Russia: exhibitors arrested for "insulting Christians"

Russia: exhibitors arrested for “insulting Christians”

Russians Yurii Samodurov and Andrei Yerofeev were charged in April 2009 by the Taganskii District Prosecutor for curating an exhibition that, in the words of the Prosecutor, was “clearly directed towards expressing in a demonstrative and visible way a degrading and insulting attitude towards the Christian religion in general and especially towards the Orthodox faith.”

The exhibition, which was entitled Forbidden Art, took place at the Sakharov Museum in March 2007 and included work by well-known contemporary artists such as Ilya Kabakov, Aleksandr Kosolapov, Aleksandr Savko, Mikhail Roginskii and the group Blue Noses.

Despite the fact that Russia is a secular state, where everybody is guaranteed the freedom to disseminate religious or atheist views, Samodurov and Yerofeev face prison terms of up to five years.

ARTICLE 19 Artist Alert: April 2009

NOTES TO EDITORS:

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