Curator of Athens art exhibition on trial for painting "insulting the Orthodox Church"
MAY 30, 2005
 http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/66998/

Country/Topic: Greece
Date: 30 May 2005
Source: Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM)
Person(s): Christos Joachimides
Target(s): other
Type(s) of violation(s): harassed , legal action
Urgency: Threat

(GHM/IFEX) - The following is a 29 May 2005 GHM press release:

Topic: Athens "Cultural Olympiad" art exhibition curator on trial for painting "insulting the Orthodox Church"

Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM) condemns the forthcoming 3 June 2005 trial, at the First Single-Member Misdemeanors Court of Athens, of Christos Joachimides, curator of "Outlook," Greece's most important contemporary art exhibition, for having, in December 2003, "publicly and maliciously insulted the Eastern Orthodox Church with an obscene, repulsive and despicable painting that is anything but a piece of art" (Article 199 of the Greek Criminal Code).

"Outlook" was a key activity of the "Cultural Olympiad" preceding the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. It was inaugurated on 24 October 2003 by the President of the Republic, in the presence of several socialist ministers and Athens' conservative Mayor. No one seemed to have been offended by any exhibit.

Forty-five days later, on 9 December 2003, Greece's extreme-right party leader George Karatzaferis protested that Belgian artist Thierry de Cordier's "Asperges Me (Dry Sin)" painting was "the most obscene, immoral, shameless painting I had ever seen." On the right of the canvas was a cross, propped against a wall; on the left a fully erect penis. Karatzaferis saw on the canvas that semen was dripping from the crucifix. Even worse, "the penis, that thing, looked circumcised," added the notoriously anti-Semitic politician. Karatzaferis filed a complaint report with Supreme Court Prosecutor Dimitris Linos. The latter, who almost never acts on complaint reports by human rights organizations, asked the Athens prosecutor's office to launch an inquiry into whether the work's public presentation constituted a crime. Prosecutor Vasiliki Leni found enough evidence to refer the curator to trial seventeen months later, summoning George Karatzaferis and the spokesperson of the Greek Church, Father Epifanios, as prosecution witnesses.

It should be noted that, following Karatazferis' reaction, many politicians suddenly found themselves "dismayed," a reaction fuelled by the notoriously intolerant Greek media. Then socialist Culture Minister, Professor Evangleos Venizelos, asked the organizing committee (made up of art experts and academics) to withdraw the painting, and the latter duly complied. Their decision was subsequently considered as an unlawful restriction of artistic freedom by the Greek Ombudsman.

MORE INFORMATION:

For further information, contact GHM at P.O. Box 60820, GR-15304 Glyka Nera, Greece, tel: +30 210 347 2259, fax: +30 210 601 8760, e-mail:  office@greekhelsinki.gr , Internet:  http://www.greekhelsinki.gr