Paris damages painting by artist Miriam Cahn: she disagreed on the content

Yesterday evening a man threw paint on the controversial painting by Swiss artist Miriam Cahn on display since mid-February at the Parisian museum of the Palais de Tokyo with the title of Fuck abstraction! An act of vandalism that came after days of controversy over the image depicted in the work: a person with his hands tied intends to perform fellatio on a much larger and more powerful man. The depiction of the “barbarian acts” committed in war, according to the artist; a child pornography image for many, who have seen a raped child in the painting (although the artist has always denied that the portrayed character is a minor). “This painting deals with the way in which sexuality is used as a weapon of war, as a crime against humanity,” explained Cahn, who has often dealt with similar themes in her work.

The explanations of the museum and the Swiss painter are useless: in the last few weeks in France there has been an outcry against the painting. On May 2, a group of 16 associations active in the defense of children’s rights sent an open letter to the “members, friends and administrators of the Palais de Tokyo” asking for the painting to be withdrawn, while an online petition collected 14,000 signatures for have that image removed. An appeal was also presented against the work to the Paris TAR and the Council of State, which however rejected the request. Given the “sensitive nature of the work” which could generate “misunderstandings”, the Palais de Tokyo has decided to install a “mediation device” with warning messages placed before entering the hall where there are staff available to give explanations on the work

According to a source close to the dossier cited by AFP, the perpetrator of the gesture, an elderly man who does not belong to any activist group, “was dissatisfied with the sexual scene of a child and an adult represented according to him on that painting”. So, yesterday afternoon he went to the museum with mauve paint hidden in a medicine bottle and smeared the picture. Security intervened immediately to stop him, while the Palais de Tokyo announced that “it will file a complaint for degradation of property and obstacle to freedom of expression”.

President Emmanuel Macron also intervened on the case, denouncing the gesture on Twitter: «picking up a work means threatening our values», wrote the head of state, adding that «in France, art is always free and respect for cultural creation guaranteed”. The Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak instead pointed the finger at the “exploitation” by the Rassemblement National of Marine Le Pen, without which such an extreme gesture would never have been reached. But despite the attack, the management of the Parisian museum has announced that the work will continue to remain on display until May 14, the date scheduled for the end of the exhibition, which has attracted 80,000 visitors to date.