Temptation of art

The process of the organizers of the exhibition "Forbidden art" is nearing completion

On July 12, in the Tagan court, the organizers of the exhibition “Forbidden Art-2006” Yuri Samodurov and Andrei Erofeev will be sentenced to the organizers of the exhibition. The prosecutor asks to be sentenced to accused to three years in a penal colony for inciting religious enmity. The defendants declare the political nature of the trial. To whom they haunt the exhibition of contemporary artists - learned The New Times
The court hearing began late for an hour: the judge was looking for the key to the largest hall of the Tagansky court. In Hall No. 204, where the case of the exhibition “Forbidden Art-2006” has been listening for a year, everyone could not fit. "We will sit until night, Orthodox!" - warned the regulars of the process an activist of the "People's Cose"

* * The public movement “People’s Cathedral” aims to “transform Russia on the basis of the traditional spiritual and moral values ​​of Russian civilization”. Vladimir Sergeev, a tall bearded man in a black shirt with an embroidered cross. And in the large hall there were not enough places for the public, reporters and two intellectuals with glasses (from the support group of defendants) had to huddle in a cage for the accused.

The prosecutor Alexei Nikiforov was the first: "Witnesses of the defense said:" Everything that is not prohibited is allowed. " But today we will insult believers, tomorrow - victims of Stalinist repressions, victims of fascism, and then participants in armed conflicts, ”he was indignant. - Here, for example, the picture of Vyacheslav Sysoev “Light against Darkness”. * * The picture was written in 1985-1986. Depicts persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church in the 20-30s of the XX century. The prosecution does not appear. This is the so -called game for a young atheist, where it is proposed to cut out priests, a temple, explosives, and the OGPEUSHKI, which are exploding this temple. But suggest instead of the temple to portray the Cherkizov market, for example, figures of migrant workers, and around people with the symbols of radical nationalist groups. What feelings will this cause? " Grandmothers in the hall rustled with paper icons, lifting them up as a sign of approval, and the defendant Erofeev allowed himself a replica: "During the process, the prosecutor became an artist." The joke was not embarrassed by the state prosecutor and he reached the main thing: “Given the public danger of the deed and due to the fact that the deed is a spit towards a humiliated and insulted part of people, I propose to sentenced the defendants to three years of the colony-settlement.” The Orthodox public applauded.

How it all began

The lawyer Anna Stavitskaya reminded the judge and the audience that the exhibits presented at the exhibition “Forbidden Art-2006” were fenced by the false wall. And in order to see them, it was necessary to climb onto the stepladder and look into the holes in the wall. It was forbidden to photograph at the exhibition, which was warned of the announcement on the same false wall. Anna Sergeeva visited one of the first exhibition. Her husband in 2003 participated in the pogrom of the exhibition "Caution, religion!" And he himself was afraid to go to the museum. I was afraid that they would find out. Anna Sergeeva photographed exhibits, and she and her husband began to spread them among the familiar parishioners, saying that Samodurov again organized an exhibition with provocative content.
“Of the 134 witnesses, only the three were at the exhibition,” says Stavitskaya. - Then the spouses of Sergeevs and Witness Rodionov wrote a statement to the deputy Chuev, demanding to figure out and stop blasphemy. They turned to the police department in the Tagansky district with a statement on the initiation of a criminal case. On April 27, 2007, a decision was made to refuse to institute criminal proceedings. But then the deputies pushed and the criminal case was nevertheless opened. In order for more offended by the exhibition, on the website of the People’s Cathedral, at the end of November 2007, a call to all the indifferent appeared to come to investigator Evgeny Korobkov and testify as witnesses. ”
The website of the investigator was indicated on the site and it is written that not only people who visited the exhibition, but also all outraged by the work, but did not see the exhibition, can act as witnesses.
“It is obvious that these are not the actions of Samodurov and Erofeev were aimed at inciting and insulting,” continues Stavitskaya. - All this pseudo -station was organized by the "folk cathedral." That is why the testimony of witnesses that were announced during the process textually coincide. ” “The slander! How much did you pay! " - Shorted into the Stavitskaya grandmothers.
As the defense refuted the accusations, the atmosphere in the hall was heated, and when the lawyer Dmitry Kurepin said that “none of the witnesses asked in the case could formulate what group of people who profess any religion and the witnesses had hatred and enmity, and one of the“ believers ”did not have the accusation,” one of the “believers” did not He stood and finally shouted: "Jews abuse our shrines!" The bailiffs led him out of the hall.

