The Italian artist Paolo Cirio withdrew on Friday October 2 the photos of 4,000 faces of French police officers that he had posted on his site, after threats of legal proceedings from the Minister of the Interior.
Read also: Darmanin requests the withdrawal of photos of French police officers posted online by an Italian artist
Until Friday, any Internet user could specify the name of the police officers whose photo was posted on the website of Paolo Cirio's project called “
Capture
”.
An activist for the protection of personal data, the artist explained that he had built his project as a collaborative performance to denounce the dangers of facial recognition.
Thursday, Gerald Darmanin had denounced an "
unbearable pillory of women and men who risk their lives to protect us
" and demanded the removal of the photos "
under penalty of seizing the competent courts
".
The exhibition canceled in Tourcoing
The Tourcoing art center, which was to host the Italian artist and his exhibition, has also canceled the event planned in the city of which Gérald Darmanin was mayor until mid-September.
The minister had also requested his deprogramming.
"
We cannot in any case adhere to an approach which associates the work in question with a digital platform where the artist invites the public to identify and name the police officers, whose photographs have been previously broadcast on the internet
", wrote the Fresnoy art center, in a press release.
"
The artist violated the commitments he had made not to do such a thing in front of the Fresnoy officials,
" the statement added.
“
Censorship!
», Reacted the artist on his Twitter account by reposting the press release.
Read also: Did Anne Hidalgo really create a municipal police in Paris?
The unions welcomed the deprogramming.
"
End clap for the anti-cop artist
", rejoiced Alliance.
"
The curtain is lowered for those who thought they were militating on the backs and the safety of the police
".
"
Thank you to Gérald Darmanin for the promptness of his reaction and his firmness in defending the police officers and their families
", for his part tweeted Synergies-Officiers.
"
His intervention made it possible to deprogram a criminogenic enterprise under the guise of an artistic approach
," added the union.
The artist had built a database from 1000 public photos - retrieved from the Internet or from journalists - taken during demonstrations in France between 2014 and 2020 processed "
with facial recognition software
".
"
The absence of regulations on the protection of the privacy of these technologies (...) ultimately turns against the same authorities who recommend their use
", explained the artist, assuming an "
artistic provocation
".