Absurdity in extremis
An exhibition has been closed in
The show by Danish collective Surrend is aimed at depicting what they say is the absurdity of extremism in all religions.
One of the 21 photos is of the Kaaba - the cube-shaped building inside the Grande Mosque in
Apparently the Muslims don’t agree that their holy site is stupid, and the exhibitors fear some Muslims may get carried away expressing their disagreement. Probably most Christians and Jews don’t believe that their holy sites are stupid either. Who knew?
This comes in the wake of Mozart’s opera Idomeneo being canceled in
But the exhibitors have caved to Muslim threats, and we are left to ponder the lessons. Some Muslims will learn the lesson that the art world is easily intimidated while reminding us that they do not follow Western conventions of civil discourse. What lessons will the artists take? Based on descriptions of the photos in the news, the exhibition presented aesthetically immature art perhaps more suitable to bumper stickers. The artists will surely feel vindicated concerning the absurdity of religious extremism, and then they will probably continue to lampoon Christianity and Judaism while steering clear of Islam. We can be reasonably sure that the lessons they take from this event will not include anything about the extreme absurdity of their own art.
Who ultimately escapes with their reputation unscathed? Not the Muslims, not the artists participating in this exhibit, but the religions with the confidence to rest their case on the testimony of far better artists over centuries of time.
