Serbian artists' protest over vandalized strip art exhibition

Beta/Emil Vaš

Last week's vandalization of a strip art and caricature exhibition in a Belgrade gallery and an ensuing statement from the Serbian Ministry of Culture drew condemnation and protests from artists, political parties and the public.

The Ministry of Culture condemnded the attack by a group of minors who broke into the gallery, threw in at least one tear gas canister and ripped the art work from the walls but the statement drew protests because it called the exhibition a collection of „immoral content veiled in alleged creativity“ which, according to the ministry, „drew fully justified negative reactions“.

The protest by artists was organized in front of the central Belgrade Cvijeta Zuzoric Pavillion, one of the city’s major galleries, at five minutes to noon on Sunday under the slogan Stop Violence in Culture. It was held as a show of support for the authors of the vandalized exhibition at the Stara Kapetanija gallery.The artists carried banners calling for an end to right-wing violence and censorship.

The group of 15 young men who vandalized the exhibit were arrested but only the two who are adults were held and face charges.