22 February 2017•Update: 22 February 2017
By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal
LONDON
Activists in London have called for a weekend protest against an art gallery accused of offering a platform to far-right figures.
The protesters are calling for the closure of Dalston’s LD50 Gallery which they said had enabled anti-immigrant, Islamophobic and “alt-right” figures to speak.
Last year the gallery hosted a conference which heard a contribution from a U.S. far-right website editor Brett Stevens.
Stevens is believed to have inspired Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik in his Oslo attack that killed 77 people, including a 17-year-old Turkish-origin girl Gizem Dogan, in 2011.
The gallery also heard a contribution by Peter Brimelow, who is described by U.S. anti-fascist organizations as a “leading anti-immigrant activist”.
LD50 remained closed on Wednesday; anti-fascist graffiti had been daubed on the premises.
Owner Lucia Diego in a web statement said the gallery’s program aimed to create “a dialogue between two different and contrasting ideologies”.
She added: “We presented a very liberal audience with a speaker knowledgeable of that sphere creating in that way a dialogue between two different and contrasting ideologies and the possibility for discussion between the speaker and amongst ourselves.”
However, a web group calling itself Shut Down LD50 Gallery published a statement saying “it has come to light that an art gallery and project space in East London is being used to promote fascists, neo-Nazis, misogynists, racists and Islamophobes”.
The group called for a protest against the gallery on Saturday.
