing on 8 October. The exhibition had been showing at the Santander Bank Cultural Centre and its closure was announced in a statement released by the bank. Santander wrote, “We understand that some of the works of the Queermuseu disrespect symbols, beliefs and people, which is not in line with our worldview” and offered an apology “to anyone who felt offended by any work that was part of the exhibition” (Sperb 2017). At the exhibition’s launch, Santander’s vice president of sustainability, Marcos Madureira, had claimed “Diversity is a value to our business” (Sperb 2017) and the bank had elsewhere described the exhibition as “an unprecedented initiative that explores the diversity of gender expression and the difference in art and culture in different periods” (Terto 2017). Santander’s public statement, however, noted its receipt of complaints regarding the exhibition and a philosophy of artistic value dependent on “positive” representations: “When art is not capable of generating inclusion and positive reflection, it loses its greater purpose, which is to elevate the human condition” (Sperb 2017).

Queermuseu featured 263 works by 85 artists, among them emerging Brazilian artists and well-known figures including Lygia Clark, Candido Portinari, and Adriana Varejão. Curated by Gaudêncio Fidelis, who claims Santander was closely involved in the exhibition’s planning, works focused on a range of LGBTQ themes. Works that proved most controversial, accused of being harmful to children, included a representation of Jesus Christ with multiple arms, communion wafers with words such as vulva and asshole printed on them, a painting that featured sex between people and a goat, and Bia Leite’s painting series titled “Gay children” (Criança Viada). Fidelis likened Santander’s response to the period of Brazil’s military dictatorship (1964-85): “During the time of the dictatorship we had all sorts of problems – censorship, etc. – but nothing of this scale, all done in one stroke” (Artforum 2017).

Critics claimed that the works promoted paedophilia, blasphemy, and bestiality. A Santander building was tagged with the phrases “The Santander bank supports pedophilia” and “They are antichrists”. At the centre of the criticism was the libertarian Movimento Brasil Livre (MBL, or Free Brazil Movement), a collective who along with Vem Pra Rua is most widely known for organising protests for the impeachment of former Workers Party President Dilma Rousseff in September 2016. MBL members shared images and outraged commentary on social media, including an article titled “Santander Cultural promotes pornography and even pedophilia based on the Cultural Incentive Law” and a Facebook video viewed over 1.6 million times that characterised Leite’s paintings as “practically child prostitution”. Critics also began protesting the exhibition on-site, contributing to Santander’s concerns over the safety of the art itself. Kim Kataguiri, one of the leaders of the MBL, stated “We did the boycott because the exhibition involved public money in the promotion of bestiality, paedophilia and offences to the Christian faith” (Phillips 2017). Defenders of the exhibition quickly organised a protest against its closure on 12 September. Over 71,000 people signed a petition to support its reopening and to denounce censorship. At suggestions that Queermuseu might be exhibited in Rio de Janiero, that city’s Mayor Marcelo Crivella, a former Pentecostal Bishop, stated in a video that his city would not allow this.

Shortly after the Queermuseu episode, another controversy surrounded the exhibition “Cadafalso” at the Museum of Contemporary Art (Marco) in Campo Grande in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. The offending work was a painting titled “Pedofilia” by Alessandra da Cunha, which politicians Paulo Siufi (PMDB), Herculano Borges (Solidarity), and Colonel David (PSC) denounced in the Legislative Assembly on 14 September for promoting paedophilia and as attacking family values. The work was quickly seized by police, after the museum’s board of directors had re-rated the exhibition for under-18s only, it having been previously rated for 12 and above. A third similar incident involved a performance by the dancer and choreographer Wagner Schwartz at the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art (MAM). In a performance called “La Bête” on 26 September to mark the opening of the 35th Panorama of Brazilian Art, Schwarz lay naked on the floor of the gallery for about 50 minutes. His work was inspired by a series of mechanical sculptures produced by Lygia Clark in the 1960s, “Bichos” (Beasts), and Schwartz invited audience members to interact with and manipulate his body. During the performance, a mother and her young daughter participated by touching Schwartz’s hands, legs, and feet. Video of the performance was shared on social media, sparking outrage about the girl’s participation. Again, critics accused the work of promoting paedophilia, a petition calling for the museum’s closure attracted over 86,000 signatures, and São Paulo Mayor, João Doria, released a video condemning the exhibition on the same day (30 September) that protests against it involved violent assaults of museum staff. On 2 October 2017, São Paulo’s Office of Public Prosecutions instigated a civil investigation into whether the museum “is exposing children and adolescents to inappropriate content”.

In acknowledgement of these events, a protest rally coincided with the opening of a major exhibition at the Museu de Arte São Paulo on 19 October. Titled “Histórias da Sexualidade” (Histories of Sexuality), the rally sought to consolidate support for freedom of speech, but also to protest the museum’s decision to restrict audience attendance at Histories of Sexuality to people over 18 years of age (ArtReview 2017). An open letter signed by numerous well-known artists stated:
“We believe, however, that it is necessary to identify the focus of these attacks on civil liberties. It became evident that right-wing militants, sects from within neo-Pentecostal churches, certain politicians with great public responsibility – but lacking republican spirit –, civil servants and bureaucrats in the judiciary sphere, the police force and public prosecutors are joining forces against artistic creations and art institutions. They are censoring exhibitions, harassing visitors and museum employees, and using social networks to demean and outrage people they disagree with.” (ArtReview 2017)

Along with public protests also directed at the play “The Gospel According to Jesus Queen of Heaven”, which depicts Jesus returned to the world as a transgender woman, these incidents represent sustained attacks on contemporary art in Brazil, where such art attempts to explore questions of gender and sexuality. Accusations of paedophilia, in particular, are consistently invoked to call for bans of content and closures of exhibitions and museums themselves, even where work aims at interrogating the harms of sex between adults and children. Online campaigns by MBL and evangelical groups more generally have fostered the continuation of protest against such exhibitions, in what some argue is a distraction from corruption scandals surrounding President Michael Temer’s administration. – Liam Grealy

Further reading:
– Artforum. (2017). Brazilian cultural center closes queer art exhibition, following conservative outcry. (Portuguese). https://goo.gl/94i2Bb
– ArtReview. (2017). Brazilian artists mount fight against censorship. (Portuguese). https://goo.gl/HSiUhS
– Phillips, D. (2017). Brazilian queer art exhibition cancelled after campaign by rightwing protesters. The Guardian. https://goo.gl/hhBY2a
– Sperb, P. (2017). After protests, Santander closes exhibition on diversity. Veja. (Portuguese). https://goo.gl/8SVNBq
– Terto, A. (2017). Santander Cultural’s response after cancelling queer exposure in Porto Alegre. Huffpost Brasil. (Portuguese). https://goo.gl/RPfV1h