| Mikhail Shvydkoy is concerned about where culture is heading The head of the Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography, Mikhail Shvydkoy, began the press conference on cultural policy issues extremely emotionally. According to him, he is alarmed and does not quite understand how culture will develop further - “in a civilized manner, like the last 15-20 years, or in a different direction.” At first he did not identify dangerous vectors, noting, however, that we are talking about the implementation of the Federal Cultural Program.
But he named two problems that the state in the field of culture needs to deal with first. Their combination looked unexpected. According to Shvydkoy, Russia needs protectionism in relation to traditional national cultures, it is necessary to support the small peoples of the North, endangered languages, crafts, and so on: “Everyone faces this problem - industrial culture requires cosmopolitanism. Even the English of the Internet has nothing in common with living literary English. We simply need to preserve genuine intangible values.” The second topic of concern to the official was the low tolerance of Russian society.
To the question of Vremya Novostey about how exactly both can be developed with the help of state cultural management (that is, can presidential grants to the Beryozka ensemble and the Igor Moiseev folk dance ensemble be considered one of the mechanisms for preserving true folklore), the head of the federal agency answered evasively. Mechanisms for preserving heritage, in his opinion, “are a matter of life.” And also no more details. As for the grants, the recipients of which will now not be opera and ballet troupes, symphony orchestras and conservatories, but the keepers of traditions represented by the above-mentioned ensembles, the Orchestra of Folk Instruments named after. Osipov and Khora named after. Alexandrova, here Shvydkoy agreed that this is not true folklore. But, according to him, in this case we are talking about another paragraph of cultural policy. The fact is that personnel flows abroad. “Look at the Irish dance show Riverdance - only the soloists of the Moiseev ensemble are dancing there! The grants are designed to keep professionals in their homeland.” That is, at first ballet dancers and classical musicians were supported by grants. Now the state has begun to support folklore ensembles, which it sees as a reservoir of professionalism competitive in the international market. It turns out that values, of course, are needed, but dancers are more important.
The problem of tolerance was not discussed in such detail, but succinctly. According to Shvydkoy, “the right to free creativity and free access to creativity is written in the constitution, and the laws must be respected.” Journalists could only hear in these words a reproach either to society itself, or to some non-personal forces that do not want to comply with the constitution.
In response to questions about the reconstruction of the Bolshoi Theater, Shvydkoy said that the final amount that the state would allocate for the work had been agreed upon - 15 billion rubles. This is two times less than what the theater asked for. “The amount is heavy and adjustments to the project will be required.” Regarding the opera The Children of Rosenthal, he said: “The more it is attacked, the more I like it! The production is a little overloaded with direction, but that’s my personal opinion.” And speaking about the situation around the premiere, Shvydkoy was indignant at Vladimir Solovyov’s Sunday program: “How can you ask TV viewers whether to ban an opera or not? If society is asked the wrong questions, it will answer them wrong. If you ask whether you should love your neighbor, everyone will answer “you should.” And if in another way: “Maybe you shouldn’t love your neighbor,” then some will answer like that - “don’t.” This is a simple manipulation. Almost 16 thousand voted for the ban, but only 4.5 thousand were physically able to watch the opera!”
Another pressing question - about the verdict for the organizers of the exhibition “Caution, Religion” - remained unanswered: “I am an official and cannot comment on the court’s decisions. As for the reaction of society, I have already said and can repeat that tolerance and the right to creativity are written in the constitution. And all television remotes have one thing in common - a button that you can press, turn it off and not watch it all!”
The official was also asked about the problems of preserving monuments, libraries, publishing programs and the transfer of cultural property in connection with the 60th anniversary of the Victory. But here he said nothing new. I only noted that the issue of returning valuables was not relevant before and certainly had nothing to do with the 60th anniversary. “There is a law, and you can work within its framework.”
It seemed that Mikhail Shvydkoy had called a press conference specifically in order to, by calling for the preservation of the cultural traditions of disappearing peoples, speak out or at least hint at the topic of a threat to free creativity and a free society. Although he made it clear that the state is more willing to fund dancers than targeted programs to preserve the cultures of small nations, it seems that the threat, from his point of view, lies not only in insufficient funding. It is also about manipulation of public consciousness and non-compliance with laws and principles of the constitution. But since it is practically useless to call society itself to order, in a frenzy succumbing to hypnotic passes, these were, apparently, remarks addressed to the manipulators themselves: “Mask, mask, I know you.” Yulia BEDEROVA |
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