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French artist Tom de Pekin may have been overly optimistic in planning to exhibit drawings of Elvis Presley and Sumo wrestlers with erections as part of the 8th Q! Film Festival, which opened on July 26.

Since a hotly debated pornography law was passed last year by the House of Representatives, curators, gallery owners and other art-friendly parties have been wary of showing images of sex or nudity as the law — which covers works of art — leaves a lot of interpretation to the courts.

De Pekin had selected 20 drawings and prints for his one-man exhibition at the French Cultural Center (CCF) in Central Jakarta, which was to have opened on Tuesday as part of the annual gay film festival. But it was not to be. First, John Badalu, the director of Q!, said one of the works was too controversial to show in Jakarta, and then the CCF had second thoughts about hanging three other artworks. Finally, officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism took a look at the works, and the latter declared them to be inappropriate to show to the public, causing an automatic cancellation of the entire exhibition.

“CCF asked that the exhibition exclude works showing penetration, so I took out one of a man with a spear in his anus, which I considered too extreme,” Badalu said. “And then CCF dropped three more works. After, they sent it to the ministries. By mid-July the Ministry of Culture and Tourism responded by calling up the CCF to say the works must not be shown.”

Badalu said the ministry had sent the CCF a letter of rejection the next day, which was forwarded to him and revealed that it considered the works to be “too vulgar.”

No one at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism was available to comment on the cancellation on Wednesday, and calls to the CCF were met with an explanation that the director was out of town and so could not comment.

Badalu said such censorship bordered on paranoia.

“The people at the cultural center, who’d planned to support the exhibition, seemed somewhat relieved it had been canceled, because they [also] thought the works were a bit extreme,” Badalu said. “I asked them to point out what was so extreme about them, but instead of giving an answer, they asked us to show them all of the films that would be shown there out of fear of facing legal problems.”

Included among de Pekin’s works were simple line drawings of gay men and lesbians and an adaptation of a Chinese propaganda poster featuring a man with a penis between his ears.

De Pekin, whose short films were shown at last year’s Q!, said that people in countries with liberal values, such as France or the Unites States, don’t face such problems accessing gay political art, although there are rules in place for galleries, such as requiring them to advise viewer discretion.

The Goethe-Institut, the German cultural institute in Jakarta, also chose not to display some Indonesian artworks that were to be included in an exhibition it is hosting for the festival. The photos, paintings and other artworks in the “Fetish” exhibition were included by curators because they show how gratification can be linked to certain items.

“Fetish” has now been split in two, with the works the German institute rejected now showing at Cemara 6 Galeri in Central Jakarta until Aug. 3.

Afriandi is one of the artists whose work was rejected by the institute. His photograph, titled “Which Fetish Do We Have Here,” shows teenagers sitting around a deliberately phallic-looking National Monument. Afriandi said men thought about sex every five minutes, and the picture served as a reminder that sex was all in the mind.

“I don’t mind if my work is shown somewhere else, if it’s for the best,” Afriandi said.

But in the case of “Fetish,” the artists are frustrated not by being censored but by the fuzzy boundaries of the Goethe curators. “Goethe asked to see all of the works,” said Alam Taslim, the coordinator of the show, “so they could make their own curatorial decisions. Goethe used its own standards. So it’s not about homosexuality or nudity, more about [Goethe’s] standards.”

The institute has been a venue partner of Q! since the festival’s inception in 2002.

Ade Kusumaningrum, who works in the film industry and officiated at the opening of the “Fetish” exhibition, said: “The law makes Indonesia out to be full of people with perverse mind-sets. It has also made cultural centers try to protect themselves, although they should not have to. Cultural centers are special places, and those who go there are a select few.”

De Pekin, meanwhile, said he was impressed by Jakarta’s vibrant cultural scene and not fazed by the Ministry’s decision, even if he didn’t understand the reasons behind it.

“I haven’t received any official justification for the prohibition,” the 46-year-old said. “The works were simply not allowed to be displayed.”

He learned that the exhibition had been canceled before he left for Jakarta. “I came anyway, to meet people,” he said. “Having the possibility to talk with people is as important as showing the works.”

De Pekin is scheduled to take part in Artist Talk — a Q! fringe event also featuring 7th Blue Artland — on Saturday at Cemara 6 Gallery.

“Since I arrived in Indonesia, I have found a big difference from the image I had of Indonesia when I was in France,” he said. “I thought it was a rigid, rather conservative, country. Here I found out that it’s actually a rather open country with open people, and that things are very dynamic.”