Borås city’s head of culture Ida Burén has stopped parts of Sadaf Ahmadi’s exhibition from being displayed near the entrance to the city’s cultural center. After the incident received media attention, Sadaf Ahmadi was offered another place in the cultural center for the exhibition.
— Right now we are trying to look at alternative solutions. There is a common will to solve this in the best way. We’ll see how it turns out, says Ida Burén to BT.
“Censored”
But that proposal is dismissed by the artist.
— Ida Burén says that they don’t think art should be shown in an open place, but behind a closed door. I feel like she sees it as a way to just get rid of the problem, she tells BT and continues:
— But showing the art in a basement room, a black box, it just gave me the feeling that I’m being censored again and that I’m placing all these women like statues in a cell. It feels like I’m being put in prison. And I don’t think that’s a good idea. I will not agree to that.
Nobbar SD in the EU
Sadaf Ahmadi has been offered to exhibit his art in the European Parliament by EU Member of Parliament Charlie Weimers (SD). But she has refused that.
Sadaf Ahmadi has previously exhibited her sculptures, depicting women in the Iranian chador, a full-covering veil, in various locations in France.
But in the hometown of Borås, the municipality believes that part of the exhibition cannot be carried out in a central place in the cultural center with reference to the security situation after the Koran burnings and because people could be injured, Borås Tidning reports.