12 artists against a big war

In the center of Moscow, a mobile anti -war exhibition is defeated. Its participants will be judged under Article 20.2

In the center of Moscow, a mobile anti -war exhibition is defeated. Its participants will be judged under Article 20.2

It all ended, not having time to begin. For forty minutes they rushed about the vicinity of the Winzavod, constantly stumbled upon the police buses. Then we went to the river, to the deserted raw -tied embankment, where they were detained. So drive the beast. So they hunt terrorists and rebels, and these are just pacifist artists.

The mobile exhibition "Not Mir" was first held in December in St. Petersburg. Relatively calm. Then in Riga, where there were no problems at all. What are the problems if this is not a protest action? People do not demand anything from anyone and do not blame anyone. They simply affirm their works that the world is better than war. Do you think differently?

In Moscow, they had to drive on a trolley on the garden, but the situation from the very beginning was so nervous that the plan was changed. Evas, passwords, conspiratorial meetings - that's all. Having done nothing yet, they stood on Kursk and shied away from every person in a police uniform. Theoretically, it was possible to make an exhibition in someone’s workshop, but artists are afraid. And as it turned out, they are not in vain.

Last year, the Activist festival "Media-Great" was defeated and closed. The Gelman Gallery is closed at the Winery. The space of free statement is narrowed and narrowed. But they do not even pull on the fifth column - not pro -Ukrainian, not pro -Western, not engaged by anyone. These are idealists in pure form. A little naive, but stubborn.

The works were collected from four countries - Russia, Ukraine (including Lugansk), Austria and Finland. A canvas with the Ukrainian flag came from Kyiv, and on it ... "I love you Rosiyski people." If in Ukraine in 2016 there was a person who loves Russians, what's wrong with this? We must rejoice, so not ...

In the hands of Ani Bokler, a portable TV, wrapped in a rushnik, like bread-salt. The metaphor is obvious: this is what we eat, they feed us this. What is from the TV.

A rather terrible work by Nikita R and R and Podolsk. Nails for barbed wire and the inscription - "201". I asked: "Is this a zone?" “No, just a border, a fence. It looks like a zone, right? " And the question mark in the year is because the future is in question. While the war is going on, every year it may become the last, the next may not come.

The St. Petersburg activist Dasha Apakhonchich is the only one whom the police did not detain. She brought a homemade stuffed of war to the exhibition (not a military man, it would be really offensive, but war) and wanted to burn it. A purely Maslenic carnival tradition is to burn a stuffed winter on this day, to get rid of everything bad that has accumulated, to start life as if again.

So, she was not taken away. And they did the right thing. A scarecrow in a car carrier would look very stupid.

Another person who managed to get away from the police practically escape is the actor of the Practice Theater Pavel Mikhailov. He had to read the diary of the Donetsk poet Igor Bobyrev in the trolleybus. Strong text, truly anti-war. And again, no benefit, not black and white. “October 20. A strong explosion at a chemical plant, windows opened throughout the city, people hit the streets ... I read Tacitus and Barta. Zakharchenko announced the ceasefire. The shelling is heard all evening. The Verkhovna Rada recognized the death of 1000 people near Ilovaisk. November 20. Very cold. Heating was turned on only in the evening, water in the morning ... greatly froze. Disconnected heating. I am lying under the blanket. I listen to the explosions and how the windows tremble. I read Schwartz, Brodsky, Dragoshoshchenko, Kuzmin. December 20. He worked a little. I was with my mother in the store. A fair was held on the square (they were rumored to have traded humanitarian aid) ”...

But it turned out differently. Mikhailov went around the city for half a day with the work of the Kyiv artist Yegor Ansygina. The rural landscape and the inscription across: "The fact that you were born and grew up here does not mean anything yet." He stood in front of the Tretyakovka, walked along the boulevards ... either a single picket, or an exhibition.

The rest arranged an exhibition at first near the car carrier, and then in it. The police behaved extremely politely, no violence. But next to the police there were employees in civilian clothes, and now they were really aggressive. There, upstairs, someone came up with the idea of ​​conducting a whole military operation against the pacifists, most of which are not even thirty. They tracked down, persecuted, drove and caught - victory! We defeated the sworn enemies of the regime. Now they, as the guys say, are charged with article 20.2 - a violation of the established procedure for the organization or holding a meeting, rally, demonstration, processing or picket. A fine of up to three hundred thousand, arrest up to thirty days. The court is assigned to Wednesday.

Dangerous article. If it is detained several times on it, it will be the same as with Ildar Dadin - a real period of time.

While they were sitting in the Basmanny police department (they released them already at nine o'clock in the evening), the second group of activists hung work on Gogolevsky Boulevard, where the stands of the Union of Artists. No one was taken away, but this exhibition did not last long. “We seized all the photos, seals, canvases,” says Katya Nenasheva, the curator of “not peace”. “The exposition on Gogolevsky is destroyed.”

By the way, about the name. About why "not the world." Because it is difficult to call the world, without even referring to Ukraine, Syria or something else. What is the world, if so, out of the blue, in the very center of Moscow you can untie a small war?

And the plans were large. They planned to volunteer as part of the projects for the adaptation of refugee children (by the way, he was recently expelled from the office to the street, he was also not needed). They wanted to hold a round table on the topic "How to talk about the war in the city?" It is not clear how to say, you won’t have time to open your mouth, as you are already in a car carrier. All shares now need to be planned with an eye on the courtroom.

... But the stuffed war Dasha still burned. Spring has begun, it is difficult to stop it.