Artist Steven Cohen, dressed in drag, had tried to join the fort's centenary celebrations.

"I was also in the army. I have a right to be here too," he shouted as he left the property unharmed.

He later said: "I didn't expect such a violent reaction. I wanted to see if Afrikaans culture could make way for this kind of thing."

His expulsion followed a week of drama sparked by a proposed exhibition, Guilty, by Johannesburg artist Kendell Geers.

Invited to use the fort by the French Institute, Geers had decided to use the centenary day to explore the fort's history in the context of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

In the meantime, Doep Martins, chairman of the Fort Klapperkop Forum, planned a more traditional day of centenary events, including prayers and flag hoisting, food and flea markets. Geers decided to incorporate these events into his exhibition. Martins accused the artist of trying to hijack the festival, and took issue with his art.

Fred Rundle, self-styled activist representing Vryheid 2000 and the cultural arms of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging and Boerstaatparty", joined the fray, bombarding the French ambassador with faxes demanding the French withdraw from the exhibition.

Then the German embassy complained to the French that Geers's invitation, showing President Nelson Mandela's German bodyguards in Berlin, did not project the reality of modern Germany.

By mid-week the debate was climaxing daily on radio. Lydia de Waal, Pretoria city council's director for museums, was getting hate mail, and the Goodman Gallery, co-sponsor of the exhibition, was receiving threatening phone calls.

The city council pulled the plug on the exhibition and the French withdrew, apologising to everyone. Geers apologised to no one.

But if the purpose of his exhibition was to investigate guilt and how South Africans, and others, deal with it, his canceled show has been a huge success.

Today Geers plans to lock himself inside the fort and close it in the name of art.