whittlin’ away

Gadflies who organized The Version Festival in Chicago received a rude awakening last week when a mural that was commissioned as part of the festival was destroyed. Chicago Alderman James Balcer personally took offense to the mural, due to its content that depicted police surveillance cameras omnipresent in the neighborhood.

Balcer reasoned he thought the following image was gang-related and the makers did not have a permit.

The building now looks like this:

The Bridgeport Alderman did not contact the property owner, nor the artist, Gabreille Villa, before ordering the mural’s removal early in the morning, May 14. Chicago does not require a permit for murals on private property. The property in question is owned by the festival organizer’s mother.

The mural was part of Bridgeport WPA, a project that encouraged artists to make work in the cooperative spirit of the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration. The project resulted in silk-screened prints that were posted in public places around the neighborhood and in a gallery. More images, courtesy Paul Rizzuto, after the jump.

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‘Brains’ is part of this year’s Version Fest, kicking off this weekend in Chicago, IL. From their site:

From April 23-May 2, we are gathering to celebrate, identify, and discuss our Immodest Proposals to change and improve our social, political and cultural ecologies. Version>09 will showcase emerging, progressive trends in art, politics, technology and music. We’ll gather and see how our peers live and work in a rebooted 21st century.

The festival is organized, in part, by Ed Marszewski, an art/ activist organizing powerhouse who edits several publications and runs the Co-Prosperity Sphere, an experimental cultural center in Bridgeport. The new issue of his journal Proximity Magazine is highly recommended.