Art censorship alive and well in America: Wafaa Bilal installation shut down twice

By Michael Lithgow, March 17, 2008 Comments (0)

Wafaa Bilal has done it again – his latest art installation Virtual Jihadi has caused an uproar in Troy, New York. The show opened on March 6 at the Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute (RPI) which promptly (the day after the opening) shut the installation down. After reopening a few days later at a another local gallery, city officials closed the gallery citing bylaw infractions.

The artwork in question shows Bilal appearing as a character in a tweaked version of the video game The Night of Bush Capturing, a video game that was produced by Al Queda in response to the U.S. made video game Quest for Saddam. Bilal hacked the source code and wrote himself into the script.

After the show was closed by RPI, it reopened at the The Sanctuary for Independent Media. A video recording of Bilal's opening remarks is available at the Sanctuary's website. This second opening was also short lived. The gallery received a phone call (recorded and also available for listening at the website) from the city of Troy demanding they fix their front doors (apparently too narrow) or close the building. The gallery had a notice stapled to its front door preventing people from gathering in the premises.

In his opening remarks, Bilal talks about being an activist in Iraq (where he was born and raised). He describes how he was an activist fighting the oppressions of Saddam Hussein's regime at a time when the American administration of Bush Sr. was propping it up. Fearing for his life, he fled to neighbouring Kuwait where he was captured on suspicion of spying, detained and subjected to military trial. He spent two years in a refugee camp before making his way to the United States.

His point, which he says is often misunderstood, is to prevent the terrible loss of freedoms and oppressions that he experienced in Iraq from happening in the United States.

To see the video of Bilal's talk go to Sanctuary TV.

To make a comment in support of Wafaa Bilal go to his website or email the city of Troy, NY and tell them what you think of their political use of bylaw enforcement to shut down a controversial art show.

For more coverage and an excellent interview with Bilal check out We Make Money Not Art.

Previous Art Threat coverage of Wafaa Bilal's work can be found at Log On, Shoot at an Iraqi: New Interactive Installation at the Flatfile Gallery