TORONTO: A Montreal based artist’s art installation is in limbo and may be destroyed, after it was confiscated by customs agents who say it violates Canada’s sanctions against Iran.
She’s cancelled two exhibitions after the artwork was taken from her at the Montreal airport last June. She said she’s been warned twice that the piece of art may be destroyed, Sadaf Foroughi said.
“It’s not fair because I suffered a lot,” she told CTV Montreal. “I couldn’t work and I didn’t have any concentration.”
The artwork, which was commissioned by the Canada Council for the Arts, includes a traditional Persian peep box, known as shahre farang. Foroughi said she was going to project videos in the box, which viewers could then watch through slots. She received a $12,000 grant from the council for the project and worked on it for two years.
“This artwork is Canadian artwork, and I needed to go to Iran to complete a part of this,” she said.
But when she returned in June, the Canada Border Services Agency confiscated the box, citing Canada’s economic sanctions preventing the import and export of commercial goods from Iran.
Even with a letter from Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird requesting the release of artwork, the CBSA has refused to return the box.
Foroughi’s lawyer, Vincent Valai, said the artwork was never intended for commercial purposes.
“It’s a personal effect, and when it’s a personal effect the sanctions and regulations are pretty clear: it should be released,” he said.
But the CBSA still has possession of the box and disputes that the artwork is not for commercial uses. In a statement, the agency said the following about the case:
“Per Canadian legislation, an artist’s work is considered as commercial goods if it is imported into Canada for institutional or professional use. A grant (governmental or private) does not change the commercial status of a work of art.”
The Department of Foreign Affairs said whether a piece of art is a personal effect is up to legal interpretation.
Meanwhile, Foroughi has received a bill for nearly $10,000 from a storage company that’s holding the box at the airport. She says she can’t afford to pay the bill and fears the box will ultimately be destroyed.
She said she feels like she’s been caught in the middle of a dispute between Canada and Iran.
“I don’t care about politics at all, but I feel these sanctions touch ordinary people more than other people,” she said.
