FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Viva Krasinski 310/822-9560 x11 viva@...
Hector Ponce?s Mural Depicting Emiliano Zapata and Chiapas Leader
Sub-Commandante Marcos Declared an "Illegal Sign" and Slated for Destruction
by the City of Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety
Hector Ponce?s mural, a symbol of the struggle for indigenous rights in
Chiapas, Mexico, depicting both Zapatista leader, Sub-Commandante Marcos and
Emiliano Zapata was painted at 6th and Westlake with the support of the
building owner. However, the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs
Department has destroyed the mural once before and recently threatened to do
so again, citing a complaint which they originally attributed to the
building owner but later was discovered to have been made by a neighboring
business. The Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety has now stepped
into the fray, declaring the artwork to be a "sign" painted without proper
signage permits and thus eliminated any need to notify the artist prior to
it?s destruction as is required by the Federal Visual Artist?s Rights Act
(VARA). Ponce?s mural is scheduled for immediate destruction by the
Department of Building and Safety. Their role as both the purveyors and
enforcers of ill-defined parameters between what constitutes art and what
constitutes signage borders on censorship.
The Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) asks that the public
express their support for public art as well as their disdain for the
efforts of the Department of Building and Safety to define the parameters
between art and signage. Please contact Senior Inspector Brad Neighbors at
the Department of Building and Safety at (213) 738-5674 and your local City
Councilperson. Letters of support for this important public artwork can be
faxed or e-mailed to SPARC at (310) 827-8717 or sparc@....
