Russian museum director faces charge of inciting religious hatred

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By Michael Schwirtz Published: May 12, 2008
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MOSCOW:

A museum director who helped organize an exhibition of censored Soviet and post-Soviet art to protest alleged infringement of artistic freedoms under Russia's current leadership now faces censorship himself.

Prosecutors have summoned Yuri Samodurov, director of the Sakharov Museum in Moscow, to a hearing Tuesday, where he will be charged for his role in organizing the March 2007 exhibition, "Forbidden Art - 2006," according to a subpoena delivered to Samodurov last week and then faxed to The New York Times.

The charges stem from an investigation that was opened shortly after the exhibition debuted into whether Samodurov had incited religious hatred by displaying pornography-infused art works, some mocking the Russian Orthodox Church.

Yevgeni Korobkov, the signatory of the subpoena, confirmed that he had sent the summons but said he was not authorized to comment further. A spokesman at the Moscow prosecutor's office also declined to comment.

The Orthodox Church and nonconformist artists suffered similar oppression under the Soviet government. In recent years, however, the church, which has attained an exalted position vis-à-vis the Kremlin, has often sought to punish what it sees as criticism of Orthodox Christianity, now considered by many to be Russia's de facto state religion.

The police frequently act at church officials' behest, and Samodurov has more than once been the target.

In January 2003, a group of men raided his museum, defacing many of the 45 works in another exhibition critical of the Orthodox Church called "Caution, Religion!" Charges against most of the men were dropped for lack of evidence - although they were apprehended inside the museum. Samodurov was convicted of inciting religious hatred and fined about $3,600.

The court declared the exhibition blasphemous.

The "Forbidden Art" exhibition was intended as a protest against artistic censorship that Samodurov and others claim has been seeping into museums and galleries since Vladimir Putin, recently named prime minister, became president in 2000.

In recent years, officials have stripped works from exhibitions, thugs have sacked galleries, and at least one critic of the Kremlin and the Orthodox Church was attacked.

Last autumn, the culture minister successfully prevented several works he deemed "a disgrace" to Russia from appearing at a major exhibition of Russian Sots Art in Paris. Several of the works, which were also banned from a similar exhibition at the Second Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, were displayed in Samodurov's "Forbidden Art" show.

The exhibition featured several controversial works, including one depicting Christian worshipers praying to Mickey Mouse instead of Jesus Christ and another with a Russian general raping a male soldier next to the words "Glory to Russia!"

Orthodox Church leaders strongly denounced the show, and furious protests followed outside the Sakharov Museum, named after the physicist and Soviet-era human rights campaigner, Andrei Sakharov.

Shortly after, prosecutors opened a criminal investigation of the exhibition's organizers, including Samodurov. Samodurov accused the government of using "the threat of criminal investigation" to restrict the use of religious symbolism in art.

"Our government has the traits of a theocratic government," he said. "This is a very deep problem."

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