We disembark in Barcelona, and while some passengers head to the Gaudi House Museum or the Picasso Museum, I have my sights on another – the museum that shouldn’t exist. The one the authorities don’t want us to see.
Housing more than 200 artworks, which have been censored, attacked, denounced or removed from exhibition, the Museu de l’Art Prohibit (Museum of Prohibited Art) is a beacon for creativity and defiance. I can’t get there fast enough.
From the outside, the ornate, five-storey building is typical of the early 20th-century townhouses of Barcelona’s Eixample district. Only a discreet, danger-red sign – Museu de l’Art Prohibit – with a black line through it, hints at the illicit treasures within.
Ai Weiwei’s portrait Filippo Strozzi in Lego (2016).
Inside, the collection brings together paintings, photographs, sculptures, engravings and audiovisual pieces from the 18th to 21st centuries. While some works are by iconic artists such as Pablo Picasso and Gustav Klimt, and others by activists such as Banksy and Ai Weiwei, all invite the viewer to condemn injustices that exist in the world. And to defend the arts against censorship.
Billed as the only museum in the world exclusively dedicated to art that has been censored, the collection, which was initiated by Catalan journalist and entrepreneur Tatxo Benet, opened in late 2023.
I start with French-Algerian artist Zoulikha Bouabdellah’s installation of 30 modified prayer rugs, the cut-out circles and gilded stilettos sending a message about the role of Muslim women and cultural identity. Titled Silence Rouge et Bleu (2014) it was shown in Clichy, France, but later removed by the artist herself when the town council feared violent reactions to the artwork.
The installation by French-Algerian artist Zoulikha Bouabdellah – Silence Rouge et Bleu (2014).
Not so easily censored was the US-based, Australian artist Illma Gore, who, in 2016 posted Make America Great Again, an unflattering illustration of a naked Donald Trump with a noticeably small penis, on her Facebook page. After receiving death threats and risking prosecution, the artist gave the one-finger salute to suppression and turned the portrait into a 3D painting. I cannot unsee the sight of a naked Trump doing pirouettes in life-like 3D.
Ai Weiwei’s portrait Filippo Strozzi in Lego (2016) is an eye-catching composition of Lego pieces depicting a political dissident from the Renaissance era who was persecuted for his ideas. When Lego refused to supply a bulk order to the artist, alleging that it did not want to “participate in political initiatives”, Ai appealed to the public to donate pieces of Lego so he could finish the works.