Shanghai'd

I arrived home today after a long meeting to discover an email that started like this:

Dear One Minute maker,

Congratulations !!!!
Your One Minute is in this exhibition!

A selection of One Minutes videos from 12 different countries
shown in Shanghai BizArt Art Center China within the framework
of Fringe festival.

Hooray, I thought, a show. Wait, Shanghai? That's China, isn't it. Fantastic! No, wait. Hmmm. Hang on. Precisely three days after I have added an irrepressible.info feed to this very blog, a competition has selected my work for an exhibition in a country with one of the worst human rights records in the world. This is, to say the least, the last thing I expected when I entered the piece into a Netherlands-based competition. The email continues:

The opening last Saturday 28th October 2006 was very well
attended.
BizArt is an independent gallery/exhibition space.
The Italian director of the gallery is Davide Quadrio.

It appears, then, if the opening was last week, that my work has already been shown, making me unable to withdraw the work. Great.

A little googling reveals that Davide Quadrio and his Biz-Art enterprise have a strong base in Shanghai, and have collaborated with a large number of international institutions and agencies in the past, including the Mondriaan Foundation, which is where I suspect the link between them and the Netherlands competition comes from. A quote attributed to David in the Shanghai Star reads:

"Open culture doesn't simply mean hosting some cultural activities."

This sounds very noble, as does the information on the rest of the website describing Biz-Art's support of young artists with residency schemes and exchanges. However, his quote in the Shanghai Star article continues

"In addition, culture should not have too close a connection to politics."

The article goes on:

His thoughts were echoed by Gu who believed that the prerequisite for developing a culture was contrary to that of political development. A social base needed to be set up to provide the possibilities for free combination between different cultures.

I'm not certain that I agree with him or with the sentiment of the article. Art is always political at some level, as it will always reflect the climate within which it was made. An engaged art will always hold a political position, perhaps several positions simultaneously, empowering the reader or viewer to occupy these viewpoints in turn. I would perhaps agree more with the reverse of what David is saying: that politics should not have too close a connection with culture, ie that political control should not be exercised on artistic free speech.

My disagreement is not with David (although I might question his decision to base himself in China), or with the artists or audience that might come to see the work in this exhibition. My disagreement is with the human rights policy of the government in the country where the work is being shown. Would my withholding the work create a positive change in that policy? I am unable at this stage to discern to what
extent the Mondriaan Foundation or the oneminutes.org competition have engaged directly with Davide and Biz-Art to stage this exhibition or whether they had to deal with the Chinese government itself.

I am left asking myself the simple question: is this ok? Or am I a sucker for buying into the pursuit of an international art profile, ignoring the potential ethical cost? By showing work there, am I supporting a repressive regime or helping to further free speech against that repression?