Syndicate: Scandal in Montenegro (fwd)

[inke@is.in-berlin.de (Inke Arns)]

Dear deep_europeans,

I received this message today and I thought that it might be of *some* interest.
Greetings, Inke.

Miran Mohar writes:

From:             michael.benson@pristop.si
To:               "Miran Mohar" <miran@mordor.kud-fp.si>
Date sent:        Mon, 29 Sep 1997 14:44:38 +0000
Subject:          Icon and the Axe

I think that this is an interesting event and I anybody find more on
it please e-mail it to me. miran@mordor.kud-fp.si. I only know about
this event from Slovenian daily newspaper Dnevnik and a friend of mine
from Belgrade confirm the event. Here is more on it from Michael
Benson.


Miran Mohar

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Miran: Use this one -- it's updated at the end. Cheers, M

THE ICON AND THE AX: INITIAL INFORMATION ON THE
DESTRUCTION AT THE  MONTENEGRO BIENNIAL

(This report filed by Michael Benson -- michael.benson@pristop.si --
based on a report in the Slovenian newspaper Dnevnik. I would
appreciate that any further information about this event be forwarded
to me at that e-mail address as it comes in) 

Monday September 29 -- Apparently over the weekend a rampaging horde
of Orthodox monks attacked and destroyed a good part of the Montenegro
Biennial, which had given itself the provocative title "New Icons".
According to a patchy account in Slovenian daily paper Dnevnik, they
were "not satisfied" with the paintings exhibited. (!) The paper said
that fourteen paintings vanished and a number were destroyed; an
installation by Montenegrin artist Anka Buric was completely
destroyed. The monks also burned down a bus station in Cetinje where
French and Belgrade student artists had exhibited their work.
According to the paper, it probably wasn't an attack directly
sanctioned by the Montenegrin Orthodox Church, because the head of
that autocephelous body had visited the exhibition opening without
negative comment. According to the paper, some of the works destroyed
belonged to "major European museums" (there were no further details).
The paper also said that the people of Cetinje apparently tried to
stop "the destructive act of the monks of the Monastery of St. Peter
of Cetinski." On Friday there were rumors that those in charge of
"protecting orthodoxy and Serbian values" in Niksic and other northern
Montenegrin towns were preparing a march on Cetinje to expel foreign
and domestic artists in Montenegro for the biennial. 

The Montenegro biennial is only three years old. It is organized by
Nikola the Second Petrovich Njegosh -- a descendant of King Nikola the
First of Montenegro. Along with it's far bigger neighbor Serbia,
Montenegro is one of the two remaining republics of the rump
Yugoslavia. 

Having twice visited the monasteries in the Monastic Autonomous
Republic of Athos (a protectorate of Greece, on the northernmost
Halkidiki peninsula) in the 80's, I can personally  attest to the fact
that Orthodox monks in particular see themselves as guardians of
Orthodox purity -- calling anything other than an icon an icon is
obviously pushing them a bit too far.

The Serbian Orthodox church directly endorsed Serbian territorial
claims on Bosnia and Croatia during and after the bloody Balkan wars
of 1991-95. Orthodox leaders have been widely criticized for not
condemning the massacres of Bosnian and Croatian civilians (and the
wholesale destruction of mosques and Catholic churches), which took
place during that conflict. 

(end)
michael.benson@pristop.si

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