Translated material
Plush hypnosis
Art festival for the premiere of “The Master and Margarita”
Vladimir Bortko’s new film is difficult to rip into quotes and turn into urban folklore. The success of “Heart of a Dog” is unique. The time is wrong. The material is different. Texture. Rhythm. The pace is everything else. But I think the film “The Master and Margarita” will still become loved by many. Already now, the scrupulous, sensitive attitude towards the original source, rare for our masters, is encouraging. The director managed to convey the atmosphere of the time.It was this sensitivity that was lacking among the young participants in art exhibitions as part of the “Manuscripts Don’t Burn” festival dedicated to the 65th anniversary of the novel and its film adaptation. The ArtStrelki program turned out to be very weak. Our young stars, from Rostan Tavasiev to video artists, have diligently developed their recognizable brands (Rostan, for example, laid out a mountain of books and planted his favorite plush bunnies on top - the name of the installation “Favor”). Young people turned out to be shamefully indifferent to the world of the novel, its poetics, and atmosphere. That's why watching the exhibition is boring.
A successful alternative is the exhibition at the Museum of Architecture “We’ll hang a star on the Christmas tree!” (curators Lyubov Shaks, Natalya Yazykova, Natalya Semenova, Alexey Loginov). She carefully recreates the realities of Moscow life in the 1930s. In newsreel footage (the selection of film archives was done by Faina Balakhovskaya and Yulia Ovchinnikova), trams are traveling, citizens are running to work, ceremonial panoramas and perspectives of Moscow's Zholtovsky, Shchusev and Iofan avenues are being built. In the center of the hall there is a decorated Christmas tree with cotton toys. The table is set. Art Deco furniture. Soviet fashion show... The very nostalgia for the style of Stalin's time fits into the systematics of the absurd that defined the world of Bulgakov's novel. Carnival irony and parody can be considered anesthesia, allowing you to temporarily forget about the true face of the cannibal era. So the exhibition at MUAR is comparable to a hypnosis session at the Wolandov variety show. The most luxurious album “High Stalinist Style” (Trefoil Publishing House) was presented at the exhibition. It is made like a piece of modern art. This is an installation that reconstructs the landscape of Moscow, seen from the height of the flight of Bulgakov's heroes. The main character is architecture. The artist Evgeny Korneev and the author of the text Evgenia Gershkovich contemplate the Moscow style as if through ancient precious parchment, savoring every detail, every parable, legend. And it turns out that the book, like the exhibition, in the end is not about that vile time, but about us, about our myths, illusions and dreams, often very infantile, like the stuffed cat Behemoth from Bortko’s film.
But whoever wants to hear time in its tragic mode, without carnival complacency, welcome to Sunday, December 25, to the “Repressed Music” concert. The best performers of the Return Foundation Dmitry Bulgakov, Roman Mints, Boris Andrianov, Alexander Kobrin, Ekaterina Apekisheva, Yulia Korpacheva will perform the music of Alexander Mosolov, Nikolai Roslavets, Alexander Veprikov, accused of formalism, repressed in the 30s, banned and forgotten avant-garde composers. The concert as part of the “Manuscripts Don’t Burn” festival will be held at the “School of Dramatic Art” theater on Sretenka.