Helsinki Censors Nude Model Installation

The capital of Finland is now the capital of art censorship, as Helsinki police have censored an art installation featuring an 83 year old nude woman. This art piece was displayed uncensored in eight other European cities, but the country that's so near to Russia yet so far from Japan isn't having any of it.

According to Ice News (link below), the police told the artist that the woman must wear underwear if she's going to be displayed in a glass enclosure in the town square.

Dries Verhoeven’s Ceci n’est pas mon corps (this is not my body) looks at how people deal with ageing. Normally, the old lady sits completely nude in the glass, wearing a mask with the face of a younger woman. However, Helsinki Police spokesman Tuomo Tuohimaa said that families with young children could be offended by the work.

Organisers, meanwhile, said it was the ninth city they had toured and the first where they had encountered any problems. They added that they would appeal the decision.

Verhoeven told reporters that he considered the police’s demand patronising. He said he felt the image he wanted to portray was “more beautiful than provoking”, but the police have decided that it would provoke people.

Man, the names in this story are great, aren't they? Dries Verhoeven, Tuomo Tuohimaa... it almost makes D'Brickashaw Ferguson's name seem conservative. Almost. 

Any way you slice it, this is censorship in its purest form. Telling any artist that they can continue to display their work provided they make a change to it that they're demanding is almost worse than just banning the piece outright. Get your shit together Helsinki!

Via Ice News