Dear friends,

I went to the new Galerie Nord/Kunstverein Tiergarten exhibition “Sag mir wer du bist” – translated into: “tell me who you are”, which opened yesterday, April 9th. The interesting thing about this exhibition is the fact that it has been concieved in only an extremely short period of time… Why is that?!?!? O.K. let’s start from the beginning…

The previous exhibition in Galerie Nord was entitled: “ZOG – surrend – subversive Praxis im oeffentlichem Raum“. The exhibition was done by a Danish group called “surrend”. They used a very direct way to talk about or maybe even criticize religious and cultural phenomenons as well as social and group behaviour… so one of the photographic media used in the exhibition was a sort of “triptycon” portraying, among other things, a very direct comment or joke or whatever (depending how you want to interpret it) about the Mecca. Needless to say, the Moabit/Tiergarten/Berlin Muslim community flipped out and started menacing the gallery until it was forced to close the exhibition for over a week, until it got protection from the police and could reopen again.

And so, the press went crazy, television crews were on the spot a lot, filming, interviewing… and so on. The gallery made a record of 1700 visitors but had to cancel the following exhibition and trade it in for a Muslim community friendly and productive project which opened to the public yesterday evening.

having cleared that, I have to say that I was very skeptic about a quick “ready to wear” concept to calm down the masses… but I must admit that it was very interesting to be there and see it, even though the opening was poorly attended to. The walls of the main hall of the gallery are filled with information sheets about Muslim integration and history and there are posters that deal with the same topic, made by kids at school and so on… all in all a very didactic exhibit without any pleasure for the aesthetic searching visitor.

The really fabulous thing in the exhibition was… and here is the reason I am really writing this comment, was a group of very young, under eighteen, teenagers from the “kiez” – “neighborhood” rapping and hip-hopping about the situation in the world… you know… freedom, integration, poverty and all that stuff. They were amazing, a bit shy and with the typical posse ghetto attitude, with their strict dress codes and smoking cigarettes in front of everybody… little rebels! So they stood in the center of the gallery and started their performance and I just thought it was amazing. I would keep them in the gallery as a living installation throughout the entire exhibition. Just observing their behaviour and language was interesting and aesthetic enough to fill the whole space. And they even wrote their texts themselves. So what seemed to be an apologetic exhibition opening, turned into a great surprise. It was refreshing and pure and yet not in the least pretentious. Go see it and hope they put at least the documentation video on display for us to watch…

Kiss.

Ivan

Written in Spring 2007

By Amy Sondova You’d think that most teenagers would be awestruck if one of their youth leaders was a Dove Award-winning, worship artist. But the teens in Jeff Deyo’s youth group think of him as, well, just Jeff. A volunteer youth leader for the past 12 years, the former front man of SonicFlood and internationally known songwriter spends his Wednesday evenings with his church’s youth group—praying with and encouraging teens. Deyo says that his teens help keep him grounded, “It’s not always what you’re looking for because as an artist, you want people to be impressed with you, but it’s good to have people in your life who aren’t that impressed with what you do. Then again, there are plenty who are deeply impressed with Jeff Deyo, his music, and his new album, Unveil. The album is Deyo’s third solo studio project following his live release, Surrender (2005) and his solo albums, Light (2004) and Saturate (2002). However, it was a self-titled debut from a band called SonicFlood that first launched Deyo into the spotlight and started a huge movement within Christian movement: modern worship.

Heralded as one of the pioneers of modern worship, Deyo humbly states, “My hope that modern worship is something that has existed from day one and will always exist. It’s not like we started modern worship in any sense because whatever is of today is modern.” Adding that when the hymns were first written, they were cutting-edge, Deyo only sees himself as making fresh expressions of faith for the current generation. However, Deyo also acknowledges that SonicFlood started something big, “Maybe there’s an awakening we helped stir up, but again it wasn’t something we were necessarily setting out to do. We were passionate for God and it came out in a musical style that we liked and that was SonicFlood.”

Even though Deyo’s been a major influence in the modern worship movement, he’s not as well-known as artists who have taken a cue from him or even covered his songs, like Chris Tomlin and David Crowder. “There are other artists who are extremely successful and there’s a temptation then to go, ‘Okay, that’s what’s working, so let’s do that,” Deyo says. Offering music that is more artistic and technically difficult can also be difficult for worship pastors and worship bands to play and reproduce for their congregations. “There’s this rub in me,” explains Deyo. “I want to create stuff that’s new and different with interesting chordal progressions and stuff that might be a little more challenging musically, but at the same time I don’t want to push people away who don’t have the same technical ability that we do.” For Deyo, it’s always about the worship experience.

