The Orthodox Church Has Stopped A Giant 'Eye Of Sauron' Being Built Over Moscow
The exhibit would have featured a giant red eye as a symbol of Sauron, the evil lord of the Middle Earth, on top of one of Moscow's new skyscrapers. It would have been launched tonight as Moscow gets ready for the premiere of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, the latest movie of the saga of the Ring.
The conservative Orthodox church didn't like it one bit. The Russian state-funded broadcaster RT writes that the church's spokesperson, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, took to Govorit Moskva radio to say that: "such a symbol of triumphant evil rising above Moscow and becoming one of the tallest objects in the city … is it good or bad? I am afraid it's mostly bad. One shouldn't be surprised if something goes wrong with the city after that." He went on to call the eye a symbol of Satan.
The piece of art would have measured 1 metre in diameter and would have been put on the roof of the "IQ-quarter" complex in Moscow International Business Center "Moscow-City."
In the novel from JRR Tolkien, the red eye symbolises the evil lord's wish to control everything, an allusion that many critics link to state surveillance.
The installation, designed by Russian art group "Svechenie" attracted quite a buzz on Twitter:
After the condemn from the Orthodox church, Sputnik news agency tweeted that the project was cancelled:
More to follow.