Jani Leinonen
McJesus, 2015
"Jani Leinonen: School of Disobedience" at Kiasma Museum
of Contemporary Art, Helsinki
Last week a mob of
Christians stormed the Haifa Museum of Art in Israel, with one bystander
throwing a molotov cocktail, to protest McJesus (2015), a work by Jani
Leinonen, portraying the Ronald McDonald mascot of the American fast food chain
crucified on the cross. The work is included in the museum’s current group show
“Sacred Goods”.
Some protestors have
said that it is unfair to mock just Christianity and not Judaism and Islam as
well, and Christian leaders have condemned the work, which has been up since
August.
“We denounce the
exhibition and the injury to the holiest symbol of Christianity by an
institution that is supposed to serve citizens of all religions,” the Reverend
Archimandrite Agapious Abu Sa'ada, who is of the Greek Melkite Catholic Archeparchy
of Akko, told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Leinonen, a Finnish
political activist, says that he has asked the museum to remove the work, but
has not received a response. In a statement to The Art Newspaper, he said:
The news about the
demonstrations came to me as an upsetting surprise particularly because my work
is in the exhibition against my wishes. In September 2018, I asked the curator
Shaked Shamir to remove my work because I joined the Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions movement [against Israel]. The curator replied that she was sorry
about my decision and that my message had been forwarded to the management and
I assumed that the artwork had been taken out. When I heard that it is still in
the exhibition, and that there have been violent demonstrations around it, I
immediately sent the curator another request to remove it. I have not heard
anything back from the museum. I insist my work be taken out of the exhibition
instantly.
Nate Freeman
https://www.artsy.net/news/artsy-editorial-sculpture-crucified-ronald-mcdonald-drawn-violent-protests-israel-museum
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