Art may not be the antidote to ignorance and chauvinism, but it is divinely effective at exposing them.
Flag from “Neighbourhood Guilt” Art Exhibit - Artist Georgia Lale
Ancient Greeks gave the world philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, literature, theatre, the Olympics, and democracy, only to name a few. While many modern Greeks strive to uphold our values, virtues, and intellect, many manage to make a mockery of our heritage.
I once asked my late father “what is Greece’s most notable export?” He replied with poise and a smile “intelligence.”
Sadly, a current event points to the contrary. It started with the image you see above: the Greek flag in pink hues. The flag was presented on December 15, 2023, in the first iteration of the Carte Blanche project—an exhibition addressing femicide and domestic violence.
The exhibition is part of a pilot artist showcase program presented by the Consulate General of Greece in New York, intended to highlight the work of Greek artists living and/or working in New York. The work is titled “Neighborhood Guilt,” and is made by Greek (New York-based) artist Georgia Lale.
In the words of the Artist: “The majority of victims of femicide are murdered in their houses and on their beds. Their lives end on the bed that they make every morning. Their bed sheets soak up their blood.”
The murder of 20-year-old Caroline Crouch is said to have sparked the art piece and what pushed Lale to ask women in Greece to send her sheets.
“With these sheets I created the Greek flag when I returned to my studio in New York. And the choice of the pink color was not mine, it was of the women of Greece,” she said.
After complaints from a far-right party in Parliament, Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis ordered the removal of the art piece. In a 2024 budget debate in Parliament, leader of the nationalist, pro-Orthodoxy party Niki, Dimitris Natsios, saw it fit to hold up a photo of the work, claiming it “mocks our national symbol.”
His exact words: “The flag changes color only when it is dyed red by the blood of our people’s struggles.”
Well, now that we’ve got your attention dear sirs, I ask: Our people, you say. Are women that are subjected to gender-based violence and femicide not our people?
What exactly makes these women so easily dismissible to you? Is it that they were killed by their husband, boyfriend, brother, uncle, or other men, that clouds your masculine judgement?
Does the blood of these women not matter?
Is the rate of femicides perhaps too low for you to consider?
Should we have waited until the killings and violence increased to speak up? Would that have pleased you more?
The appalling truth is that our women bleed, struggle, and die at the hands of our (and other) men.
If only the sight of battered, assaulted, murdered women would alarm and trigger you as much as this art piece has. Maybe then you’d focus on establishing a definition of femicide in the Greek Criminal Code, instead of using your powerful voices spoken in your mother tongue to silence women in your Motherland and beyond.
If you had any respect for your place of birth, dear sirs, you’d be wise to cherish not only the blood that flows in the body of the woman who birthed you, your sisters, your brothers, your friends, your children, and grandchildren, but that of the other women who are not otherwise connected or related to you. Your claims and orders to remove the art piece are a testament to your misogyny and dyspathy for the blood-spill of murdered women. Sadly, it seems that Good Greek Orthodox people who take Holy Communion and drink Sacramental wine from a common cup, are rendered too drunk to value the blood of commonly murdered women.
“I am sorry that my work was misinterpreted. The victims of femicide and domestic violence are heroes in the fight for the right to life and freedom in Greece and worldwide,” said Lale.
Lale also had a few words for Foreign Minister Gerapetritis: “By removing an art piece from an exhibition, in essence, you are not removing it, you are elevating it.”
And that is essentially the purpose of art, isn’t it? It isn’t simply to delight, it is to inform, provoke, expose, reflect, and educate. It isn’t the art that “mocks our national symbol,” it is the powerful men in Parliament who not only turn a blind eye to misogyny, but also use their positions of power to perpetuate it.
Articles, stats, facts
The European Institute for Gender Equality has estimated that the cost of intimate partner violence against women in Greece could amount to EUR 2.4 billion per year. European Institute for Gender Equality http://eige.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/ MH0414745EN2.pdf
In the EU, estimates suggest that 1 in 3 women (or 61 million out of 185 million) have experienced physical or sexual violence, or both, since the age of 15. European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights
There are generally few indicators that can measure gender-based violence against women, since principles of crime classification systems for statistical use have yet to be established in the EU. https://eige.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/Gender-Equality-Index-Report.pdf
Gender statistics: https://eige.europa.eu/gender-statistics/dgs/indicator/genvio_int_adm_ipv__ipv_indic_9/metadata
A conservative culture has long excused domestic violence and the killing of women. Despite recent progress, patriarchy remains fatal across Greek society. https://newlinesmag.com/reportage/femicide-victims-families-are-struggling-for-recognition-in-greece/
Legal debate in Greece after woman set on fire, dies. https://apnews.com/article/violence-greece-151881affb3bdd4f86e376ea0c226fff
Greek man who murdered British wife appeals for shorter sentence. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/08/greek-husband-who-murdered-british-wife-appeals-for-shorter-sentence
Femicides: the undeclared war on women in Europe https://www.balcanicaucaso.org/eng/Areas/Greece/Femicides-the-undeclared-war-on-women-in-Europe-223895
An “uncharted” crime: The rise of femicide in Greece https://www.missingperspectives.com/posts/unchartered-crime-rise-of-femicide-in-greece/
American scientist Suzanne Eaton raped and killed in Greece: 27-year-old suspect identified. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/american-scientist-suzanne-eaton-raped-killed-greece-27-year-old-n1031586
Killings of women and girls by their intimate partner or other family members https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/statistics/crime/UN_BriefFem_251121.pdf
