Female Genital Mutilation as Interactive Art: “A Racist Spectacle”

Trigger Warning: Images and links in this post contain racist caricatures and explicitly reference female genital mutilation (FGM)

As part of World Art Day on April 15th, Afro-swedish artist Makode Aj Linde (pictured above) exhibited an art piece centered on female genital mutilation (FGM) at Moderna Museet in Stockholm. Linde’s piece was a cake in the shape of a black female torso while the artist used himself as the head of the cake; the body included neck rings and Linde donned a cartoonish red mouth and white eyes in reference to blackface minstrelsy. At the museum, the Swedish minister of culture, Adelsohn Liljeroth, cut and ate the cake. Reportedly, white attendees laughed, joked, and took pictures as Lijeroth ate the cake while Linde let out a cry each time someone made a cut to the body. Photos and videos of the event have since made their way around the internet and been subject to ensuing criticism and backlash. Kitimbwa Sabuni, spokesperson for the National Afro-Swedish Association, denigrated the minister’s participation in the event, calling it “a racist spectacle” that “simply adds to the mockery of racism in Sweden.” Nsenga K. Burton at The Root says that the minster’s “willing participation in it speaks to the perversion of power as it relates to race, gender and sexuality.”