[P2P-F] Fwd: <nettime> Janos Sugar sentenced for „Wash your dirty money with my art”

[Michel Bauwens]

thanks Dante!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Dante-Gabryell Monson <dante.monson at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Jun 3, 2011 at 6:28 AM
Subject: Fwd: <nettime> Janos Sugar sentenced for „Wash your dirty money
with my art”
To:




Forwarded conversation
Subject: <nettime> Janos Sugar sentenced for „Wash your dirty money with my
art”
------------------------

From: *Geert Lovink* <geert at xs4all.nl>
Date: Thu, Jun 2, 2011 at 11:29 AM
To: nettime-l at kein.org



Three years ago, on June 18, 2008 Hungarian artist János Sugár sprayed the
stenciled sentence „Wash your dirty money with my art” - sized 60 x 80 cm -
as part of the exhibition at Kunsthalle Budapest, and at the same time
illegally as a protest onto two private art institutions. One of those
institutions, VAM Design Center, Budapest, filed a lawsuit against the
artist, accusing him of vandalizing their building, arbitrarily estimating
the damage first at 500,000 HUF (approx. 2,500 USD), then after having seen
it on display at Kunsthalle Budapest, raised the value to 1,400,000 HUF
(approx. 7,800 USD), then court experts revised it to 214,000 HUF (approx.
1,200 USD), and a second expert opinion eventually further reduced it to
34,000 HUF (approx. 190 USD). The lawsuit brought the attention of the
public and the press to the work, and indirectly resulted in Ludwig Museum
of Contemporary Art, Budapest purchasing a paper version of the stencil
graffiti for their permanent collection.

The case was heard in court on April 22, 2011. During the hearing János
Sugár admitted, as he had done earlier, having sprayed the sentence, but
pleaded not guilty of vandalism, because he considered the act a work of
public art, being socially useful, generating discussion, and ultimately
stopping the controversial art management activity of VAM Design Center. The
judge did not take into consideration the public art aspect of the act, but
instead labeled it as graffiti vandalism. The court did not allow the
appearance of two expert witnesses of the defense: Prof. László Beke, art
historian, director of the Art History Research Institute of the Hungarian
Academy of Sciences; and Mr. Barnabás Bencsik, art historian, director of
 Ludwig Museum Budapest.

The court sentenced János Sugár to 5 months in jail, with two years
probation, along with a fine covering the cost of renovation, 34,000 HUF
(approx. 190 USD) plus legal costs. The judge considered it an aggravating
factor that the work is now on display in a museum; she blamed the artist
for making money out of vandalism and also pointed out that he is an art
professor who is setting a bad example to his students. Since January 1,
2011, parliament passed a new law against graffiti in Hungary: regardless of
the damage caused, those who are caught doing graffiti/street art can also
be sentenced to a maximum of one year in jail.

János Sugár is appealing against the sentence.

See also:
http://www.artmargins.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=180%3Awash-your-dirty-money-with-my-art-freedom-of-speech-or-new-censorship&Itemid=94





#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime>  is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime at kein.org

----------
From: *Armin Medosch* <armin at easynet.co.uk>
Date: Thu, Jun 2, 2011 at 1:56 PM
To: nettime-l <nettime-l at kein.org>


Geert,

thanks for informing us about this, is there anything that we (meaning
net critical intellectuals) can do? Does this sentence mean, if
confirmed, that Janos actually has to go to jail or is it a suspended
sentence? Is there any organised support campaign?

cheers
Armin
 <...>

----------
From: *Calin Dan* <adsl487504 at tiscali.nl>
Date: Thu, Jun 2, 2011 at 6:01 PM
To: nettime-l <nettime-l at kein.org>


I think Janos himself is best positioned to say what would help his case,
but if I read correctly his interview, and also based on what I know about
the situation in that region, raising the political awareness of the
(informed) audiences beyond the tame level of politically correct art
gatherings remains an issue, even more than in our sedated West.

Addressing that is complex and time consuming. This particular case might
need quicker reactions. The well known and a bit tired support letter?

----- Original Message ----- From: "Armin Medosch" <armin at easynet.co.uk>
To: "nettime-l" <nettime-l at kein.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2011 1:56 PM
Subject: Re: <nettime> Janos Sugar sentenced for „Wash your dirty money with
my art”





-- 
P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net

Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss:
http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation

Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens;
http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://lists.ourproject.org/pipermail/p2p-foundation/attachments/20110603/97b921ef/attachment.htm