Photo Gallery: No Surrender for Danish Art Group

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A Berlin gallery has closed an exhibition of satirical art by the controversial Danish group Surrend after receiving threats from a group of Muslims.

Foto: AP

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The gallery decided to close the exhibition on Tuesday after a group of men came to the gallery and demanded that one of the images in the exhibition be removed. The picture shows the black cube-shaped structure known as the Kaaba in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, under the headline "Dumb Stone." The men, who are believed to be Muslims, are reported to have threatened the staff with violence if the picture was not taken down.

Foto: DPA

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Jan Egesborg from Surrend told SPIEGEL ONLINE Friday that the group fully supported the decision to close the exhibition. "It was a very explosive situation," he said.

Foto: DDP

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Egesborg, who is one of the four artists who created the works in the exhibition, stressed that the art was not intended to be anti-Muslim. Instead, it was intended to satirize the far-right "Zionist Occupied Government" (ZOG) conspiracy theory, which holds that groups of Jews are secretly running certain countries. "If we were trying to provoke anyone, then it was the neo-Nazis," Egesborg said.

Foto: DDP

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The gallery is now in negotiations with the Berlin authorities in a bid to get 24-hour police protection, so that the exhibition can be re-opened, hopefully by Tuesday of next week.

Foto: AFP

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It is not the first time that the Surrend artists have courted controversy. In January, they put up posters in Copenhagen showing the Danish royal family guillotined. In recent years they have made headlines with edgy works such as a satirical advertisement against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad which was printed in an Iranian newspaper and street art in Berlin satirizing German neo-Nazis.

Foto: AFP

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Egesborg says it is vital the Berlin exhibition continue. "If the radical Muslims are successful, then it means a mob can curate an exhibition in a museum," he said. "It would be dangerous for art in Europe, as it would give a good example of what threats can achieve."

Foto: DDP