A set of hooligans knocked off the exhibition “Caution: Religion!”

Day-to-day history:

“Caution: Religion!” exhibition was open on January 14. Alexander Kosolapov’s work “This is my blood” was on view.

On January 18 six churchgoers of St. Nikolai Cathedral in Pyzhy came to the exhibition and started destroying and spoiling exhibit items. Alexander Kosolapov’s work was damaged too. Militiamen called by the caretaker took away the trashers.

On February 12, 2003 the State Duma adopted a resolution “to refer to the Attorney General of the Russian Federation…”. The resolution asked for “the immediate investigation of the case of fomentation of religious strife by the organizers of the “Caution: Religion!” exhibition.

On August 22, 2003 “court invalidated the order on institution of criminal proceedings and found absence of crime in the act of Kulberg S.A., Liukshin M.A., Ziakin A.V., Smakhtin N.V., Sergeev V.S., Garbuzov G.B”. And the case was dismissed.

At the end of December 2003 the Director of the Andrei Sakharov Museum Mr. Yu. Samodurov, the head of the exhibition group Mrs. L. Vasilovskaya and the exhibitor A. Mikhalchouk were accused of organizing and holding the exhibition “which aim was to express publicly put-down towards Christian religion in whole, and Orthodox Christianity in particular as well as towards religious symbols of Orthodox believers”. The prosecutor didn’t dare to bring a charge against more than 30 artists participating in the exhibition (including Mr. Kosolapov) whose works were estimated as aimed to stir up national hatred and religious strife.

On March 28, 2005 Yuri Samodurov and Ludmila Vasilovskaya were tried and found guilty and each of them was levied fine in the amount of 100 thousand rubles. The third convict Anna Mikhalchouk was acquitted.

An extract from the press-conference devoted to the knock-off of the exhibition “Caution: Religion” as of January 21, 2003

Alexander Kosolapov:

I’ve lived in the United States for 20 years and visits to my former motherland are rather rare, as I seldom take part at the exhibitions which are held there. The first thing that salutes the eye is violation of constitutional human right to speak. I strongly disagree with the management of the museum and the Andrei Sakharov community center as they consider that the exhibition should be closed because the history proves that destroyed exhibitions are always in the highlight…I mean that art has rather limited free zone which is esthetic one. And I suppose that Russian church and the trashers disagree with me. In other words, it’s clear that they don’t understand the concept and the institutional role of art. But if it so happened that art became the fact of the social phenomenon as a result of the trash, then this exhibition should live. I mean that I don’t want to address you to the exhibitions held by Hitler for many years. Not so long ago Forman’s film “The people vs Larry Flynt” was on TV. The interesting plot of this film is that Larry Flynt, the author of “Hestler“ magazine opposes a religious preacher. And in spite of the fact that it was a sex magazine, Supreme Court of the United States supported Larry Flynt subject to the constitutional article of freedom of speech. So I think that we must insist on holding the exhibition in the same way as it is, because even vandals have a right to vandalize. It’s another matter that it should be institutionalized and put into adequate social forms, and the society will find right forms. What else… It seems to me that artists haven’t expressed themselves on the exhibition. For me the exhibition was a success…The point is that any art work is very limited. But we drew public attention and it’s necessary for each artist to continue airing his opinion by exhibiting his works at the exhibition. And it’s necessary to raise social voice on the subject of religion. Besides, returning to the Constitution, religion must be separated from the state. Nobody ever infringes on believers’ right to believe. And the society can’t allow anyone to intrude the territory of art and the territory of constitutional rights of people, their opinions and rights.

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Alexander Kosolapov:

I consider this exhibition to be a new “bulldozer” exhibition. Each act of art must have and has a social aspect which is of course esthetic aspect. And thank luck that gave artists an opportunity to enter the social space and I think that this exhibition shouldn’t be closed. Instead it should be developed, because it turns over a new leaf as it happened to the “bulldozer” exhibition which we remember and discuss a lot. And perhaps we’ll think of this exhibition for decades.

Based on the Web site of the Andrei Sakharov Community Center