A MESSAGE FROM THE BUREAU:
The vast world of art embodies pedestrian societal decadence on one end, and the underground “strive to survive” ethos on the other. Unfortunately, the lines can often be blurred in contemporary spaces. The Bureau of Artistic Indecency is a global artist collective attempting to construct a platform that encourages a decentralized structure of creative power.
The Bureau was born from the pages of the Situationist International, the DIY anarcho movement of the 80s, tongue-in-cheek cultism, and a hefty dose of self-loathing and boredom. The concept of “indecency” is no more than a cheap tool used by those in power to control and suppress our full, wild potential. Punk, which was once a celebration of joy, has turned into nothing more than a morose finger-pointing contest. The bonds we have once known are slowly being eroded in the face of incessant consumption of social media. These media conglomerates have removed our agency as artists, beholden to advertising and algorithms. They have stifled and restrained our output, and negatively shifted how we interact with one another.
Radical art can be extremely effective in the struggle against the deep injustice faced by many today. Some of the largest media companies in the world have everything to gain by restricting access to revolutionary ideology, no matter what form it might take. In the absolute darkness of our current timeline, we need to extol the light that these messages can bring to those beginning to, or already resisting oppression.
In turn, the social media platforms that we rely on simultaneously become our adversaries. Their restriction of information regarding the genocides currently happening in the global south stems from a capitalist, whitewashed, neo-liberal brand of evil. By reclaiming how we value and present our work, we can begin to rest away the control these media corporations have over our lives, while providing a small measure of hope to the curious, new generation.
Before that happens, the Bureau has amassed a collection of artists with varying styles and skill sets to create a cumulative online gallery space. Art can only be fully realized when it is free of censorship, algorithms, and devious targeted advertising. The platforms we have become accustomed to destroy our souls within the lines of the hegemonic Terms of Agreement. Here we present to you an alternative solution to an isolated reality, a veritable get-out-of-jail-free card.
IT’S YOUR WORLD TOO
FREE ALL PRISONERS OF THE GLOBAL WAR MACHINE