The Russian Orthodox Church opposed the exhibition of the works of Jan Fabra in the Hermitage

The Russian Orthodox Church has criticized the exhibition of the works of modern Belgian artist Jan Fabra "Knight of despair - the Warrior of Beauty", which opened in the Hermitage. In an interview with Interfax-religion, the head of the department of the St. Petersburg diocese on the relationship between the Church and Society, Archpriest Alexander Pelin, said that "all this looks quite shameful."

“It's not that the church is against it,” Pelin agreed. “We don’t care about Jan Fabra, but why do we need such art in Russia?!” According to the cleric, "even the Hermitage employees themselves are outraged, they say that this is inappropriate," and "there are many protests of ordinary people on the Internet."

From a direct answer to the question of whether the complaints in connection with the exhibition came to the St. Petersburg Metropolitan, Pelin evaded. “Well, this does not apply to the diocese,” he remarked. “We are not the organizers, so we have something to complain?”

More definitely the cleric spoke about whether it is worth "taking some measures in connection with this exhibition." "If the people will write the outraged letters to the governor (director of the Hermitage Mikhail) Piotrovsky or the Ministry of Culture, then I think that, of course, some measures should take," Pelin said.

In particular, he drew attention to the fact that, although at the entrance to the exhibition there is a sign marked "16+", "people do not stand there and do not say: you know, you can’t go into this hall." Thus, children can get there. “And this is a violation of the law,” Archpriest emphasized.

Fabr makes its works from stuffed animals, shells of bugs, skeletons and horns. One of the works is a cat hanging on a cross. As indicated, animals whose corpses were used by artists were knocked down on highways.

The exhibition takes place as part of the 5th St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum. It presented about 200 works by the artist.

In mid -November, the hashtag #shameful -warMitage was launched in social networks. In particular, the State Duma deputy from "United Russia" Vitaly Milonov spoke out against the exhibition. Meanwhile, the Hermitage Administration said that she did not intend to close the exhibition, and the Ministry of Culture refused to intervene in the situation, explaining that the exhibition belongs to the museum responsibility zone.

The exhibition, which opened on October 22, should last until April 9, 2017.