The captain remained

This year, Sergey Kuryokhin would have turned 70 years old. Novyevropa tells how the anniversary of the main avant-garde in St. Petersburg passed

70 years since the birth of Sergei Kuryokhin-musician, actor, publicist, showman, wizard and magician, encyclopedist, researcher-were celebrated in Moscow, in Peredelkin and in St. Petersburg, where he lived most of his life and died at the peak of creativity. The journalist of Novaya Gazeta Europe tried to track the flickering traces of an avant -garde genius, passing to the landmarks of the great hoax.

Epic epigraph, Chinese wisdom:

“The sage spoke a lot of smart - they did not listen to him. But as soon as he began to twitterly twisted-the crowd gathered. "

The 70th anniversary of the birth of Sergei Kuryokhin was on June 16. It is impossible to list all the facets of the talent of this person. These are called simply: a man-organ. And yes, forget the word “bounds” in relation to Sergey, the word “boundlessness” is more suitable here. Imagine a hypothetical spherical diamond, and who has done it and what he has the properties, let scientists guess the minds (Professor Michelson-Shvartz would definitely figure it out, but he is in distant swimming). An absolutely transparent spherical body, passing through itself light and darkness, gives the space around the merger of all possible cultures, exercises and beliefs. Dismaus on the contrary ...

Such epithets gave birth to a head melting from the heat to the sounds of the " children's album ", which I listened in the car on the way to the grave of Kureokhin. Half of the eleventh in the morning, the thermometer has already exceeded 25 Celsius, but my air conditioner did not work.

Entrance point. Komarovskoye cemetery is a place for the rest of the literary, theater, architectural elite. Who is not here - the airspace in the crowns of the trees is clogged with all kinds of muses. They are now all together: Akhmatova, Karavichuk, Likhachev, Kuryokhin, Alfierov, Granin, Averbach and many others. The Earth accepted them and united. A place where political views and addictions are not important. A cool shadow, and in it there are two well -groomed wooden crosses: one above Sergei, the second - above his untimely departed daughter Lisa. Red small flowers around, like droplets of blood, reminiscent of a large heart that is difficult to place in the chest. It failed, could not stand it. A little at a distance from the grave hesitantly, breaking into groups, shifting from foot to foot, close conversations of loved ones, friends, acquaintances, and just admirers of Kureokhin's work, who came here on this day, lead.

- How long has been familiar with Sergey's work? - Stunning young, looking about twenty years old, a girl with frightened eyes.

- Well, four years for sure. It turned out so suddenly that I still can’t move away. On July 14, 2020, in our friendly family, and we live, by the way, in Komarovo, there was a Cheburechnaya holiday, ”the dark -haired interlocutor continues, looking slightly around. - Mom sent me to the store for garlic. I bought it and walked along the street, shaking a net with four large garlic heads. Suddenly, a transformer booth rises in my path, and such a quiet rumble seems to call on to examine it more closely. I go for her and see a pasted photograph of poor quality: the face of some terrible man with a good expression on his face and the backdrop of absurd balloons are photographed, and the ominous inscription “I knew” from below. And on top, someone with a ballpoint pen scaled “I will buy an apartment of bodies. +7921 ... ". I tear off the find, I carry home, I show everyone there, no one will know. I give my godfather. She says: "Wow, this is this one." And he cuts, as I later found out, “Summer” from the “Sparrow of the Oratorio”. Since then, I myself have not been my own, even almost drowned in the well, but this is a completely different story.

The story of a mysterious stranger and chaotic thoughts about the heard are interrupted by some revival around. The representative of the local municipality keeps speech. A blue dress with a hint of futurism swaying under the invisible streams of fresh air. My thoughts are somewhere at the bottom of the well in the distant Tibet, and standard words on this occasion pass by the ears. Remember, love, honor. There would be a performance, to get something in the style of Kureokhin, but everything is decisive, sedentary. Even the young shoot in Psychic TV T -shirts, as if reconciled, did not show a hint of rebellion. The next word was taken by Anastasia Kuroikhina - the widow of Sergey and she is also the Keeper of the Heritage of Maestro. A tightened brunette with a square in a dark jacket on a snow -white T -shirt with the cover of a “children's album”. This was the second phenomenon of the record per day - a sign, not otherwise.

“Sergey had a huge plan,” Anastasia began. - As a composer, he did not have much time. His opera was never written, although he already had agreements with the Great Theater (as the “ Opera of the Rich ”? - Approx. Aut. ). His death was unexpected for everyone. Doctors shook their hands. The disease is rare. Sergey managed to write musical accompaniment for more than twenty -four films. His music becomes relevant again. It's time to play his works with orchestras. I want to give Seryozha and his work a second life.

