Oct 12, 2007Quickie Link: No Paris Trip for Russia's Kissing Policemen
By vanrozenheim
(Russia) - It is an intriguing image. Shot among the birch trees and snow of a Siberian forest, two policemen kiss each other passionately on the lips. They hold and - this is not entirely clear - possibly caress each other's buttocks. But the work by a Russian art collective has proved too much for Russia's culture minister, Alexander Sokolov. On Monday Mr Sokolov announced that he was banning the photo, entitled Kissing Policemen (An Epoch of Clemency), from an exhibition of contemporary Russian art due to be exhibited in Paris next week. Mr Sokolov described the photo as political provocation and said he was pulling it, together with 16 other works, from a show at Paris's Maison Rouge exhibition hall.
