BLOG # 21…May 2013
A couple of things I’ve seen lately have reminded me how lucky we are here in Canada
Steven Harper Hates Me is the title of a show by Gabrielle de Montmollin that’s up until May 18 at the red head gallery, a cooperative artists’ space at 401 Richmond Toronto
At the other end of the spectrum of expressive freedom is Pussy Riots, a film that played at HotDocs earlier this month. Pussy Riots, a Russian feminist punk rock collective, shows the young performance artists protesting Vladimir Putin’s third term as president which puts him in charge until 2024. They chose the recently rebuilt Church of our Saviour to protest both the erosion of the democracy which seemed so promising with the fall of the Soviet Union and the conflating of church and state. It aroused immensely strong feelings resulting in arrests, trials and prison sentences for two of the young women. The choice of venue was hugely inflammatory, Russians who’ve been deprived of religious expression for over 70 years, reacted emotionally to an extent that somewhat obscured the purpose and the result, alienating many liberal thinkers. I was enormously moved by these young women, their passion and their courage…when was revolution ever easy - or unemotional?
And, anybody else see the irony in our Prime Minister referring to the attack ads directed at Justin Trudeau as “part of the democratic debate” Last time I checked democracy didn’t include bullying.
