Schutzloses (01) (Untprotected (01)) (photograph)
Date: 2002
Region: Europe
Subject: Explicit Sexuality
Medium: Mixed Media, Photography, Electronic Media
Artist: Ilona Johanna Plattner
Confronting Bodies: Kunsthaus Essen
Dates of Action: ca. 10/18/2002
Location: Kunsthaus Essen
Description of Artwork: The digital print shows a child swimming on her back in a swimming pool. The body is under the waterline, the head is a bit outside but the ears are underwater too.
The Incident: An anonymous visitor of the jubilee exhibition of the Kunsthaus Essen, Germany, felt offended by the artworks of two artists - one of them Ilona Johanna Plattner - in the exhibition concerning a putative case of pornography with childs.
The denouncer wrote letters to a newspaper, an important museum (supporting the show) nearby, the most important sponsors, the lordmayor and the person who's responsible for cultural affairs in the city of Essen. Furthermore he brought the "case" to the police.
In the case of Mat Vaassen, the other artist, the public prosecutor decided that his work is pornography with childs but not in the case of Ilona Plattner.
In spite of this decision by the law the Kunsthaus Essen team took Ilona Plattner's work out of the exhibition without another reason that the team made this decision.
Results of Incident: No more work of Ilona Johanna Plattner in that exhibition.
Source: Personal contact with the artist
