In Paris, they threw eggs at a performance by Castellucci. In the US, a photo of Christ in urine causes an uproar in the Senate. And in Athens, far-right and extreme Christians demonstrate in the "Smelter". Aesthetic taste and the provocation of political or religious sentiment

Uploading his show Romeo Castellucci "On the concept of the person of the Son of God" in October 2011 at the Theater de la Ville in Paris caused intense polemic. Members of para-religious organizations picketed outside the theater with the dominant slogan "Stop Christianophobia" demanding that the show be stopped, which continued only after the intervention of the police. Not the next day, and despite increased security measures, spectators were attacked with eggs and oil.
The events provoked angry reactions, with the Italian director himself commentating by paraphrasing Jesus. "I forgive them because they don't know what they are doing," Castellucci specifically said. "I forgive them because they are ignorant and their ignorance is much more arrogant and harmful because it has to do with faith".
A few months earlier, in any case, the staging of the same work in Athens as part of the Greek Festival had gone smoothly. Any objections from the viewers were left at the level of private commentary, with a computable part being identifiable, perhaps, with a recent one, then, phrase of the critic of the British "Guardian" after the London "station" of the show. “Despite the shocking warnings, felt more slightly bored than morally offended," wrote Michael Billington referring to, obviously, in the recurring motif of the well-dressed son rolling up his sleeves to change the diapers of his elderly father who gets dirty and dirty on everything, with an oversized reproduction of Antonello da Messina's "Savior of the World" dominating the background of the scene.
The Athenian performances of another "blasphemous" play went on just as "calmly", the rise of which in Paris also caused strong reactions in parareligious and far-right circles. The reason for it «Golgota Picnic» of Argentina's Rodrigo Garcia, which we saw just last June at the Athens Festival and referred to the life of Christ through harsh images of the consumer society. As for the "Tolerance Orgy", another subversive performance by the Belgian "heretical" artist Jan Fabre which "traveled" to Athens in the summer of 2009, the image of Jesus with a cross in his hand taking part in the casting of a fashion photographer was one of the mildest in the whole spectacle…
In this context, the heterochronized reactions to Lena Kitsopoulou's performance "Athanassios Diakos: The return' and, more recently, what happened in the theater "Foundry" on the occasion of the Greek uploading of his work Terence McNally "Body of Christ" they could also be surprising for reasons beyond the obvious and much-discussed in recent days.
Where are they due?; In an ever-escalating climate of tension fueled by the clash of extremes; In "ethical populism" which according to some is being encouraged (and) by a portion of the mass media; At some random juncture; In all of these together; Or maybe something else;
The truth is that the "shock" in art with the vehicle "blasphemy" has a precedent in recent years in our country. A typical example is the de-fixation of the work of the Belgian Thierry de Cordier from the Outlook exhibition on 2003, about a month and a half after its inauguration and after it had already been visited by more than 20.000 individuals. A few years later, the 2007, the confiscation of Eva Stefani's video from the Art Athina exhibition and the subsequent arrest of the director of the event for "violation of the obscenity law and insulting symbols of the Greek state" once again brought to the fore the debate about censorship and the existence or non-existence of limits in art.


Shock and awe in a cruel world
Does art still have the power to shock?; Does this make sense in an age where with a simple "click" on the Internet, everyone gains access to even the harshest images; What emotion follows the “oh!» of the initial shock; The above questions were the focus of a large investigation conducted about a month ago by the "Times" of New York.
For two weeks, critics, artists, intellectuals and readers participated in the public debate which was held against the backdrop of the amateur film "The Innocence of Muslims", which caused events of incredible ferocity in the Arab world (its echo also reached our country), the sentencing of members of the all-female punk band Pussy Riot in Russia, but also the re-exhibition of Andres Serrano's much-discussed photo "Piss Christ" in a New York gallery.
The presentation of this photo – which depicts Jesus "drenched" in urine – the 1989 provoked strong reactions in the US Senate and led to the modification of the art grants regime. In this case, the prospect of its new presentation led to efforts to revive the "culture war". The reaction of a Republican senator who accused President Barack Obama of "religious hypocrisy" is typical, calling on him to condemn the photo with the same harshness he used against the film profane for Muhammad.
In an interview granted to the "Times" critic Maggie Nelson, author of the book “The Art of Cruelty: an estimate", disagrees with director Michael Haneke's view that art, reflecting the cruelty of the world, "rushes the viewer into independence". She said characteristically: "I like it when artists face the unmanageable consequences of their work instead of trying to hide it behind press comments “my job is not hard, the world is cruel”. Artists are not moralists or psychologists. I'd rather admit that, depicting shocking or violent behaviour, we always raise tough questions about voyeurism, the sadism, masochism and erotic arousal and that these challenges are not always under the control of the artist".

Turn to conservatism
In an earlier interview with "Vima" Jan Fabre discerned a more general shift towards conservatism. "Ten years ago I participated in a festival and if someone left in the middle of the show, the people in charge said: “a, something important is happening here, something new”. Now they tremble at this kind of reactions of the people. They are afraid of bad reviews, the impact this may have on grants or private sponsorships.'.
For Fabre the term challenge is identified with the enlivening of the mind. "However, I never intended to provoke, to create a scandal" he said in the same interview. "I'm just talking about things that interest me and it just so happens that some people get provoked. But that is not my starting point. Often people are quick to label anything provocative,what they don't understand, The,what they can't put into a category or something they don't want to deal with seriously, to contact him. But no serious work of art begins with the intention of provoking".
British opera director Graham Vick has also seen a turn towards conservatism in recent years, another "terrible child" of the European scene. On the occasion of his debut in Greece a few years ago, he himself confessed to "Vima" that he has suffered many personal attacks from time to time and keeps folders full of hate messages.
What meaning does he give to the words "risk", "challenge" and "scandal"; "Risk is the driving force. The challenge makes me narrow minded, while I find the scandal useless. I'm usually called provocative when I don't mean to be. I want to have one in front of me “bet”, but it is not in my intentions to create scandals…».

From Roosevelt's rage to the "broken" kiss
What was the most shocking moment in 20th century Art?; With this question, the "New York Times" conducted a poll among its readers as part of a wider related survey. The results brought the first place exhibition "Sensation" at the Brooklyn Museum on 1999 (the then mayor of New York, Rudolph Giuliani, threatened to cut off funding if he did not "take down" the work of Nigerian-born British artist Chris Ofili, which featured a portrait of the Virgin Mary "adorned" with clippings from porn magazines and elephant feces), in the second Stanley Kubrick's "Ringed Orange" and in the third "The Rite of Spring" by Igor Stravinsky, the premiere of which the 1913 there was a huge scandal.
In the opinion of many, this last event in conjunction with the first Exhibition of Modern Art in the USA, which drew the ire of former President Theodore Roosevelt a little earlier, created a new "cultural manifesto" by reducing shock to cultural value.
That the challenge as such does not guarantee artistic quality is of course clear and the Greek public has similar experiences. In a production of "Rusalka" a few years ago at the Lyric Stage, the reactions to the Prince's much-discussed gay kiss turned an admittedly bad production into the season's talking point., which even managed to exceed the borders of our country.
On the other, the "cutting" of the kiss between a nobleman and a servant imposed by state television in the first episode of the BBC serial «Downton Abbey» just a few days ago, constitutes yet another case of censorship and even on the occasion of a subject that has certainly long since ceased to be a taboo.    

Source : tovima.gr