Gallery Majkens collective board statement
On the evening of Friday 30th of November, one day after the official opening of the show, Galleri Majkens was contacted by ABF Stockholm and ordered to take down the whole exhibition with immediate effect.
In a following phone call, Galleri Majkens was informed that they had broken ABF´s rules and lost their trust, while a direct connection with the content and form of the exhibition was specifically denied. Yet, the exhibition was immediately removed from ABFs event calendar without any further negotiations.
While both Galleri Majkens and ABF agreed to the occurence of miscommunication concerning the exact location of the show, and whether to include the staircase or not, ABF persisted on the exhibition itself being perfectly fine.
Still, members of Galleri Majkens board were forced to take down Rossana Mercado-Rojas exhibition on Sunday, December 2nd without being granted a meeting or any possibility to adjust to ABF´s claims. Just before the de-install-process it was discovered that ABF had covered both the abstracted vulva and the uterus Rossana Mercado-Rojas had painted in the staircase as a part of the exhibition design leading visitors down to the gallery space.
Galleri Majkens interprets this specific act as an act of censorship and would like to express their deep disappointment in ABF – who were fully aware of the fact they were hosting a feminist art gallery with an outspoken feminist agenda.
Furthermore, Galleri Majken’s board is distraught over the way this censorship and the cancellation of the exhibition was communicated and carried out.
Rossanaconda 