I got this email just now:
This morning, 20 October 2006, in Moscow, Matthew Bown, owner of the London based Matthew Bown Gallery, was removed from a plane bound for the UK and detained by Russian authorities for questioning. Bown was detained in connection with his attempt to export works by the provocative Russian art collective The Blue Noses. The works in question include satirical photographic images of presidents Bush and Putin, and of a suicide bomber in a burqa flashing her underwear. The works in question are intended for exhibition at the Matthew Bown gallery on the 9th of November 2006.
At the time of writing (17.30 Moscow time) Matthew Bown is undergoing further interrogation by Moscow airport police. When asked by Matthew Bown the reason for the delay and interrogation, he was told that “They contain representations of heads of state and this could not pass unnoticed.”
At present it seems that the works of the blue noses will not be allowed out of Russia.
The Blue Noses are known for their satirical and provocative videos, photographs and performances which parody and critique Russia’s past and its present day capitalist boom. Their targets include political leaders, sexual and political correctness, and the platitudes of art history. Using low-tech methods they ape the look of high-tec. The Blue Noses‘ intentions have always been to create work that can be understood and engaged with outside the restrictive realm of contemporary art; a populist approach for ‘pioneers and pensioners’. Their energy, black humour, irreverence and sense of the grotesque distill the spirit of Russian art (and life) today.
The world is a fucked up place.