Is Russia An Artistic Police State?
According to the Guardian newspaper, the image here — two policemen kissing each other among birch trees and snow — has been banned by Russia’s culture minister, Alexander Sokolov, from an exhibit of contemporary Russian art that is being shown next week in Paris. Entitled “Kissing Policemen (An Epoch of Clemency),” and created by the Russian art collective Blue Noses, the piece has been described by Sokolov as a political provocation. Sixteen other works are being pulled from the show. “If this exhibition appears [in Paris],” said the minister, “it will bring shame on Russia.” Many Russian artists have protested the censorship of the works which, curiously, have already been displayed in Moscow.
Kissing policemen isn’t the only work prohibited by Russian Ministry of Culture. Among 17 others that didn’t go to exhibition in Paris, there is this one by an art group called PG. You can see it here and decide by yourself should such things be banned or not:
http://kinst.livejournal.com/19581.html
It is a huge print (2 x 3 meters) with video installed in the center of it.