A sad day for Art

image

I find it quite saddening to see ignorant acts such as these take center stage in the name of Art.

In light of world Art day, as well as the 75th anniversary of the Swedish Artists Federation, Swedish Afro Artist Makode Aj Linde decided to set up a cultural performance at the Modern Museum in Stockholm. His focus was to spread awareness about female genital mutilation of women in Africa. That sounds great right?

Wrong.

The performance consisted of a cake shaped like a "stereotypical African woman's body". The cake sponge was flesh and blood coloured red. Linde then painted his face to look like that of an "African woman"(Note better that Linde is of African origin) and proceeded to position his painted face as the "head" of the cake "body". As the cake was being sliced, Linde would let out screams and yells as would a woman going through the cut.

Watch the video below:

Between the ridiculous depiction of our beautiful African women and the crowds of people having a laugh at this spectacle, I cannot decide what is more humiliating for us as Africans and this artist. Oh, and did I mention that the Swedish Minister of CULTURE Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth was the one ceremoniously slicing the cake?

As much as each Artist is free to express his ideas in his own preferred way, I do not feel Makode Linde in the least bit properly enlightened anyone on the seriousness and fatality of Female genital mutilation. On the contrary, he just called attention to the prevalence of ignorance within our societies. After all, the performance became more about racial stereotyping and ignorance, far from the message it was initially intended to pass.

Rightfully, "the Association for African Swedes, which promotes the rights of people of African origin, slammed the exhibit as a "tasteless, racist spectacle" and demanded that Ms Liljeroth resign."

"Ms Liljeroth described the incident as a "bizarre situation”. She said: “I was invited to speak at World Art Day about the freedom of art and the right to be provocative, and then they asked me to cut up the cake. I had no chance to inspect the cake beforehand ... If some people have been offended, I apologize. Then it's up to the artist to explain what he meant with his work.”

                                                                                              -Yahoo News

Makode Linde on his Art:

Info Source

My efforts in being objective while writing this are clearly flailing. I like to believe art is positive in one way or another, responsible for creating unity through emotion, opinion, awareness, or whatever chords it strikes within the interpreter, but in this case,I just cannot grasp it. I may be wrong.

QUESTION: Does Art have a purpose? If so, what is it?

Your thoughts?