Unusual charm in intermediate space

In the history of mankind, acts of vandalism in relation to works of art, alas, are not uncommon … As a rule, madmen – how else can you call a person who raised in the full sense of the word a hand to the “Mona Lisa” by Leonardo da Vinci or “Venus with a mirror” of Velazquez – were armed with knives …

Sometimes – stones, and once even a metal resistant fence. How did it happen to “Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan”… the canvas, by the way, survived two attempts, and “Night patrol” Rembrandt – as many as three …

The attackers with rare exceptions voiced the reasons for their “madness”: the struggle for the rights of the suffrazhists, a protest against the ban on visiting the exhibition by disabled and even “Order of Christ”…

And they went either under arrest or to a psychiatric hospital …

Perhaps the only act of vandalism, perfect “From love” – a kiss with reminiscent lips, which was left in the picture of your Saya one of the visitors of the museum in France, where the picture was exhibited … Which, however, did not stop fining the vandal for a tidy sum …

But what will become with the deputy of the Greek parliament from the party “Nicky” Nicos Papadopulos, who recently chose the object of his vandalism canvas, exhibited in the National Picture Gallery as part of the exhibition “The charm of the unusual”and explaining his actions by the offended feelings of the believer, is still unknown.

But the act of vandalism itself is known in all details: four works of artist Christophoros Katsadiotis were subjected to it “Icon1”, “Icon 16”, “Icon 17” and “Holy Christopher” …

Outraged by the view of the faces of the saints depicted on the canvases, the deputy tore them off the wall and threw them to the floor, breaking protective glasses.

The exhibition is held as part of the program events “Intermediate space”and is positioned as an attempt by artists to “question the difference between natural and artificial, actually nullifying traditional classifications that strictly delimiting species.”

The works of ten artists presented at the exhibition, as stated in a press release from the National Gallery, is an image “Strange, hybrid and grotesque … sometimes with humor, sometimes with caustic irony, and sometimes with deep existential longing, the deconstruction of the stereotypes on which we were brought up.”

In fairness, it is worth noting that it is quite difficult for the viewer to be inexperienced in contemporary art in the essence with a dedicated gaze and bundle, from which a tiny skull looks … Virgin Mary, and in the figure of a man crowned with a lamb head, Holy Christopher …

When it would not be a halo. And not an inscription … and not a press release about the deconstruction of stereotypes, a grotesque and existential longing.

The latter, apparently, took over the deputy …

“In our difficult time, when even atheists from hopelessness turn to the Almighty, such a picture is a real blasphemy,” he said. – You try to offend Muslims or Jews so much! And above us, Christians, it means that you can mock, hiding behind the lack of censorship in art? – the deputy is indignant.

Currently N. Papadopulos from the anger of the public – o “Obscurantism, the ways to the Middle Ages and the junta” And, of course, “Demolish democracy in art” Only the lazy did not speak out – the deputy immunity protects, on the removal of which the prosecutor’s office will insist. And although the damage caused to the paintings of the indignant deputy is defined as the minimum, his actions are classified as a crime …

Nicos Papadopoulos was indignant, of course, completely wild, which is already hiding. Although this is how to see …

Perhaps this is the same “The charm of the unusual”? Or … an unusual charm in the intermediate space.

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