The White House published on August 21, the article “President Trump is right about the Smithsonian” with a list of exhibitions, programming and works of art of the Smithsonian that he considered Censurablea week after announcing that Eight museums of the institution had to present their current wall texts and future exhibition plans for a thorough review.
When the artist Felipe “Fegggo” Galindo, Resident in Manhattan, he learned of a friend that his 1999 work, “July 4 from the southern border”, It was included in the White House list, He felt a mixture of shock, fear and confusion.
The work was exhibited in “Present! A Latin history of the United States”, An exhibition that anticipated the next inauguration of the Smithsonian Museum of American History and that was closed, according to Galindo in A publication on Instagram in which he thanks important US media that supported him.
In A statement sent by email to the opinion, Galindo explains his reaction upon learning that Trump’s government considered his work as “unacceptable” and included it in “a list of censurable works, extracted from ‘The Federalist’a conservative publication, where my image was described as “promotes open borders by showing migrants observing artificial fires through an opening in the border wall between the United States and Mexico.”
The work, of which a detail can be seen in the main image at the beginningshows a child admiring the fireworks of July 4 through a US flag -shaped fence on the border between the United States and Mexico, wishing to be in the United States.
“I created this image in 1999 and, since then, extensively has been exhibited and published in the United States and abroad. It belongs to my series “Manhattan: Mexican cultures and Americans intertwined ”, a drawing project, animations and a book that have received numerous awards, has been widely exhibited and is in public and private collections, including the library of the United States Congress,” Galindo said in his statement.
“I am proud of this work and being a Mexican and American citizen. However, today I also feel vulnerable. I can’t help asking me: did the artists of Hitler’s Germany felt when his works were labeled as” degenerate art “?
“My answer is simple: art is powerful. Artists should not be harassed, censored or silenced. Freedom of expression is a fundamental pillar of democracy and any attempt to suppress it must be firmly resisted,” Galindo said.
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