Web studio guru Sergei Kuznetsov sees it as a chance to draw.
Sergei Kuznetsov Content Group, one of the biggest Russian web studios, has opened a contest called “Drawing the Court” that invites anyone to submit drawings of Khodorkovsky’s trial, which started in March in Moscow’s Khamovnichesky District Court.
There is only one rule: The artist must draw the artwork in court.
The best entries will be featured at an exposition on Sept. 15, and the winners in four categories will receive a week’s vacation in New York.
“When speaking about Khodorkovsky’s trial, many people think that everything is cut and dry,” Kuznetsov said on his blog. “For some people he is a fighter for a free and open Russia, for others — a thief to be jailed.
“But I think that the subject is far greater,” he said. “A man was wealthy with many prospects, and the next moment he became an inmate. What a fantastic jump! How could that be? What did he feel? And other people? There are a lot of questions to seek answers to.”
The contest aims to raise interest in Russian court processes and provide a showcase for courtroom art, an obscure genre in Russia, according to the contest’s web site, Risuemsud.ru.
The first drawings have been posted on the web site and include three pencil sketches by Svetlana Sorokina, a former liberal commentator with NTV television. One sketch, titled “Tired,” shows a prosecutor with closed eyes and a drooping mouth sitting at his table in the courtroom. No recognizable likenesses of Khodorkovsky were among the five entries on the site Thursday. All appeared to be supportive of Khodorkovsky.
Kuznetsov believes Khodorkovsky should be freed, but contestants can show other views if they express them tastefully, said the project’s director, Zlata Polerovskaya.
“The position of Sergei Kuznetsov is that Khodorkovsky must be let off,” Polerovskaya told The Moscow Times. “But if the author of a picture thinks otherwise and shows it in his work, he is welcome to do so.”
A jury of critics will choose the winning artworks in the categories of paintings, sketches, caricatures and comics.
Moscow City Court spokeswoman Anna Usachyova said she had no problem with people trying out their artistic skills in court.
“This is nothing special for us. The hearings are open and anyone can visit them, including artists who often work in the courts on equal terms with photographers,” Usachyova said.
“The legal process is strictly regulated by the law, and it is very unlikely that any artistic activity could hinder or affect it,” she added.
This is not the first art project associated with Khodorkovsky’s legal troubles. During his first trial in 2004, his lawyers organized a poster competition that collected about 500 works.
Polerovskaya said the latest contest was organized without the participation of Khodorkovsky and his lawyers.
Khodorkovsky’s defense team is pleased with the competition, spokesman Maxim Dbar said.
“The lawyers have already told Mikhail Borisovich that the competition has started,” Dbar added.
Khodorkovsky, the former CEO of Yukos and formerly the wealthiest man in Russia, is serving an eight-year sentence after being convicted of fraud and tax evasion in the first trial. He faces up to 22 1/2 years in prison if he is found guilty of money laundering and embezzlement in the second trial. He and his supporters say he is being punished by the Kremlin for his political and business ambitions.
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