AIVD Commissioned Artwork But Got Cold Feet
Rotterdam, 23 September. The fairytale of the artist and the secret service just had to end badly.
And now the intelligence agency can seize her artwork, a book, at any time. American artist Jill Magid (1973) wrote the book, Becoming Tarden, at the request of the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD). It contains doctored but nonetheless sensitive information on AIVD agents. Only one copy of the book exists, now under lock and key in Tate Modern, London.
The AIVD, which directly approached Magid four years ago, wishes to store the book in their archives. Magid asserts that the AIVD have failed to keep their side of the bargain and says: come and get it. She wrote to the AIVD inviting them to seize Becoming Tarden from the Tate, where it is held. The museum personnel have been instructed and the necessary official forms are at the ready. To which the title of the exhibition, Authority to Remove, refers.
"More human face"
In 2005, the AIVD commissioned Magid to give the agency a "more human face". She proposed making a collective portrait of a spy. The artist worked for the AIVD as a consultant, was screened and —over a three-year period — interviewed a total of eighteen secret agents. The results of her research, written portraits, were presented in early 2008 in a successful exhibition at art centre Stroom, in The Hague, Holland.
The problems began when, last year, Magid revealed she was writing a novel about her experiences. During an emergency meeting in The Hague she learned that the AIVD had banned her from publishing the book herself. The agency threatened to seize her artworks and computer. And there was talk of the AIVD taking legal action for what it considered the disclosure of state secrets.
Until that point, we had proceeded as agreed and "cooperated" in an open fashion, says Jill Magid, a New York resident. "But the AIVD suddenly changed the rules."
Manuscript
The manuscript Magid had presented to the agency was returned to her in August 2008 in a heavily edited version. "About forty-five percent of the text had been whited out. They hadn't just deleted potentially sensitive information but had also censored my personal thoughts and feelings. The logic had completely disappeared. My book had become totally unreadable."
It was the former deputy AIVD director Theo Bot who finally proposed placing the book on public exhibit, once-only, behind glass, as an art object.
With the exhibition in London, Magid is — literally —complying with the proposal. And entirely on her own terms.
Final chapter
In Magid's letter last month to the AIVD, the artist states that the exhibition is the final chapter in the cooperation. "The book is a memoir of our collaboration", she writes. "I had dreams of publishing it as my first novel. You are its one and only reader. Seize it. Strip it. Hold it in in your building, and seal it under glass. I comply."
AIVD spokesperson Miranda Havinga confirms that the agency intends to pick up the book. The AIVD doesn't view Magid's act as a provocation, says Havinga: "We were familiar with her working methods. And clear agreements were made concerning the boundaries she was to operate in. We are confident they will be observed."
Bureaucracy
"I never intended to get on the wrong side of the AIVD", says Magid. "My approach is to collaborate with the system, stick to the rules but, within those restrictions, shed light on how an organisation of that kind operates. This exhibition reveals just how bureaucratic the AIVD is. And at a price — my novel. Which is a terrible loss."
Sandra Smallenburg (Translated by Lisa Holden)
