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 digital world that brought us closer together is constantly shifting in the wake of social media, and the corporate interests that govern how we use it. These media conglomerates have removed our agency as artists, and we are now beholden to advertising, algorithms, and the will of the State. They have stifled and restrained our output, labeled our ideas and identities as obscene or dangerous, and have ultimately changed the ways many of us perceive the world around us. Rather than competing with one another, we must remember who our true enemy is.
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 limiting access to revolutionary ideology, no matter what form it might take. Their restriction of information regarding the genocides currently happening in the Global South stems from a capitalist, whitewashed, Neo-liberal brand of evil.
Even though the social media platforms that we rely on are simultaneously our adversaries, by reclaiming how we share and present our work, we can begin to wrest away the control that these media corporations have over our lives. In the absolute darkness of our current timeline, we need to extol the light that radical messaging can bring to those beginning to, or already resisting oppression.
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