On Thu, Oct 7, 2010 at 3:05 AM, Enrique Chagoya <echagoya@stanford.edu> wrote:
Dear Friends,
Sadly, today in the afternoon a woman armed with a crowbar attacked my book "The Misadventures of the romantic Cannibals" at the Loveland Art Museum, in Loveland, Colorado, and apparently broke the plexiglas box, took the book and thorn it to pieces. Luckily the book is a multiple hand made lithograph and although there are only limited copies of the book it can be replaced by an equal print. The book is included in a group exhibition with the prints published by Shark's Ink (see sharksink.com)
I am worry that our first amendment rights are also attacked by the same crowbar. I am in shock, and fear for the personal security of the museum's staff, publisher, and myself since this has been an orchestrated attack by a national religious organization with fanatics everywhere.
There was a great article from this morning (Wednesday October 6) at the Huffington Post by Leanne Goebel that was the most balanced piece done so far. The rest of the media (with few other exceptions like A.P. which also has been balanced) has been demonizing the piece with complete fabrications and false descriptions. Just google it to read more about it (my name and Loveland) and check the Huffington Post article by Goebel. There is already some late news about the vandalizing, and by Thursday there will be more about it. As I said to the press, my book is a critique to institutional and spiritual corruption in religious organizations and not an attack on anybody's beliefs and opinions which I respect, and I been keeping my hope that people will respect mine (but clearly it has not been the case).
I don't take our rights for granted, and I will keep exercising my freedom of speech right by replacing the work with a similar copy in the show in spite of all this extreme reactions (and I hope the museum agrees).
Thank you all for your supportive e-mails. They are a relief in the middle of all the hate/racist e-mail I keep getting. Luckily I also got much support from artists, art professionals, and even a Pastor in Loveland who agrees with my explanation of my work who is inviting me to do a painting for his Church. There is hope.
Enrique Chagoya
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