Asperges Me
Date: 2003
Region: Europe
Subject: Religious
Medium: Painting
Artist: Thierry de Cordier
Confronting Bodies:
- Giorgos Karatzaferis, the leader of LAOS (an extreme right wing party), demanded the deposition of "Asperges Me" because he considered it blasphemous to Christianity.
- Miltiades Evert, the former leader of the main opposition party (New Democracy), declared "if the work is not taken down by the organizers by Friday he will go and take it down himself".
- Epiphanios Economou, of the Greek Orthodox Church, claimed "it's an insult to our morals and customs and our religion".
- Father Epiphanios, the representative of the Greek Orthodox Church, sent a letter to Evangelos Venizelos, Secretary of Culture, requiring the protection of "our secret symbols".
- The Board of the Cultural Olympiad and the Director, Christos Joachimides, decided to withdraw the work.
Dates of Action: December 2003
Location: Ergostasio, Athens, Greece
Description of Artwork: Depicts a penis ejaculating on a cross.
The Incident: After being on display for 45 days the painting was removed from the art exhibition "Outlook" in Greece within hours after complaints were made by Giorgos Karatzaferis, an extreme-right politician, that the work was offensive to Christian religion; he proclaimed, "it was, the most obscene, immoral, shameless painting I had ever seen".
The exhibition took place in Ergostasio (part of the Athens School of Fine Arts) which means that not only artistic but also academic freedom was not respected by the curator. Outlook was meant to be the crowning event of the cultural Olympiad, a multi-million pound jamboree put on by the government ahead of the Olympics to support values such as multiculturalism, diversity and communication between various opinions, and to promote the free exchange of creative insight. "Beyond putting Athens on the international art scene, the aim was to allow Greeks to see some very significant art, up close, for the very first time", claimed the show's curator, Christos Joachimides.
Results of Incident: The work was withdrawn and the following announcement was posted in its place:
"The work of Thierry de Gordier "Apserges Me" was considered as an image insulting of the Cross e.g. of the symbol of Christian Religion. The intense discourse that was initiated because of that tends to overshadow the essence of the exhibition and obstruct the contact of the public with contemporary art. However, the aim of OUTLOOK is to present to the public the full range of the artistic tendencies and create a genuine interest of the public for contemporary art. Considering all the above the Board of the Cultural Olympiad and the director of the exhibition decide to withdraw this specific work and post the present announcement explaining the reasons for the withdrawal."
The Secretary of Culture Evangelos Venizelos, a professor of Constitutional Law, declares "the freedom of art is restricted by the law and public taste".
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/dec/14/arts.artsnews and http://adelheidmers.org/earlyadopters/PM.htm