Translated material
Cockroaches in the heads
The trial of the organizers of “Forbidden Art” showed the bureaucratization of the Russian artistic process
The trial of the organizers of the exhibition “Forbidden Art” Andrei Erofeev and Yuri Samodurov, which ended with a guilty fine, can be regarded as new evidence of the bureaucratization of the modern artistic process.A little history. The exhibition “Forbidden Art 2006” was held from March 7 to March 31, 2007 at the Moscow Museum and Public Center named after A.D. Sakharov. The exhibition featured works of contemporary art that were subject to museum or gallery censorship. In particular, works by Ilya Kabakov, the Blue Noses group, Mikhail Roshal-Fedorov, Vagrich Bakhchanyan, Leonid Sokov and other artists.
Curator Andrei Erofeev at that time headed the department of newest trends at the State Tretyakov Gallery (STG). Yuri Samodurov was then in charge of the Sakharov Museum and Public Center. According to the chairman of the far-right public organization "People's Council" Oleg Kassin, the exhibits offended the feelings of believers and incited religious hatred. He sent a corresponding statement on his own behalf to the Prosecutor General's Office in March 2007.
In June 2007, the Prosecutor General's Office opened a criminal case under Art. 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (incitement of hatred or enmity). As you know, the organizers of the exhibition, supported by most of the liberal art community, considered the accusations to be unfounded (and they do, which is why they are preparing to file a cassation appeal against the court’s decision).
The prosecution's arguments especially impressed those present during the judge's reading of the guilty verdict. There were about two hundred people crammed into the room, the size of an apartment. The windows are barred - you can't open them. The atmosphere heated up to sixty degrees. In a semi-fainting state, everyone listened to the charges read out first on behalf of the prosecutor, then from each witness (a total of fifty pages). These were maxims repeated hundreds of times about an attack on Russian spirituality, about insulting the feelings of believers, about a conscious conspiracy, about the blasphemous Order of Lenin on a canonical figure in golden robes from one picture, about the hooligan attraction of works with obscene language, about false walls in the holes of which curators They suggested watching in order to arouse interest in blasphemy in a cynical way. And in every passage it’s the same thing. It was reminiscent of either a spell of primitive peoples, or a visual illustration of Baudrillard’s passage about the triumph of simulacra in modern civilization. For a normal person, none of the arguments stand up to criticism. Who gave the right to meddle in the foreign territory of a culture that has a different (at least requiring education) language and constructions of meaning, who allowed the mixing of sacred and profane zones, to evaluate what one does not understand. And how could it happen that the court acted as a censor in this impossible dispute?
That's it. Now imagine that we ourselves ended up at the exhibition “Forbidden Art 2006”. So you'll want to cry. And quickly plug up the holes. And the names of good artists, such as Roginsky, Kabakov, Sokov, Roshal, will not save... Taken out of context, their works turned out to be a stupid illustration. Not even the idea of replacing true values in the world of the Soviet Union and consumer society, but the bureaucratic topic itself: what irritates Russian cultural officials today. (Remember that the collected works were subjected to internal workshop censorship for one reason or another.) Then the idea of a persecuted exhibition is reduced to some very nomenklatura paragraph: here is a list of works that Russian bureaucrats do not like. The idea itself turned out to be purely bureaucratic and the apotheosis of bureaucracy for obvious Russian reasons and ended. Moreover, in the good traditions of Russian casuistry, the organizers (Yuri Samodurov) stepped on the same rake. Well, after all, the whole world defended in the same Sakharov Center the exhibition “Beware of Religion!”, which was equally harsh in relation to the canons of Christian images, which took place in 2003 and aroused the wrath of religious fanatics. What's the point of teasing them again if the next exhibition doesn't bring any truly new and interesting meanings?
Paradoxically, in this repetition of the past (with all the resulting trials and sentences), the psychology of the official also makes itself felt. I want to stick to my line, but I won’t pay attention to the truly complex and contradictory, purely Russian state of affairs. Delicacy is an antique thing.
In this situation, when there is a lot of showdowns, PR and nomenklatura passions, the actual quality of art suffers. It becomes a means of satisfying various ambitions. Its limit is often the need to top the hit parade of blogging parties, which was confirmed by the action held yesterday by PR virtuosos, the Voina group, on the steps of the stairs of the Tagansky Court building. Just before the start of the process, the youth poured several thousand black cockroaches onto the stairs. Black PR? What are you talking about...A subtle social and artistic gesture!