ePaper
Subscribe
Newsletters
Search
Profile
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Vermeer
Adventures with Van Gogh
Russia-Ukraine war
Subscribe
ePaper
Newsletters
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Vermeer
Adventures with Van Gogh
Russia-Ukraine war
Marina Abramovic
news

‘We’re all in the same boat’: Marina Abramovic poster angers Italian right-wing politician

Trieste deputy mayor Paolo Polidori calls image commissioned for sailing regatta “political propaganda”

Gareth Harris and Hannah McGivern
13 August 2018
Share
Abramovic's poster has sparked controversy in light of Italy's hard-line stance against migrant rescue ships

Abramovic's poster has sparked controversy in light of Italy's hard-line stance against migrant rescue ships

A poster designed by the artist Marina Abramovic for the Barcolana sailing regatta in the Gulf of Trieste has sparked a political row in Italy, as the city’s right-wing deputy mayor raised objections to its slogan of solidarity: “We’re all in the same boat”.

Every year, the event’s organisers commission an artist to create the poster for the historic race, which was first held in 1969 in northern Italy and has become one of the world’s biggest sailing regattas. Abramovic’s design for the 50th edition this October—developed in collaboration with the coffee brand Illy—was unveiled in July as a “universal” message promoting respect for the environment.

But weeks after Italy’s foreign minister and leader of the far-right Lega party, Matteo Salvini, had announced that Italian ports would be closed to migrant rescue ships, Trieste’s Lega deputy mayor, Paolo Polidori, took to Facebook to criticise Abramovic’s poster. Polidori wrote that it was: “Unacceptable, in bad taste, immoral to make political propaganda out of an event, the Barcolana, that belongs to the entire city”. In another post, he compared the poster to a Communist image of Chairman Mao Zedong.

According to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Polidori said that the poster should be removed from leaflets, invitations and official brochures and “banned: in Trieste and the rest of the world”. He reportedly threatened to withdraw city council funding for the event totalling €30,000.

Last week, Polidori said on Facebook that the issue had been resolved a month ago and that “the poster…a horrible as well as misleadingly political work, will not be present on the territory of Trieste”. He denied having threatened to pull funding from the Barcolana. When asked if he approved of Abramovic’s poster, he declined to comment.

A spokeswoman for the regatta insists that the poster has not been withdrawn or censored and stresses that it will be used for “national and international” marketing of the Barcolana as planned. Abramovic was unavailable for comment.

UPDATE (14 August): Abramovic has since declined to comment.

Marina AbramovicPoliticsCensorshipControversiesItaly
Share
Subscribe to The Art Newspaper’s digital newsletter for your daily digest of essential news, views and analysis from the international art world delivered directly to your inbox.
Newsletter sign-up
Information
About
Contact
Cookie policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions
Advertise
Sister Papers
Sponsorship policy
Follow us
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
YouTube
LinkedIn
© The Art Newspaper