Artist George Gabriel once again provokes controversy with new works at the Blu Iris Gallery in Paphos. Critics accuse the paintings of deliberately desecrating Christ, the Virgin Mary, and core symbols of the Orthodox faith.
The exhibition triggers widespread anger on social media and among political figures.
DISY Deputy President Efthymios Diplaros states: “This is crude blasphemy, not art. Whoever presents it and whoever supports it bears full responsibility. Invoking ‘freedom of expression’ is a cheap alibi for offending the religious conscience of millions of believers. Tolerance of such acts is not neutrality; it is complicity.”
ELAM spokesman Marios Pelekanos comments: “An opportunity for the usual circles to start babbling about freedom of expression again. Shame. Exhibits by the known ‘artist’ in Paphos. Woe if anyone is allowed to insult our faith. The legislation must finally be applied.”
Dispute over circulating collage
The controversy escalates with a circulating image presented as Gabriel’s work. Gabriel denies it as his creation and claims Diplaros made the collage by cutting and combining various works to create impressions.
In his post, Gabriel also announces removal of the exhibition works from the Blu Iris Gallery.
Gabriel’s statement on removal
Gabriel explains that he removes the works after the gallery owner receives threats against his life and potential damage to the building. Threats begin on Thursday following a video posted by an ELAM candidate in Paphos, later removed after intervention.
Threats intensify on Saturday and continue. During the opening, three young individuals remove some ground-floor works, which staff later reinstate.
Police know the details, attend discreetly at the opening and during removal. The owner declines to file a written complaint due to the climate of intimidation, but authorities can act on their own.
Gabriel concludes: “We live in difficult times where artists exhibit under police guard and remove their works due to intimidation and terrorism!”
Diplaros’ response
Efthymios Diplaros, through the page “Kypros Patrida mou” (“Κύπρος Πατρίδα μου”), rejects Gabriel’s accusations. The page states they created the collage as a summary of Gabriel’s publicly presented works, not attributed as a single piece.
“The collage that circulated was created by the page “Kypros Patrida mou” and constitutes a summary and collection of your own ‘works’, as they have been publicly presented by you yourself. It is not attributed to you as ‘a single work’, but as a visual depiction of the content that you yourself have chosen to create and exhibit,” the page states in its post.
In continuation, they address Gabriel, declaring that it makes absolutely no difference whether he depicted the Virgin Mary with painted nails in one work, Christ as a homosexual in a second, a nude person reading the Holy Scripture with genitals exposed in a third, or Christ engaging in obscene acts in a fourth. The essence remains the same.
“The collage is a summary of your blasphemous creations. And there are photographs that prove each one separately and independently. If you deleted the specific ones, it constitutes proof that you violate the legislation and you know it. And this reveals your cowardice,” it adds in the post and concludes by asking him to stop presenting himself as a victim. “The only perpetrator here is YOU. You have the nerve to pose as the persecuted. The only ones who are persecuted, mocked, and insulted are Christ and our Virgin Mary. These are the difficult times we live in. No artist needs police protection. Only blasphemous bad artists,” it states conclusively at the end.
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