Lars Vilks took an example from Finland – “Something must be wrong”
Teppo Ovaskainen
Created: 14/04/2015 16:16
Photo: Peter Paalasmaa / New Finland
Controverisal Swedish artist Lars Vilks in his visit to Helsinki, raised the case of his Finnish colleague, artist Ulla Karttunen, as an example of the problems of freedom of speech and restriction in European democracies.
Vilks, who drew Islam’s prophet Muhammad as a dog has been living for years with police protection from the threat of murder and assassination attempts by Islamic extremists against him. Last February in Copenhagen a gunman struck an event where Vilks visited.
In Helsinki Vilks spoke about freedom of speech limitations in a broader context than Islam or extremist Islamist’s point of view.
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For example, Vilks raised Ulla Karttunen’s recent work of the Virgin Whore Church, of which parts the police confiscated. Karttunen’s installation, which took advantage of the the footage discovered on the internet, which according to Vilks was an art project criticizing pedophilia and the availability of it online.
– He was clearly critical of the situation and how easy it is to get the footage from the Internet, Vilks said in his speech.
– But the Finnish police accused her of pedophilia and she was also sentenced, Vilks wondered.
Artist Karttunen was in 2008 charged with possession of child pornography and its distribution.
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According to Vilks of the case is a good example of how the context does not need to be taken into account when freedom of expression is interpreted and limited to the Western world. He called for debate and reflection on the rules you need to follow when it comes to freedom of expression and restrict it.
Vilks also raised the issue about the number of police cars in the convoy, which surrounded the event.
– Some must be wrong with the state of freedom of expression, he said.
– Being in the same room with me you are you at risk. Here’s how terrorism works, which results in self-censorship.
Vilksin believes that Western countries have limited themselves with the freedom of expression. In his opinion, for example, interpretations of the ban of drawing Islam’s Prophet Muhammad should not be respected by limiting cartoons and satirical publications.
– We are doing wrong with the Prophet. We should publish more, not less, photos, Vilks said.
– If they are published everywhere, people will tire of them.
Vilks believes that the wide release of cartoons does not lead to conflict, but solves it.
– The reaction would be different than people believe.
