Miami Art Basel Brutality

The news out of Art Basel Miami would seem to be all economic and not controversial if you were to only depend on art sites like Artnet or Hyperallergic. But the most significant story ignored by these sites was covered by The Guardian at this link – https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/05/miami-panmela-castro-mural-rio-de-janeiro-removed. The report covers censorship of a mural for the fair by Brazilian artist Panmela Castro depicting an instance of police brutality in Rio de Janeiro. Local Miami police only “complained” about the mural’s content before, according to the report, managers of the ‘Aria 21’ parking section of Art Basel immediately ordered it be painted over, allegedly in order to not “jeopardize good relations with police”. In our times of political tyranny, police militarization, and the Black Lives Matter movement it is imperative that such complicit oppression and suppression of art by police groups instead be denounced and amplified in attention to the public. Especially when the art in question is only being critical of illegal practices and policies involving police in order to correct them. It is not right that an original police crime of brutalization in another country be compounded by local police censorship. It stands to reason that Miami police sympathize and imitate the brutal tactics depicted and so do not want them idolized and immortalized in a local public mural. Shame on Aria 21 and Miami Art Basel for not supporting political art and surrendering to pressure from police. This is not what an Art Fair should stand for, but it is past time to recognize Miami Art Basel for the base commercial venture it really is and not the cultural icon it aspires to be. Real Art is increasing the already great distance from such events when Art Fairs sanction censorship such as this.