But indeed, his “pop-mechanic” was an orchestral living mechanism with a variable composition. The body grew up, changed, people came and went. Chickens, geese, horses, musicians of the Aquarium, Cinema, Auktsyon groups were involved, pioneers, grandmothers, fakirs, clairvoyants, dwarfs, Eduard Hil. According to rumors, once even the Primadonna itself took part. Apotheosis, the ball of Woland, is considered to be the last performance of the Pop Mechanics at number 418, which Kuryokhin spent in the fall of 1995 in the recreation center of the Lensovet. But few people want to talk about him and remember, it was so discouraging. Without going into details, I will only say that the performances of Limons and Dugins were present at the performance among others for those years.

The morning of memory ended with laying flowers to the grave. “Seryozha loved red roses very much,” with these words Anastasia, a bouquet of scarlet flowers lay down near Sergey’s photo. The large portrait of the ever -smiling Kureokhin winked. Even a shadow did not save from the heat.

The next point of the musician’s memory is the exhibition “Pop Mechanics Sergei Kuroikhin, which is opening strictly at lunchtime. Part I: Middle Circle mechanics. ” In order to somehow configure thoughts in the right way, I turn on the Tibetan Tango on a cyclic reproduction. Om-hokh, om-hokh, ku-ku-fi-fi. Here we should recall the close cooperation of Sergei Kuryokhin and Boris Grebenshchikov: for the time being, they were like Yin and Yan. A joke pops up in memory. He walks along the Nevsky rowers, looks - towards ... rowers! Well, he, of course, understood what was the matter, and decided to immediately teach the bastard! Dam him by the nose, and tore off the mask! The second is not a bast, in turn, the first is enough by the nose. People who followed Nevsky watched the following picture: there are two stunned Kureokhin and hold the Grebenshchikov masks in their hands ... But let's return to our “Om-Hoch-Kuku-Hihikanga” under the smooth rumble of wheels. The melancholy of the cemetery fleur changed to Good Vibrations.

The heart of St. Petersburg met with even greater heat of South Bessarabia. Here is the desired center of contemporary art at 73 Ligovsky. I rise to the 4th floor. Lovely girls at the reception and smiling in the whole mouth of Kureokhin in a big photo, of course. "Middle Circle mechanics." This is something personal. Things, letters, original walks in the streets and dead ends. "Seryozha, take out the garbage after you finish your oratorio." I go straight, bypassing the branches, and resting on the huge head of Kureokhin from Papier Masha. Do not measure the talent of arshin, but still. I look into my eyes, not straight, the growth does not allow, but from below. I look for a long time, but no, not to comprehend: too incomprehensible in its uniqueness.

“This exhibition is a model of the microcosm Sergey Kuroikhin,” explains the design of his curator, the famous Moscow artist Alexei Corsy. - Since here we can find the planetary objects of the Kureokhin microcosm in the form of works from his personal collection, graphics, which he collected for many years, personal things that he used. And the researchers of this microcosm will be spectators who will come here and begin to find some intersections, make some discoveries for themselves.

The key points of the exhibition space occupied large screens, on which the performances of “pop-mechanics” from the past are broadcast. The effect of slowing down allows them to last (almost) forever, throwing bridges into the future. Massive brown shoes are standing near one of the screens - Sergey Anatolyevich went to them. In fact, he is now standing in them and reading his parting words to us, unintentionally:

“Let's prove to ourselves that we are able to wonder that we have not killed our inner child. Children believe in magic and mysticism. Let's believe in the magic and mysticism of art. Because if you take it away, then we will drown in the world of monotony and gray. ”

The last remark about the “Middle Circle mechanics”: it is better to come to it with a minimal number of visitors, so you can catch the state “to be Sergey Kuryokhin”. This time, officialdom and interviews in front of large television cameras interfered. “Seryozha, I’ll look later,” and now on the middle avenue of the Vasilievsky Island, 93.

