Confronting Bodies: Kunsthaus Essen
Date of Action: ca. 10/18/2002
Specific Location: Kunsthaus Essen www.kunsthaus-essen.de Ruebezahlstrasse 33 D-45134 Essen Germany khe@kunsthaus-essen.de
Description of Artwork: The digital print shows a child swimming on her back in a swimming pool. The body is under the waterline, the head is a bit outside but the ears are underwater too.
Description of Incident: An anonymous visitor of the jubilee exhibition of the Kunsthaus Essen, Germany, felt offended by the artworks of two artists - one of them Ilona Johanna Plattner - in the exhibition concerning a putative case of pornography with childs. The denouncer wrote letters to a newspaper, an important museum (supporting the show) nearby, the most important sponsors, the lordmayor and the person who's responsible for cultural affairs in the city of Essen. Furthermore he brought the "case" to the police. In the case of Mat Vaassen, the other artist, the public prosecutor decided that his work is pornography with childs but not in the case of Ilona Plattner. In spite of this decision by the law the Kunsthaus Essen team took Ilona Plattner's work out of the exhibition without another reason that the team made this decision.
Results of Incident: No more work of Ilona Johanna Plattner in that exhibition. On our request no answer followed until now.
Source: Personal contact with the artist
Submitted By: Matthias Weiss (mw@art.net.dortmund.de)