Police get interested in Marachkin’s art

14.05.2008. Source: RFE/RL.

13 May the artist Aliaksei Marachkin was summonsed to Tsentralny district police department of Minsk.

Earlier, on the eve of the Freedom Day, 25 March, Marachkin was detained. His art studio was searched. The police confiscated from him posters and banners and a painting Dolls. Then Marachkin was sentenced to five days of jail for ‘dirty swearing’.

According to Marachkin, the policemen asked him who had produced the posters and for which purpose. They also asked about their content and about the meaning of the confiscated painting. The confiscated items are still at the police department. They have not been returned to the artist.

Marachkin explained the meaning of his Dolls: ‘I painted it after watching a Dolls program on the Russian NTV channel. The program was interesting and I painted the caricatures they showed. We made jokes and laughed. It was a sarcastic work and it was permitted at that time. This painting was exhibited at the Palace of Arts. They took her out of a corner where it lied folded for about ten years. I did not exhibit it, but they suddenly got the need. Now they will try to accuse me of defamation of the head of the state. One cannot even make a caricature. They said some expertise would be conducted. They will check these images and measure their noses, the proportion of the nose to the moustache, etc.’