Sunday afternoon, the Guardia de finanzia raided SALE, one of the venues for “collateral projects” in the official program of the Venice Biennale, hosting amongst others the Embassy of Piracy. The first words uttered by the cops: “You cannot have The Pirate Bay here“.
Present in the space at the time, working with finalizing an installation, were several diplomats and artists from the Embassy: Carrie Roseland, Palle Torsson and Tobias Bernstrup. They were demanded to show their passports and their identities were registered by the Italian state, while the special police agents, wearing civil costumes, explored the paper pyramids, balloons, computers and textual material presented at the exhibition. None of the artworks have so far been confiscated and it is unclear what consequences the razzia will have for the exhibition.
Embassy of Piracy regards this action of the Berlusconi state as a severe trespassing of the diplomatic integrity of the internets, and calls for other diplomatic, artistic and political entities to express their positions. What makes the police intervention especially severe, is that it was obviously not directed against any specific actitivity which could be claimed to be unlawful, but against the very presence of a diplomatic representation of The Pirate Bay in Venice.
For for information, please call any of the four members of Embassy of Piracy who were present at the police raid:
Kristin Eketoft: +46 730293929 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              +46 730293929      end_of_the_skype_highlighting
Palle Torsson: +46 735035431
Tobias Bernstrup: +46 705715458
I can’t believe that they would do such a thing. There was nothing done against the law, these people need to calm down about the Pirate Bay. It’s not just TPB anymore, it’s the freedom of information. I think there will still be problems like these in the future of the internet.
[...] Copyriots korrespondens långt mera intressant än själva båtdemonstrationen. Dessutom bör man ringa de ambassadörer som var på plats gällande den brännande frågan om konstnärlig censur. Spara / dela med [...]
Welcome to Italy
As always, the same usual sh*t of my country
But don’t worry, not all the italians are “Silvio Berlusconi”! Do not mix gold with lead! We are kind! And for sure our Finanzieri were just searching to “scare” (uhuhuhuhu… I imagine you were really scared) you… bah… No comment!
As usual the police are not the most intelligent or tolerant people. Ridiculous.
thank you for your courage pirates everywhere! diplomats! satyagraha! peace action! capitalism is violence to the earth and our minds! liberation of information! liberation of art and humans! love
[...] acordo com o que os “embaixadores” referem no seu blog, tudo indica que os guardas pensavam que a exposição dizia directamente respeito ao Pirate Bay. [...]
[...] big empty space with three beamers. “You cannot have the Pirate Bay here.” More at the embassy. No [...]
[...] Via| Embassy of Piracy [...]
[...] Guardia di Finanza raided Embassy of Piracy at Venice Biennale (en) http://embassyofpiracy.org/2009/06/guardia-di-finanza-raided-embassy-of-piracy-at-venice-biennale/ [...]
just keep doing you. keep winning ppl <3s and keep winning parliament votes! u kno u right so f@#$ what happens in the afk. my heroes…[sigh]
The usual confirm that my country has no liberty and that is full of censorship
As usual my country’s government proves his idiocy.
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Cooking with cast iron….
Cast iron cooking….