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The last year is so often heard by the words that another, the last, line, that the image of a cockroach running around the engraving stands in front of his eyes. The dismissal of Grigory Revzin from the post of commissar of the Russian pavilion at the architectural Biennale in Venice is just one of these features that do not change the general picture, but on the contrary, complementing the drawing. On the contrary, it is strange to believe that in modern Russia there are any rules that prevent such untimely and absurd dismissal.

Biennale as an institution belongs to the era of national states, so sudden attention to the Russian pavilion, oddly enough, naturally, although, of course, unconsciously. Biennale (first - artistic) arose at the same time when world exhibitions appeared, where nations competed in the achievements of technology, and performed the same functions, only in the field of elegant arts. Actually, the criticism of Biennale for its conceptual obsolescence has been distributed in the West for many years. However, national pavilions are still its basis. And right now, when Russia is transforming into the national state before our eyes, the dismissal of the Commissioner of the National Pavilion at the international exhibition for disloyalty to state policy looks like a session sequentially. Another question is that this approach is the same age as the Russian pavilion itself. Meanwhile, the rise in European regionalism of recent years again returns us to national problems, but not on ethnic, but on cultural grounds.

It is strange to believe that in modern Russia there are any rules that impede such untimely and absurd dismissal.

An additional charm of the situation gives the fact that the current Biennale is largely devoted to the erosion of national architectural identity in the history of the 20th century , and the designed exposition of the Russian pavilion is no exception. In recent decades, exhibitions on Biennale have been considering such metaphysical architectural problems that talking about them from the standpoint of the state national revival is completely impossible. This is a blind conversation with the deaf. And historical studies that should be presented in pavilions this year, presumably, will be completely critical rethinking the significance of national architectural languages ​​throughout the 20th century and will be more far from nationalist pathos.

At the same time, the post of commissioner Biennale is essentially expert and administrative, and not ideological: every two years the commissioner chooses the curator for the exhibition in the pavilion and ensures its interaction with the structures of the Ministry of Culture. The rotation of the commissars is a natural process and, of course, is not the first time. The news was the time and reason for this replacement: the opening is scheduled for June 7, that is, two months later, the preparation of the exposition is already at the finish line, and the reason for the dismissal is not related to the exhibition.

Therefore, it is extremely interesting what the actions of the new commissioner Semyon Mikhailovsky will be. It is unlikely that he will risk completely changing the exposure for the remaining time, although he has the opportunity to arrange a demonstration performance in the genre of the unmuffy Avaral, so close to the Russian spirit - but it will hardly lead to the results that deserve attention in the context of the entire Biennale: it is impossible to prepare and make a quality exhibition in two months. More precisely, such an exhibition, of course, could be interesting - but only as a phenomenon. At the same time, from the Russian pavilion under the new leadership, one can expect the first incarnation of the upcoming, as they say, the concepts of the main directions of the cultural policy of Russia , and it may turn out to be stronger than the “Faust” Goethe.