Pink flag sparks dispute
The Greek Consulate in New York has removed a pink flag artwork, in the design of the country’s flag, against domestic violence, sparking a dispute. Government officials said that it had been taken down at the request of the Foreign Ministry.
“Clearly we will always protect the freedom of art, and that is something that needn’t be the subject of political debate. But there are some things that are sacred above all. One of them is our flag,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis told Skai TV.
The pieces that make up Georgia Lale’s artwork, titled “Neighborhood Guilt,” come from sheets given to the artist by women living in Greece.
“The majority of the victims of femicide are killed in their homes and in their beds,” Lale wrote in an Instagram post on December 14, the eve of the exhibition’s opening.
The project is the beginning of a pilot program to showcase Greek artists who were either born in New York or in Greece and live in New York.
Dimitris Natsios, the leader of a conservative religious party, Niki, first raised the issue at the weekend.
The removal was slammed by leftist SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis, who wrote in a post that art is allowed to “play” with the colors of national symbols when it seeks to convey a message that expresses opposition to racism or domestic violence.
