Welcome to the international exhibition "State and Religion"!


State and Religion. Where does one begin and the other end?
A century ago the French decided that question and separated legislatively these two important institutions. This decision became a universal standard and entered the constitutions of many nations. It was believed that the harmony was established and all the interested parties were satisfied. Unfortunately, in the constantly-changing world one or the other side tries to undermine that balance. We see how the ruling elites oppress the believers and disallow any sign of religious worship. Or vice-versa, the ruling group attempting to fill their own ideological vacuum begins to play with religion. There are nations where religious leaders seeking the highest reaches of political office forget about their flock.

The conflict between religious and secular parts of the community flares up often and Russian political scene is no exception to this tendency. The rising clout of Eastern Orthodoxy doesn’t limit itself to caring about worshipper’s souls, and the populist government does everything to encourage the influence of the church on the citizenry. In situations where non-commercial organizations lose their basic rights, the church is provided with various financial and political privileges. Things have gotten so bad that 10 Russian academics sent a letter to the President asking him to safeguard the secular character of the nation.

Wherever there is a conflict, a cartoonist will always find something to write about. That is why we invited cartoonists from around the globe to tell us their thoughts on each of the questions discussed.

January 20-th 2008 the exhibition was opened at www.cartoon-expo.com.
73 artists from 30 countries sent more than 200 works.
75 cartoons were chosen for our virtual gallery.


The international Jury has announced the results of the contest.
Three main Prizes were shared between
Ahmet Aykanat (Turkey),
Mikhail Zlatkovsky (Russia),
Sergey Sichenko (Israel).

Honorable Mentions were received by
Tsocho Peev (Bulgaria),
Sabine Voigt (Germany),
Sergey Elkin (Russia),
Mikhail Zlatkovsky (Russia),
Vasily Alexandrov (Russia).

A Special Jury Prize was given to Alexandr Mitnyk (Germany)

The Administration of CARTUNION thanks everybody for the wonderful art and incredible sense of humor.



The drawing by Vasily Alexandrov

(The drawing by Vasily Alexandrov)



The list of participants with the number of presented works:

Esteban Ariel Balzano (Elmer) - Argentina - 3
Santiago Cornejo - Argentina - 5

Arsen Gevorgyan DIZO - Armenia - 3

Bayram Hacizadeh - Azerbaijan - 4
Babek Rustamzade - Azerbaijan - 1

Kishore Ahmed - Bangladesh - 1

Aleksandr Shmidt - Belorussia - 2

Resad Sultanovic - Bosnia-Hercegovina - 6

Lisa Arikawa - Brazil - 2
Érico Junqueira Ayres - Brazil - 1
Carlos Alberto da Costa AMORIM - Brazil - 1
Cival Einstein - Brazil - 2
Alexandre Franco - Brazil - 2
Silvano Rosa Gonçalves de Melo - Brazil - 1
Antonio Carlos de Paula Junior (Junião) - Brazil - 2
Osmani Simanca - Brazil - 2

Rumen Dragostinov - Bulgaria - 1
Valentin Georgiev - Bulgaria - 3
Tsocho Peev - Bulgaria - 1
Anatoliy Stankulov - Bulgaria - 2

Liu Hong - China - 7
Jia Rui Jun - China - 1

Huseyin Cakmak - Cyprus - 1

Rene Bouschet - France - 2

Erdogan Karayel - Germany - 2
Alexander Mitnyk - Germany - 3
Sabine Voigt - Germany - 4

Athanassios Efthimiadis - Greece - 1
Manolis Zoulakis - Greece - 1

Ashif Ahmed - India - 2
Vemula Rajamouli - India - 1

Homayoun Abdolrahimi - Iran - 6
Ali Aghaey - Iran - 2
Rahim Baqqal Asghari - Iran - 3
Shahrokh Heidari - Iran - 2
Hamed Nabahat - Iran - 5
Masoud Ziaei Zardkhashoei - Iran - 2

Avital Alter - Israel - 2
Boris Erenburg - Israel - 6
Ilya Katz - Israel - 2
Sergey Sichenko - Israel - 5
Vladimir Vitkov - Israel - 8

Andrea Bersani - Italy - 1

Young Sik Oh - Korea - 3

Nizar Outhman - Lebanon - 1

Zlatko Krstevski - Macedonia - 4
Jordan Pop-Iliev - Macedonia - 6
Tome Sekulovski - Macedonia - 8

Melquíades Melgarejo - Paraguay - 1

Michal Graczyk - Poland - 1
Maciej Trzepalka - Poland - 3
Tomasz Wołoszyn - Poland - 9

Marian Avramescu - Romania - 3
Gheorghe Matei - Romania - 1
Borta Ovidiu - Romania - 1

Igor Aleshin - Russia - 3
Vasily Alexandrov - Russia - 2
Victor Bogorad - Russia - 14
Sergey Elkin - Russia - 1
Vladimir Kamaev - Russia - 1
Valeri Tarasenko - Russia - 1
Sergey Tunin - Russia - 1
Mikhail Zlatkovsky - Russia - 8

Otas Nikola - Serbia - 5

Raed Khalil - Syria - 1

Tawan Chuntra - Thailand - 4

Ahmet Aykanat - Turkey - 4
Umit Mufit Dincay - Turkey - 4

Alexander Dubovsky - Ukraine - 1
Serghiy Fedko - Ukraine - 11
Vladimir Kazanevsky - Ukraine - 1

Andrey Feldshteyn - USA - 3
Huey Nguyenhuu - USA - 2


CARTUNION (English).
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International Exhibition "State and Religion".