“There is a danger that the provoked reactions will overshadow the essence of the exhibition and will prevent the public of coming close to contemporary art,” said the Minister of Culture Evangelismos Venizelos, who also noted that “the goal of the exhibition is to be representative of the international art trends and to cause a great interest by the public in contemporary art.”
And so, the photograph by Thierry de Cordier was taken down without being defended by anyone. When this happened De Cordier was not in Greece and was informed over the phone. He agreed that the photograph should be taken down, because not only it was threatened to be destroyed but also that its presence could have harmed the works of the rest of the painters, who were participating.
Thierry de Cordier was born in 1954 and raised as a good Catholic. Regarding what had happened, he says that his goal was not to shock everyone: “Today there are many works, which aim to provoke without being significant. Mine do not belong to this category. I was raised as a Catholic – from my birth until 16 years of age. I believe that I was abused as a child (he means Catholicism). “Other people decided for me how to act and how to think for the rest of my life. I cannot run away from myself. My way of thinking is already cut out.”
We believe that people who belong to the art world have a different sensibility than the rest. Their talent is to grasp moments, which are invisible to others, and to transform them into actions, words, images, music notes, and to give them meaning, which other don’t see. Their creations can excite with their beauty, creativity, absurdity, and humor. But “when the State decided to interfere and to put limits in humor, then we need to be worries,” says Haderer.
Marina Nikolova
Based on texts from the Greek press
Art or blasphemy?
- In 2000 a Greek erotic novel – “Mi sto ni” by Mimis Androulakis was publicly burnt on Aristotle square in Thessaloniki after it was announced as obscene and blasphemous by the church.
- In 1981 the book “120 days in Sodom” by Marquis de Sad was confiscated. As a result, 48 publishing houses decide to publish it again by taking the risk to provoke the cancellation of the ban, which reminds of ancient laws and not of a modern European country. “At a moment when church scandals appear one after the other and reveal hypocrisy and intrigues connected to names of many of its leader, art and freedom of ideas continue to be hunted by censorship of the church itself and of those who pretend to be the keepers of the “holy”.”
Something to see:
- “The Life of Brian” by Terry Jones (1979) – exceptional parody of films about Jesus’ life. A movie, which can be distributed freely after it passed through different adventures in some countries.
- “The Last Temptation” by Martin Scorsese (1988). The film is based on the famous book of Nikos Kazandzakis, which was banned in Greece for many years.
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