Everyone needs a show

With a difference a little less than a week in Moscow, two awards were awarded. The first is organized by one of the few professional publications about art in Russia - The newspaper The Art Newspaper Russia , a franchise of the authorized world media. The award ceremony was held on April 4 in the arena . The second, “Innovation”, was held by the State Center for Contemporary Art for the ninth time, the awards took place on April 9 at the Moscow Museum .

The laureates of the Prize The Art Newspaper Russia was known in advance, it was curious to see the ceremony itself, which promised to be large -scale and exciting. And the expectations were justified. In the case of “innovation”, first of all, it was important who would receive the award - in each of the competitive nominations there were five applicants each, while the ceremony was not the most spectacular. We have always loved to arrange a grand show, but only now, apparently, it is the idea that can become the main element of the premium process, and not at all the names of the winners and prizes.

If earlier other awards caused a flurry of indignation, as in the case of a laureate of the Kandinsky Prize of 2008 , Alexei Belyaev-Gintovta , or, conversely, became even more radical than the artistic artistic, which happened with the state prize to the war group in 2011, now the situation has clearly changed. Here are the organizers of the Soradnik Award during the discussion why they do not want to hold a competition anymore, came to disappointing conclusions: the target audience, critics-articulated fuels, was tired and bored, and the public atmosphere is too inflated, which leads to programmed decisions-there is no intrigue.

The competitive news is monitored, but rather by inertia, and the secret thoughts of the jury and other inside, so tickled the curiosity of the last years, have not been inspired by anyone. The only thing everyone wants is a show; You can with a scandal, you can just solemnly and brightly, the main thing is to have fun, like from going to the movies or at the concert of the visiting star. And the key event for such a turn to the performance was the opening of the Olympics in Sochi , which was watched and discussed even by many of those who seemed to be going to boycott this event. The state in Russia, as it turns out, is the main engine of cultural life: they owe it, they are fighting, it is criticized and parodied, they are imitated. No one remains indifferent. It is important to stipulate that it is not at all about the fact that, as the project developed by the Ministry of Culture, the insane “basics of state cultural policy” said, cultural figures responded to the call to comply with the “tasks of state cultural policy”. Even those who have aesthetic disagreements with the state speak his language, really trying to deny him or somehow blow up from the inside, but still agreeing with his power and the need to refer to him all the time.

Those who are strongly configured and in the synthusist opposite the “performance” that surrounds us cannot escape from this closed circle. Of course, the fashion for situationism in the Russian artistic environment has already passed, but the residual influence of ideas half a century ago can still be found. It is funny that it is precisely protesting artists and activists that arrange the same show that everyone is waiting for, especially if the organizers of the criticized event from the show have swept the show. Two shares were held on the last “innovation”. If we take into account that the ceremony itself was modest, it was they who became its logical addition-well, finally, fun. Repeating "Glory to Russia! Glory to the heroes! ”, Denis Mustafin tried to shout out the deputy minister of culture Elena Milovzorova, when she handed the prize“ for supporting the modern art of Russia ” to the dubious laureate Shalve Breus, and Matvey Krylov sold the guests a cheap copy of the prizes of“ innovation ”, with whom everyone was photographed later. Today, such partisan actions are perceived, in contrast to how they looked at them over the past decade, not through the content, not through the prism of political positions or institutional criticism, but in the logic of an expanded spectacle. And so the hypothetical report of the leadership of the GTSIA on the spent budget funds: we had a musical part, we specially shot the video, here is the architectural decision of the hall, here are wine for guests, and there were also promotions on which we, fortunately, saved because, well, you understand ...

Presentation of the award The Art Newspaper Russia It was generally calm-apparently, the strict lists of the invited and the presence in the arena of more severe protection than in the Moscow Museum played their role. The ceremony was organized by a large team, led by Alexei Agranovich and Kirill Preobrazhensky: the first directed the show, and the second wrote the script. They clearly focused on the opening of the Olympics. The winners with flags marching around the hall, these were in every sense of the word team - museum or publishing, and therefore the analogy with national teams was quite appropriate. Historical reminiscences did not forget: with the help of radio -controlled boats, they defeated the artistic presence of Russia on the Venice Biennale, and awarding the Tretyakov Gallery for the retrospective of Natalia Goncharova , they used a long -standing source of jokes - the coincidence of the name and surname among the artist and the wife of Pushkin. The crowd Alexandrov Sergeyevich came to the Goncharova exhibition the day before the opening and stuck struck. In general, the extras, an important element of any Olympic ceremony, was used here with might and main.

There were also enough jokes. For example, the role of sleeping Medvedev was suddenly played by a yawning audience, who was successfully brought to the screen during the ceremony. The hit of the ceremony was the award of Roman Abramovich and Daria Zhukova, the founders of the Iris charity foundation. The prize was called “personal contribution”, but, as it became clear from the performance, it was not only about the financial side of the matter. Zhukova was remembered by a scandal with a chair, which was a connected African American on which she sat , and Abramovich was the purchase of a football club and, in general, his life full of adventure in England. Around the four philanthropists danced, shooting, James Bonds. The laureates themselves did not like such an irony, which was already noticeable by the confused performance of the director of Garage Anton Belov, who, receiving the award instead of the absent Abramovich with Zhukova, did not make a prepared speech - a few days later they returned the prize to the newspaper. The official ceremony turned out to be radical than another protest campaign.

After all this, the real content of premiums - why and to whom they give prizes - fades into the background. It is important that they will show. The question arises: why do we not have a bonus for bonus ceremonies, because this is the only thing we want now? Tired of the political struggle and the racing of authorities, with bread, there may be interruptions, but so far they are invisible, but we can always provide us with spectacles - for our, let’s say, happiness.