Berlin, Germany's Computerspiele Museum has publicly supported the controversial art exhibit Invaders!, a Space Invaders-inspired piece that depicts a pixelated version of the World Trade Center, which is inevitably destroyed by descending aliens.
"We were conscious that, with the attack on the World Trade Center, Invaders! was revisiting an event that had occurred not too distantly in the past and that therefore represented a controversial subject," said museum curator Andreas Lange in a statement to Edge on Wednesday. His comments come just days after prematurely shutting down the exhibit at the request of the artist.
"The work was not an attempt to provoke controversy for controversy’s sake, but an invitation to reflect, made in a distinctive manner."
Last week, French-American artist Douglas Edric Stanley brought his Invaders! exhibit to the Leipzig Games Conference, where it found an international audience. The interactive piece featured people jumping from the buildings, and was accompanied by clips from U.S. action movies.
But the exhibit didn't sit well with U.S. onlookers who caught wind of the exhibit via Internet news reports. Many accused the piece of trivializing the 9/11 attack, saying it was too soon to display such work.
Others levied personal attacks against Stanley via the comment section in his personal blog and message boards.
Following the uproar, and then a lawsuit threat from Space Invaders creator Taito, Stanley shut down the exhibit.
"The American response to this work has been, frankly, immature, and lacking the sophistication and consideration that other parts of the world have so far shown the work," he said upon pulling the piece.
Stanley is a Silicon Valley native who currently lives in France. "Contrary to previous reports, I am an American," he stated last week.
In his statement, Curator Lange added, "...For Stanley, Invaders! is ultimately about an appeal for peaceful coexistence, which extends beyond the subject of 9/11, we saw no reason not to show his work, especially as it has repeatedly been exhibited in a number of different versions since 2001."
The full statement to Edge can be read on the following page:
Pic courtesy Kotaku.