Photo by KentonNgo.

News came out late this week that the Museum of Modern Art in New York has acquired the video, David Wojnarowicz’s “A Fire in My Belly,” that the Smithsonian removed from an exhibit in the National Portrait Gallery in December. The MoMA, a private institution, has certainly never scared away from exhibiting controversial art. While this is certainly a powerful statement to the merit of the video, as Kriston Capps points out, it seems the more subversive move goes to the Museum of Censored Art, which opened next to the National Portrait Gallery this week.

The Museum of Censored Art, operating out of a trailer beside the National Portrait Gallery, is showing the Wojnarowicz’s video on a constant loop, open the same hours as the larger museum next door. Michael Blasenstein and Michael Iacovone, the protesters who were banned from the National Portrait Gallery, are running the museum. TBD’s Maura Judkis reports frigid cold conditions from inside the trailer, where Blasenstein and Iacovone shiver to show the censored video. They can only afford enough to power the video, not to heat the trailer. Blasenstein and Iacovone have also personally donated $1,500 each to the project and depleted their vacation time (they both have full time jobs). They estimate once the project is done, it will have cost $6,000 – you can donate to the cause here.