Deyo’s passion is evident in Unveil, the end result of over two and a half years of songwriting. “Unveil is about the idea of seeing things the way that God sees them,” Deyo explains. There’s an unveiling process that happens on the journey of believers, an awakening that happens over and over again.” In the same way, this album was “unveiled” song by song, starting with the title track.

Produced by newcomer Josh “The Kurnoll” Deane, Unveil has a different sound than other worship albums on the market. Choosing not to co-produce, Deyo instead decided to go with The Kurnoll, whose work on indie projects offered Unveil a different sound unique to the worship genre. “Even though I think I’m known musically as the rock guy, I think this new record has more of a rock edge than the others. I wanted to get a whole different take on worship with this record,” Deyo says.

Taking a risk by creatively moving music forward instead of playing it safe with formulas, Deyo ushers integrity and artistic talent back into the music scene. “Everything I put my hand to, I want it to be excellent, whether I’m mowing my grass or making music or worshiping God.” It’s not that Deyo has a problem with doing covers of popular songs, considering SonicFlood did seven covers on their debut album, it’s just that there’s nothing new to produce. Plus, Deyo loves the writing process.

Coming before a holy God in worship is serious business and far too many Christians approach God lackadaisically. “There’s another side to God that is holy and is King and deserves reverence. I feel like we need to bring the full expression of who God is to worship,” adamantly states Deyo. Feeling that far too many worship songs focus on self, Deyo intentionally seeks to give God the glory, honor, and praise that are due a King.

And that’s what Unveil is all about: not only the constant unveiling of our faith, but also expressing our faith in reverence, awe, and wonder. One of the album’s songs, “Glory” is a two-fold approach of not only crying out, “Glory to God”, but also asking God to see His glory as the prophet Moses so boldly requested. Deyo says, “Part of writing ‘Glory’ was a desire to say, ‘Man, one day the earth we know—everything we touch and see is going to collide with the spirit world. The sky is really going to crack open and Jesus is going to call us to himself and we’re going to meet Him in the air. That was my heart in writing ‘Glory.’”

Instead of saturating his songs with self-focused lyrics, Deyo instead chooses to focus on the many facets of an infinite God in songs like “Nothing on Earth” and “You are God.” He says, “I believe that if we get a hold of who God really is that’s going to affect how we live. My heart is to show who God is through songs like ‘You are God.’” Citing Psalm 29 as one of the Bible passages that inspired the song, Deyo shares that he wants to talk about some of the big and uncomfortable ways that God is God.

“God doesn’t need our songs and our church attendance; He’s not in need of anything. I want to bring to light as we worship God some of the elements that are not talked about as much. He is a God of holiness—that’s part of what keeps the depth in these lyrics and makes the songs not so me-focused, like poor ol’ me or ‘Whoops! I blew it again, God!’” further articulates the ever-animated Deyo.

It’s not the music with its interesting chordal progressions, rock edge, and depthy lyrics that make Unveil great—it’s also the heart of the man behind the album. Well-spoken, expressive, and amusing, it’s no wonder the teens at Deyo’s youth group love him, whether or not they know he’s famous. However, every so often, one of Deyo’s teens discovers that he is more than just another Nashville songwriter. While laughing heartily Deyo shares, “I had a kid come up to me a couple of years ago, who had known me for three or four years and say, ‘Now I heard your songs are actually on the radio, is that right? I thought it was just here in Nashville, but like, all over the country?’”

Print copy of interview.

Det er det rene vanvid at tegneren Kurt Westergaard har være udsat for dødstrusler, og skal leve under beskyttelsen fra PET. Det har også været en helt unødvendig siuation som embedsmænd i Århus kommune har brage Kurt Westergaards kone i ved en noget klodset bortvisning. Heldigvis blev denne beslutning ændret straks, da den kom til rådmand Louise Gades kendskab. Da Kurt Westergard var på ved til kaffe hos borgmester Nicolai Wammen,fredag konstantere han tørt at nu har sagen da fået en happy endding..

Der er ikke tvivl om at pressen er i deres gode ret til at trykke den eller de berømte karikaturtegninger, som Jyllands posten allerede gjorde i 2005. Tilgængæld syntes jeg når stort set alle aviser laver et genoptryk, af en eller flere af karakikaturtegninger af Muhammed, så optræder den samlede presse som en flok store drenge i skolegården, der vise sig.  