Orthodox Sabbath

Judge Svetlana Alexandrova announced a break, and the audience gave free rein to the feelings: “Christmas Socialities! Judas! Go to your Israel! " - So middle -aged women in handkerchiefs with paces exhausted by posts escorted the lawyers of the defendants. Lawyer Kurepin tried to speak with the old women who were insulting him, but they did not want to listen to him. "Avenue a photo of your mother with blood!" - some shouted, while others, promising to spit in the face of a lawyer, overshadowed themselves with a sign of a sign. The correspondent of The New Times, a man of church and Orthodox, who first appeared in this trial, had the impression that she was present on a strange shabash, in which people who call themselves Orthodox Christians participate.
Dozens of witnesses of defense - artists, art historians tried many times to explain: the exhibition could not offend anyone, it was held far from cult institutions, did not violate either the Constitution of the Russian Federation or the law on freedom of conscience. The main question that the defenders and defendants asked during this year: why did the prosecutor's office still follow the lead of the People’s Cathedral?
“Our persecutors are not a church, this is some kind of marginal group,” Andrei Erofeev is sure. - The people who actively supported them in the State Duma, in the Public Chamber, were replaced by power from public space in two years. In the State Duma today there is neither Chuev, nor Baburin, nor Kuryanovich. Samodurov and I were in the role of the piece that they throw a lion into the mouth in order to maintain a contractual relationship with him. But this is an erroneous position. The ultra -right cannot be propitty. ” Yuri Samodurov has a different opinion: "The state in Russia has long ceased to be secular, and the church positions itself as a department." “The prosecutor said today: if a group of two or more citizens comes to the exhibition at the museum and understands that their feelings are offended by something, then the museum workers will be required to remove work,” he said to the New Times. - I categorically disagree with this. Andrei Sakharov said: "If I lived in a clerical state, then I would be for atheists." And in an atheistic state, Sakharov supported believers. ” * * After the exhibition “Forbidden Art-2006”, the leadership of the Sakharov Foundation (in particular its widow Elena Bonner), dissatisfied with this exhibition, suggested Yuri Samodurov to leave the post of director of the museum.

The church is offended

At the end of May and the Russian Orthodox Church finally designated her position. A representative of the Patriarchal Culture Council Hieromonk Nicodemus appeared in the court. And on behalf of this council, he said: “When Christian religious symbols with frank mockery are placed next to obscene pictures and obscene expressions - this deeply offends the feelings of believers.” It became clear that the church is on the side of the "people's cathedral."
“The opinion of the Patriarchal Council on Culture is the position of the Church,” Deacon Andrei Kuraev said The New Times. - The head of the Patriarchal Council is Father Tikhon (Shevkunov), the governor of the Sretensky monastery, * * on media reports, about. Tikhon is the confessor of Vladimir Putin. A graduate of the Institute of Cinematography, who understands not only theology, but also in art. However, not all the works that were exhibited were blasphemous, some authors of this exhibition then participated in the exhibition “Dialog-Deville”.) * * An exhibition of contemporary art with the blessing of Patriarch Kirill was arranged in the narthex of the Church of St. Tatyana in Moscow on June 1–14, 2010 caused the discontent of some Orthodox culture figures who demanded this exhibition from the Patriarch. Close.
Judge Svetlana Alexandrova will be sentenced on July 12. So far, on the website of the Orthodox Society “Radonezh” it is possible to study the opinions of opponents of the exhibition “Forbidden Art-2006”: “It is not in our power to influence the court decision, but it is worth noting that the real term does not look like a reasonable decision. A meaningless fig, which has undergone genuine, Nepigy suffering, acquires a sufferer in the eyes of others around the idea. Samodurov does not deserve such a status and should not ensure such a status. ” And what should he “provide”?

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The exhibition “Forbidden Art-2006” was held from March 7 to March 31, 2007 at the Andrei Sakharov Public Center. The exhibition shows works proposed by various curators for exhibitions in Moscow museums and galleries and not allowed by artistic councils or directors of museums in 2006. According to the organizers, the “Forbidden Art” program is designed for several years, its goal is monitoring censorship in the field of culture.
One of the evidence of the guilt of the defendants is art history examination. The investigation entrusted her to the scientific employee of the Institute of General History of the Russian Academy of Sciences Natalya Eneeva, who, according to protection, is not a specialist in modern art. Her assessment of the picture of Alexander Kosolapov “Icon-Ikra”: “In the perception of the collage, where the image of black caviar is overlapped on the pattern of the icon of the Mother of God ...“ works ”also the antithesis of“ purity ”associated with Christianity with this image, and a certain“ blackness ”, the antithesis of“ gluttony ”and“ austerity ”, as the ideal proposed by Christian, is also possible here. creed ". Art critic Andrei Kovalev otherwise interprets the depicted in the picture: “This work was written in 1995. We are talking exclusively about the criticism of the farmers who traded caviar and icons. ” Both opinions are attached to the case file, the judge has to decide: which of the experts is right.

After the exhibition “Caution, religion!” Tailed at the Museum of Pogrom! Sergeyev and his five accomplices were charged with hooliganism, but in the summer of 2003 the case against them was discontinued. And in March 2005, the director of the Sakharov Museum Yuri Samodurov and the museum employee Lyudmila Vasilovskaya were found guilty of inciting religious enmity and sentenced to a fine of 100 thousand rubles. Samodurov’s complaint about the violation of Article 10 of the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“The right to freely express your opinion”) should be considered in the European Court of Human Rights in the near future).