CovOps
Age : 42
Joined : 27 Oct 2007
Posts : 6014
Location : Ether-Sphere
Job/hobbies : Irrationality Exterminator
Humor : Uber Serious
 |  Subject: Russian artist disappears in Germany  Sat Mar 29, 2008 10:05 pm | |
| BERLIN: A prominent artist who had run-ins with both church and state in her native Russia after taking part in a controversial exhibition has disappeared without a trace from her new home in Berlin.
The artist, Anna Mikhalchuk, 52, has been missing for nearly a week, with no evidence showing so far that she is alive, according to a police statement. She left her apartment in the West Berlin district of Charlottenburg last Friday at 3:30 p.m. and has not been heard from since, the statement said.
Mikhalchuk, who exhibits under the name Alchuk, took part in a show at Andrei Sakharov Museum in Moscow titled "Caution! Religion" in 2003. Shortly after the show opened, six men from an Orthodox church in Moscow ransacked the museum, damaging and destroying many of the works on display.
The museum's director and a curator were convicted in 2005 of inciting religious hatred.
Mikhalchuk was charged but acquitted.
According to her husband, the philosopher Mikhail Ryklin, she received numerous threats during the investigation and trial, but none since coming to Berlin last year so that he could teach at Humboldt University here.
University officials, with Ryklin's help, drafted a letter to the police to highlight the possible political or religious motives for a crime involving Mikhalchuk.
"There were religious fanatics who really hated her," Ryklin said in an interview in their apartment.
"For German police to imagine that someone can suffer for artistic activity - for these people it's not easy because it can't happen here."
Ryklin said his wife's disappearance remained a complete mystery, with the police finding no clues to point to either foul play or an accident. He said the police told him they were doing everything from searching nearby lakes to checking video cameras at train stations.
The police refused to address speculation about Mikhalchuk's disappearance.
"All we know at this point is that the woman is missing," said Michael Maasz, a spokesman for the Berlin police. "There is no evidence of a crime at this point."
Several prominent Kremlin critics have been killed.
Ryklin said he and his wife were critical of government policies but not political. "I am trying to defend my right of free expression," he said. "My wife also was trying to do this."
According to her husband, Mikhalchuk had encountered great difficulties with her artistic career after the trial, shut out of exhibitions and even openings in Moscow. She had been concentrating on her writing career, working on poetry and a book of interviews with prominent cultural figures in Russia and Germany.
"She deserved to be known for other things and not this," Ryklin said.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/27/europe/german.php
Fucking Orthodox church scum!
:Bad mood:
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Nemo
Joined : 26 Dec 2007
Posts : 3197
Location : Mariana Trench -- Hey Feds, come and get me!
Humor : Black
| | Subject: Re: Russian artist disappears in Germany Sun Mar 30, 2008 2:48 am | |
| :Abducted: Goddam mystical yo-yo's!! :Grrrrr:
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