Thursday, January 5, 2012
An example of artistic terrorism found in the US!
The Turkish Minister of Interior İdris Naim Şahin's new definitions of terrorism, which were condemned by academics, artists, and writers in Turkey and elsewhere, put GIT - North America to work. We searched for an example of terrorism in art, something that would explain what Mr. Şahin had meant when he claimed that some people support terrorism by twisting it, by making up justifications for it, and by rendering it reasonable. He had said: "And how do they achieve that? Maybe they paint their reflections on a canvas. ... Unable to slow down, they get carried away and try to demoralize the soldiers or the police, who fight against terrorism, by turning them [fighters] into the subject matter of their works of art." Luckily, we were able to nail down what Mr. Şahin had in mind. Below you see a photo collage that makes use of a digitized image of "The Death of Socrates" (1787) by Jacques-Louis David (the original is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York).