The construction site of the new center of contemporary art. Once at this place there was a cinema " Surge ", which from 2004 to 2016 served as an old container of the center. It was a place where listeners with a musical taste, who did not fit into the framework of the average musical scope, could enjoy all sorts of sorts of electronics and not only. So, for the 12 years of existence, within the framework of the Electric Mechanics Festival, the walls of the cinema have accepted such stars of electronic music as Amon Tobin, Mouse on Mars, Ryoji Ikeda, Gudrun Gut, Ben Frost, Onehtrix Point Never, Oval, Mika Vainio and many others. There was also an ethno-mechanic , where Altai throat singing Kai and Sami Yoik, Siberian rock and French hip-hop, Jouuhikko and the Balkan bit, Baylefank, Kumbia and Uzbek pop were well combined. Musical events gathered in one place of the most sophisticated listeners from all over the country. In addition to festivals, concerts, exhibitions, master classes, film screenings were held in the center. But at some point, the Culture Committee set a demand to increase the number of events to one per week. An impossible requirement for a cinema with a hall of 1000 seats. The thought of the reconstruction of the building, which had previously been in the air, began to slowly be implemented. The first stage of dismantling was carried out in 2016. After that, the reconstruction was frozen, the contractor changed. In 2022, the second stage of dismantling was held, now in the response of the Zhilstroy design and construction bureau, now in the response. At the moment, only finishing work remains. Of the three -story, the former “surf” turned into a five -story (six -story, if we count the underground minus the first) handsome with a modern layout.

Anastasia Kuryokhina met everyone who wanted to see a construction site at the gate with a white helmet in her hands. Although we signed in the safety journal, no one was allowed to go beyond the open gate.

“Such an order of the press service of the building contractor,” Anastasia stated in response to the relentless bewilderment of the audience. - Believe me: everything inside is very impressive there. Very beautiful now. The total area of ​​the new building is 8500 square meters. Builders promise to hand over the facility in December this year. If it develops, then we will spend the first public events in the new TsSI building in the spring of 2025.

Now the builders estimate the readiness of the building at 90%. In the New TsSI, according to Anastasia, there will be: a large hall for a thousand seats, choreographic, demonstration and rehearsal halls, television teduct, a rock culture museum and a museum dedicated to Sergey Kuroikhin and the art of the 1980-1990s, media, and recording storage facilities, a restaurant on a terrace.

“My biggest dream is that all beginner musicians can come here and play.” Because I remember how in due time and my brother had nowhere to play, and my son. There are always a lot of such youth. And if a person picked up a guitar, then he will not stop. He only needs a place to realize his creative impulses, ”she shared her personal farewell.

And in the evening there was music. The Catherine's Assembly on the embankment of the Griboedov channel opened the doors for listeners of all ages. The pop-symphony orchestra of St. Petersburg performed works written by Sergey to the films “ Mr. Obligator ”, “ Two Captains 2 ”, “ Castle ” and others. The listing of the names of the compositions can cause a separate aesthetic pleasure: the “roof”, “mysticism”, “fell off”, “Donna Anna”, “Sinagoga-Buga”, “Tibetan Tango”, “The effect of microphasia”-this is part of those that were included in the concert program.

“I remember Sergey, when I was completely young, I was 15-16 years old, and he was visiting us, and I was so struck by his beauty inner, his eyes and the way he spoke,” Jazz performer Lera Gehner shares his gathers at the concert hall door with his memories. “I even wanted to say to him:“ Please wait, Seryozha, a little, I am to grow up, and that's it, marry me. ” In my youth hung posters at home, like everyone else in Soviet times: both the Kino group and Vladimir Semenovich Vysotsky. Now in my room there are two photos left on the wall: this is a view of Everest and Sergey Kureokhin. I was at his concerts, and I was lucky to sit nearby and talk with Viktor Tsoi, my dad performed with Sergey. We all are very missing, “pop-mehanks” are not enough, it is not enough for him this captain. Here he is, the captain ( so Sergey Kuroikhin was called by his friends. - Approx. Author ), at the helm. Unfortunately, there are no such people.

Memory, she remained. She in each of one and a half hundred who came to listen to the orchestra, in spontaneous and conscious performances, in stickers on transformer booths. The flashes of his unquenchable life, turning into a frantic fire, are everywhere. Here is a cloud in the shape of a mushroom, and in the grove of the nightingale, along with the sparrows, they take out a familiar oratoria. Somewhere, a record and “Minimalism tragedy” was overwhelmed by a even more minimalist structure. And if you met a goat and a tapir, separately or together, then you cannot avoid pleasant memories. “I remember his concerts at the BKZ, I remember those full houses,” Andrei Medvedev recalls the artistic director and conductor of the pop-symphonic orchestra of St. Petersburg in front of the assembled artistic director and conductor. - I remember those incredible impressions, up to shock. I am grateful that our orchestra was honored to perform his music, convey to the listeners his aura, energy. ”

In St. Petersburg, on Kureokhin’s birthday, his presence was felt more than ever. Anastasia promised the audience that this influence would only intensify until the end of the year, and then - to eternity. "Captain, Mercury is already in the seventh house, as we have with a flight?"