Helt ærligt -  Hvis er det enste pressen kan, når det gælder ytringfriheden, så ser det godt nok sølle ud!!!

Der er mennensker i Danmark som ingen gang KAN ytre sig og bliver mast i “System Danmark”, for dem findes ingen ytringsfrihed. Det kunne være en ide at pressen begyndt på noget opsøgende arbejde,og finde frem disse mennekser, som ikke danser med livet. Her kan man tale om ytringsfrihed og en begrænsning af denne.Det kræver tilgæld mere arbejde i marken – Det er her det kniber for “Presse Danmark”

Det er også et pardoks at hele den dansk presse, på det nærmste hylder Morgenavisen Jyllands Posten. Hvorfor var det tegninger blev bestilt i sin tid ? Var det en ikke provokation ? Det mener tidligere udenrigsministe Uffe Ellemann-Jensen og han har nogle gode argumenter på hånden. JP har skrevet side op og siden ned og angrebet Uffe Ellemann- Jensen for hans holdninger.

JP stillede krav til at Danmarks Radio, bragte et genmægle når de sendt Uffe Ellemanns foredrag på radioen P1, hvor han fortale om hans syn på Jyllands Posten provokationer. Dette vil DR naturligvis ikke. Det kan også undre at det kun var DR som skulle komme med et genmægle, når Uffe Ellemann-Jensen fordrags række også blev vist på  DK 4.- Så hvem sagde ytringfrihed i denne sag ? Det hele kulminerede med at Uffe Ellemann sagde til JP – “Hvis i har nogle problmer med mig, må i anlægge sag mod mig”

Desuden kan det også undre, at den øvrige presse, i hele denne sag, hvor JP er part ikke er mere kritiks over for avisen og dens troværdighed. Det har den tidliger været, bl.a fordi avisens politisk kommentator Ralf Pittelkow dele seng, husholdning og forfatterskab med landet Velfærdminister, og ledelsen af JP ikke finder dette betænkeligt i forhold til at være objektiv.

Der må absolut være tale om Jyllands Postens ledelses er uobjektivitet som helhed, når den ikke kan indse dette problem med Jespersen/Pittelkow. Dette forkommer ikke i øvrige medier, da det netop stiller stor tvivl om adskilles af magthavernes rolle og den frie og uafhænige presse, anset politisk tilhørsforhold…

Hvad der gør mig rasende både som kunstner og frihedselsker var da jeg hørte der igen kom trusler mod kunstner, denne gang mod den dansk kunstnergruppen surrend, som udstiller på et galleri i Berlin. Endnu engang var det ekstreme muslimer. De skal ikke bestemme, hvad der skal udstilles i Europa. Desuden er udstillingen i Berlin ikke rettet spefik mod muslimer eller mekka, men den skal ses som en helhed, hvor både statsminstrene, kongehuset, Bush, jøder og meget mere indgår….

Nu må truslerne ganske enkelt hører op …

“It was a very explosive situation,” artist Jan Egesborg, whose satirical art group Surrend created the Berlin Galerie Nord exhibition, told German newsmagazine Der Spiegel. He just had been confronted with unruly objections by pious adversaries of satire. Being Danish, irreverent to authorities–both religious and secular–, and having been a journalist for Jyllands Posten certainly didn’t help. “We don’t want to be part of the current Islamophobic tendency in Europe. We weren’t trying to provoke Muslims. [...] If we were trying to provoke anyone, then it was the neo-Nazis,” Egesborg said. He described the exhibition, which also satirizes Jewish extremists, as “very balanced,” adding: “That’s why the attack is so ignorant. We are surprised as a group by the reaction.” And why shouldn’t he.

Being nice to the naughties is one funny attitude. Noel Coward knew that in 1945 already: Don’t Let’s Be Beastly to the Germans. Enraged communities and their grievances being–pardon the pun–all the rage of our time, some things just never seem to go out of style.

Este caso é outra interessante manifestação dos conflitos que se desenham quando liberdade de expressão e sentimentos religiosos entram em confronto, no entanto a situação tomou um rumo muito diferente do caso Viradouro x Comunidade Judaíca do Rio de Janeiro, os motivos e sintomas disto você vai entender no texto abaixo.

Surrend strikes again…

O Grupo Dinamarques Surrend já é famoso pelas pegadinhas e performances artísticas que aprontam mundo afora, nem o Ahmadinedjad escapou das aprontações do grupo…como você pode ver ai abaixo…

A foto não é nova, ela é de Dezembro de 2006, esta eu pesquei nos meus arquivos pessoais:

Artigo publicado no Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung…