Those of you who have been following the headlines may have heard about the sexual assault allegations that have been leveled at Italian actress, director and singer Asia Argento. Argento has been at the forefront of the #MeToo movement, being one of the first women to have accused producer Harvey Weinstein of sexually assault.
Argento had allegedly made advances towards and had sex with a seventeen year old Jimmy Bennett, who had previously played the role of her son in a 2004 film. The actress denied the allegations and insisted she never had sex with Bennett and his accusations were in pursuit of monetary gains. Later, a selfie of her posing with Bennett in bed (while she was apparently topless) emerged.
Organizers of the Le Guess Who? festival, Dutch independent music festival for which Argento had been curating, said in a statement Wednesday that “due to the volatile nature of the accusations surrounding Ms. Argento, she has chosen to withdraw from her curatorship of this year’s edition, while these issues remain open.”
She had already chosen some of the acts set to perform November 8th-10th in Utrecht, The Netherlands, including The Breeders, Joe Cardamone, Lydia Lunch, Psychic Ills, Vera Sola and Richard Fearless.
Read the festival’s full statement below.
Due to the volatile nature of the accusations surrounding Ms. Argento, she has chosen to withdraw from her curatorship of this year’s edition, while these issues remain open. Le Guess Who? supports her decision, as we consider it our responsibility to represent, to the best of our ability, the interests and integrity of all artists involved with our organization, and we strive to do this with sensitivity and respect.
Le Guess Who? still supports all curated artists and their artistic output, and intends to keep all these artists involved within the general program for the 2018 edition.
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