Artist Accuses Mercedes of Censorship

A

n artist is upset with the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art because he says his work was censored by the museum to appease sponsor Mercedes-Benz.

Chris Silva was invited to show off his work at the museum's "Transmission L.A." exhibit, which was put together by Beastie Boy Mike D. One part of the two-week exhibit, called BYOB or "Bring Your Own Beamer," involved projection art, and Silva had planned to show off a 3-D wire model of a Peugeot race car. He found his projector blocked by a postcard though, and when he removed it, he was confronted by event organizers. He claims they told him he couldn't speak to a Mercedes rep because the rep was, in Silva's words, "pissed."

Silva had planned to show off a 3-D wire model of a Peugeot race car.

Silva gave his side of the story to Art Info, and the museum didn't comment for the story. We reached out to Mercedes-Benz, and a spokesman told us this: "So much of this is hearsay—we tried to get to the bottom of it. What we've ascertained is that the person who approached the artist was a third-party agency person and they did not have any authority nor represented our point of view. Jeffrey Deitch from MOCA sent the artist an apology on behalf of everyone involved."

We reached out to Silva, and he told us that he did receive the apology from Deitch but plans to send a letter to Mercedes-Benz.

[Source: Art Info]