The city of heroes

We continue the publication of the cycle of a video presentation with experts in various fields and public figures about how, in their opinion, it is worth being the presidential center of Boris Yeltsin. The basis of the creation of the Center is the Federal Law “On the Center for the Historical Heritage of the Presidents of the Russian Federation, who has terminated the execution of their powers.” Place of creation - Yekaterinburg. The cycle is part of a wider discussion of the concept and tasks of the center. We publish a commentary on the director of the Yekaterinburg branch of the State Center for Contemporary Art, teacher of the faculty of art history and cultural studies of the Ural State University Alice Pruudnikova .

You know, I’m already a little familiar with the plans of the Yeltsin center, how it is planned to fill it in infrastructure, what objects are expected there, well, in any case, fundamentally: the first is architectural solutions, this contest, which was held. But now I am very embarrassed by the fact of this story as a whole, that in theory there is no concept so far, what is the presidential center.

That is, as I understand it, there are a lot of examples, as is done in America, I don’t know there, in Kazakhstan, somewhere else that there are existing things, but, frankly,-yes, it turns out that, as usual, we should have some kind of path, and just such an information center, as I understand it, most of them are very offensive if the center of Yeltsin was exclusively such an information center.

When this idea began to be discussed initially, it was said that, in principle, there should not be an active living life in this institution of some kind of mausoleum. This seems to me, probably, the most important starting point, because we still do not create some kind of abstract amorphous new institution, we understand that there is already some kind of context, there is a certain background, Yekaterinburg with all this desire for alternative culture and everything in the world, it seems to me that now there is a huge shortage of it, if we look at the proposal of this. Cultural, media and so on. We absolutely do not have such a thing as some kind of communication center in the broad sense of the word, that is, this, as I understand it, is some kind of space that is not a cafe, not a library, not a media center, and not an exhibition hall, but preferably all this together. I recently heard at one of the conferences on the arrow, here in Moscow, that there is such a thing now-social loneliness, and, probably, I don’t notice the only one when young people are sitting somewhere in public spaces: in a cafe, somewhere else with a laptop, they work not at home. Yes, but here. And I honestly feel it for myself, I understand that, for example, depending on where I can go with my laptop in Yekaterinburg, I do not see myself any place, and in theory, if you leave the brackets, as it were, the conceptual side of the issue, and to look at what the center of Yeltsin should be, it seems to me that it should just perform the function of alternatives to the shopping centers, which are of a shopping center, which Now very few. That is, for example, the idea that I promote with the creation of both the Center for Contemporary Art and the Claster, which will appear sooner or later, but now if there is already a specific project, an already existing opportunity, it seems to me that it must be developed in this direction-this is some kind of possible living scenario.

It seems to me that it can be some kind of large-scale archive-historical, literary, and so on, and so on, dedicated to a particular period of this presidency, so to speak, the memorial part, which should be one way or another. And the second part is again another thing that is very missing in the city now-this is some kind of intellectual discussion, and if, for example, it happens that it will be a discussion platform, it would be great, that is, I mean specific things, for example, that every day you can come and see the schedule: such and such a round table, for example, such and such and such and such a thing, that is, it is really very big activity that leaves space for its own opinion. I was very scared when I saw at one of the first presentations, you know, such a strip of video where the pictures were set, well, here are different presidents, how they are going, doing something there, in general, the authority in this center would like the least.

There must be public space without food, it must be public - it should be the space where you just come to communicate. Here. The fact that I say a cafe can be some kind of unique, for example, an information media resource, that is, access to something that we usually go to when we study at the university; A person who graduated from the university often experiences some need, necessity, but in order to go to the university-you need to take a pass, you need to do something else, but here you can have access to some other things. What else? This is probably some kind of exhibition hall, quite transformed in its capabilities. The city has a huge amount of cultural proposal and very few sites where these projects can be implemented, ideas, and so on. I just know, I have some kind of analogues of incredibly saturated, stuffed with modern technology with some sliding walls, with light correction and so on, so that you can do video art, performances, and at the same time, for example, showing painting, and photographs, and everything in the world, well, we understand that each of these genres needs its perfect conditions for exhibiting. And such a transformer hall-there is nothing like this in the city-that would be very important again for some periodic events.

It seems to me that the choice of partners in this sense can play an even greater role here, for example, the partner of the photograph and the Multimedia Museum of Olga Sviblova will be a partner, with whom we will cooperate, what bar of these people we want to drag there, for example, what are the conferences that will be there, whether the Labor Code will be discussed, for example, or I will not know, the influence of Kuritsyn on the next generation in the literature. As far as it will be multidisciplinary, this is probably the main point for me that somehow responsible for such a humanitarian sphere, I understand that perhaps this project is wider in its capabilities than I think it.

