Some obscurantism on artistic works are appearing in social networks, enraged art critics. So it is with the censorship by Facebook and Instagram of the nude artistic s works of Antonio Canova (Possagno, Treviso, 1757 – Venice, 1822), sculptor and Italian painter, considered to be the ultimate from neoclassicism in sculpture.
The famous art critic, Vittorio Sgarbi , president of the Foundation Canova of Possagno, birthplace of the artist, has unleashed rage against Facebook and Instagram, announcing that it will lead to the courts. For Sgarbi, the algorithm of these two platforms is like a "goat".
"If the algorithm is so goat that is not able to distinguish between pornography and art, what should the Museum of Canova? What should be closed or cover the sculptures ?", ask Vittorio Sgarbi. "It is unacceptable which social networks are popular, rich and technologically advanced as Facebook and Instagram are not yet able to find a solution to distinguish between an image porno and a work of art," he said with anger the critic.
"For this reason –he added-, considering that the redactions are repeated continuously, I have decided to promote a legal action for the damage this lacuna cause to the world of art and all of the operators, performers included. We have had too much damage to image. We now bring to court to Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook".
Censorship of masterpiecesVittorio Sgarbi may not understand that masterpieces are universal, as "Adonis and Venus" (1794) or the sculptural group " "Eros and Psyche" –also called "Psyche revived by the kiss of love", which represents the story of Cupid and Psyche "Metamorphosis" apuleius', they are censored automatically in the above-mentioned social networks because their algorithm does not know to distinguish between the production and the artistic and the pornographic.
"there Are too many of the problems that we created. In practice, we can not do marketing on the website of the museum and increase our followers. In consequence, according to the mayor of Possagno, Valerio Favero, we have decided to claim to Facebook and Instagram for the damage ", has filed the critic Sgarbi.
"From a year ago, we can't promote events where on the cover appear the sculptures preserved in the Gypsotheca because they are defined in highly responsive ," confirms Laura Casarsa, communication officer of the museum.
Precisely, the Gypsotheca, a building a basilica belonging to the museum, to receive the plaster models, sketches, terra-cotta and marble, of the celebrated artist, a set of absolute beauty, can't promote in those platforms. Which leads to this censorship is that if we look at Instagram the hashtag #antoniocanova, only appear the post more popular but are censored the most recent . For example, if the Museum of Possagno is intended to display a photo with "The Three Graces" , sculptural group with three goddesses nude Greek mythology, it would be obscured by the algorithm on Instagram. This does not happen, for example, with #this, #caravaggio or #michelangelo.
Desnuro art and pornographyat the protest of the museum and the municipality of Possagno, Facebook gave this explanation , according to the mayor Valerio Favero: "We have said that we are to understand the situation, but it is not possible to intervene because it is an algorithm, a machine, on which the brain of a person can't do anything. On the part of Instagram, still get no answer”.
censorship of the algorithm in Silicon Valley with masterpieces of the Museum of Canova raises a problem that already emerged in previous cases. For example, in 2017, Marco Goldin, the organizer of art exhibitions, denounced the censorship of the image of "The kiss" of Augustine Rodin in an exhibition in Treviso.
ironically, the critic Sgarbi says: "If the networks are not capable of making a distinction between the nude by Canova and youporn is just that we go to the courts." It concludes with a reflection that this is a hard criticism of Facebook : "This social network would be a work meritorious and could brag about promoting the art instead of stupidity , not to say false news, published every day by millions of users who do not have anything else to do. The paradox of social networks is that they block the works of art, but not the false news".
Vittorio Sgarbi know that it will not influence the algorithm of the Silicon Valley, but "at least we hope to cultivate a little healthy critical sense". For the moment, the hashtag #freeantoniocanova ("Antonio Canova-free") opens step in the networks to cry out against censorship in art.
Date Of Update: 26 September 2019, 11:01