I think that, of course, it is about the fact that this should become such a place that will undoubtedly be a factor in the tourist attractiveness of the city - they will go to us to visit Ganina and to go to the center of Boris Yeltsin. The question is how much the information that will allow them to present the city is wider than they can do it now - then it will be great and important. Because, you see, it would be great if these are unique exhibitions, they will undoubtedly go to conferences that will be interesting, I don’t know, the professors are the same: from London, from Princeton, from somewhere else. Undoubtedly, they will go to some serious musical performances, that is, it is its own audience. But here, you know, again, Sasha Shaburov once spoke about his art-that which should be clear to both the pioneer and the pensioner, here, probably, some kind of atmosphere should be created, tolerant to different completely layers of society, probably, if it were some kind of hipster party that sits and enjoys social loneliness. It is wrong if everything there is replaced by some fanatical aunts and uncles. That is, in principle, you probably need to create a place where there are proposals in this program that are interesting for each of these groups. How would EXPO 2020, but what is the audience of EXPO 2020, what is the audience of the museum, what is the audience of the library? Probably, this is still in some field of a certain city institution, deployed as much as possible a), into residents and b)-attractive to the person who arrived. It would also be very cool if it were deployed into foreigners who come to Yekaterinburg, who could have all these texts, all these opportunities in English. Then it would be great, because I often face the fact that if we want to show something to foreigners, then this is very related to the fact that, unfortunately, they can not understand everything from what we offer them.

Probably, online, it is more likely to be some kind of publication, video lecture, something else, an aphine, undoubtedly information, but it will be impossible, I think, to copy all this online, because then we will simply become a library with PDF, but here it is very important that people have an incentive to come there still and somehow to develop with this.

Well, I must say that in general this building was built in one of the most pleasant and beautiful places in Yekaterinburg. And the most important thing is, as they say, the view from the window , that is, it is really what it is worth coming there and what to see. Now, the problem is that the whole street on which the center of Yeltsin is standing, and the embankment - it became possible to get on it only in the last year - this is not such a popular walking area where the people are hanging out and so on, rather, it is only approaching to become some kind of public zone. And in theory, of course, if you look at the strategic plans, the architectural construction of the city, that it is at the water, and now the architects invited to work on the architecture of Yekaterinburg, Jose Asubillo, he completely declares his concept that the main thing in the city is exits to water. And, undoubtedly, a very serious work will hang on them, in theory, it will be all on such a move, that is, so far this street is such a fashionable Hyatt, a drama theater, from which people do not carry every day, but near the drama theater they love to hang out by youth subcultures, skaters, that is, they are constantly there. Agora is a kind there, which means that they hang out there. Well, there are no complaints to the place at all. I wouldn’t even realize where this could be put alternatively, because there, on the contrary, just on the other side of the Iset River, is the same factory that I dream about to make an art cluster, and now, you know, Yekaterinburg is quite schizoid, where everything is very connected with each other, these 30s are constructivism, this is the legacy, if you look at the right The embankment, which the view opens, if nothing is spoiled there, it is absolutely amazing when you really have the XX century before your eyes-you, please, have these constructed churches, our answer to all historical events and repentance, there is the most beautiful constructivist stadium in the form of a ship, the Dynamo stadium, this plant is great and then the buildings of the 70s, and even the end of the 19th century, and even the end of the 19th century, and even the end of the 19th century. In general, you know, this is really a panorama of the city, and it can be a very attractive place.

It seems to me that the most important thing-indeed, I have already talked it-this is the possibility of some smart leisure; Where you can come, where it will be interesting, simply satisfy the emotion of interest is actually a very serious and difficult task, and the most important thing is not a museum, not some kind of interesting interesting format that can be taken and say: oh, let's try to do it here. This is some very serious challenge to the fact that you can really do whatever you want. We are in the situation is quite unique that there are no limiters, and maybe you still know what is missing, what can be there-this is some kind of concentrated information, analysts about a city that is constantly for different needs, it seems to be created again. I encountered this when we prepared the industrial Biennale of contemporary art, and we had to do such guides for guests, for foreigners, and if, for example, we had such a center that could be interacting, for example, in its possibilities to draw up presentation programs, working with tourists, you know, good, conceptual work with what is in the city. This is not at all now-it is all some kind of superficial, and, frankly, I would be a tourist and I would look at the suggestions that Yekaterinburg offers, I somehow did not risk it. In general, in theory, yes. Well, I understand how much this can be expanded differently and how much this work can be carried out, maybe just the forces of the center of Yeltsin.

I would not like, probably, some kind of directive and some kind of, I don’t know, the party lines in this in everything. I probably would not want such a deliberate presence of Yeltsin’s figure in the various and different activities of this center, that is, I would like it to be more likely the name of this institution than such a dense content of what will be inside.

About the functions, if you talk again, then you know, in general, you can do it-well, is it possible in such institutions such a turn as some kind of thematic, but in general it would be unique for the world, such a proposal, when some kind of such institution of the name of the transition, generally an analysis of the transition situation in all its meanings was created. It also seems to me that one way or another this center will fall into the field of all things related to the city’s brand, with the image of Yekaterinburg, to the outside world advanced, and, frankly, one of the ideas is close to me-about the fact that Yekaterinburg is the city of heroes, and when we list people important for a certain time, we talk about some, first of all, cultural heroes who changed the situation and some situation. did. And for me, perhaps, the ideology of this center could be a promotion of the idea of ​​heroes as such, and plus there is still such a moment that seems very potentially rich for me in terms of what with this topic and idea to do next. So I will probably not fantasize further further, because, frankly, I don’t have a picture of that, but how could it be some idea.

Maybe it’s more logical to turn for the center of Yeltsin-this is some kind of global game with visual images-what is Yekaterinburg, this, roughly speaking, souvenir products, in fact such an image-different, different, different. That is, where could you come and, for example, to wear all guests at a wedding in T -shirts with Yekaterinburg.

See also: Modern culture for the new Russia Peaceful liberation The first center in a long tradition The center of albeit Anna Sakoyan Memory Centers Andrey Levkin Boris Yeltsin and Public Space