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   When Genuine Pieces Speak An expanded session of the Federation Council’s Committee for Culture was held last week. The occasion was the operations of the Union of Museums of Russia. We held a conference and received a national report “Russia’s museums at the turn of the millennium.” This is a new way of addressing ourselves to the government and society. We sent this report to institutions that might find it interesting and important. The Federation Council was the first to answer; it organized a meeting involving the participation of major museums, senators, auditors of the Chamber of Accounts, the Minister of Culture, his deputies… It was an impressive gathering. It began with ceremonial birthday congratulations for the director of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Irina Alexadrovna Antonova. We have been trying to bring the questions related to our work to society’s attention. It seems that they have heard us. It is often said that museums in Russia are backward. They suggest that somewhere or other, maybe near Paris, museum visitors are offered fun games and amusing entertainment, and we don’t have that. It’s nothing of the kind. We have a great deal to be proud of. In the last two decades, our museums have adopted a system of using extra-budgetary funds, which has enabled them not only to survive, but to take their societal role to a higher level. In the sphere of culture, we often function as innovators, and this is precisely what ought to be developed. The Ministry of Culture conducted a unique review of museums, and material was collected about what they are actually preserving. We created the Union of Museums of Russia, the goal of which is to work on documents such as a program for the preservation of museum holdings, a development strategy for museums, and proposals for new legislation on culture. All of this is based on this review of museums. There are plans in Moscow to restore the Polytechnical Museum. It has been suggested that the exhibit items be removed to a warehouse, and then returned when work is completed. This cannot be done; a great deal will be lost. But there is a recipe for success; first build a storage facility, make it open to the public, and only then move the collection. The Historical Archive in Petersburg is an excellent example. Initially, they just wanted to move it from the Senate building to a warehouse. The Petersburg intelligentsia were able to persuade the authorities that it was essential to construct a new building for the archive, and then move it. Now we have a wonderful modern archive facility, the archival materials have been preserved, and the Senate and Synod buildings are entirely usable. In Kostroma, when a museum was removed from the church facilities, it was promised a place to store its holdings. It has yet to be built. The museum is now in unacceptably cramped facilities. The government really ought to keep its promises. At the meeting of the Federation Council, we emphasized one principle idea; museums should not be considered entertainment. Entertainment is part of what they do, but not the main thing. Museum work is not a service. It is a state function, the preservation of cultural heritage. Our primary task is preserving our collections, protecting them, and following the principle of inviolability. Collections must not be transferred or divided, as has happened more than once in our history. They require immunity from any sort of restitution, be it the claims of the Germans, the former owners or their heirs. Restitution is a beautiful foreign word. In Russian it means “stealing stolen property.” We’ve been through that, too. Museums need government guarantees. That means insurance, when we host exhibitions or held them outside our institutions, ensuring the return of items both abroad and within the country. The landscapes of conservation areas need to be protected, as does the architecture of historical cities. It is difficult for museums to stand their ground in places where they feel strong pressure from capital supported by the authorities. We also cannot forget about expanding our collections. That requires spending money and not putting one’s faith in multimedia. Otherwise, the culture of the second half of the 20th century will remain in history only as television show business, and nothing more. One of museums’ most important tasks is science. A genuine piece begins to “speak” if a cultural product is created around it. It has been put in its proper place, well-lit, researched, it contains a great deal of information, and text has been written about it. That is the scientific function of museums. However, we must use extra-budgetary funds to give employees salaries appropriate to their academic qualifications. It is time for museums to become the legal equals of scientific and educational institutions. In other words, it is time to legitimize their scientific and educational operations. Education and mentoring are also among museums’ tasks. Culture is a sphere of the life of society with far-reaching effects. It shapes the development of people’s desires, which in turn move the economy forward. A person that goes to theaters and museums is a high class of consumer. Business will develop in order to satisfy his desires in the broad sense. The attractive thing about museums is that they provide people with a higher quality of life. We have said more than once that culture as a whole, and museums in particular, cultivate good taste. People with good taste tend to make the right decisions. Finally, only museums can provide the continuous education that the 21st century demands. Museums offer an example of how diverse cultures can live together. They are a prototype of genuine democracy. Museums have everything for everyone. They promote virtues that are important for the economy as well, preserving one’s good name, and ensuring quality development. The best way to discuss the fate of cities is through museums. We mentioned the restoration project for the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, which has been the subject of many arguments. This is a discussion about how to use land in the center of Moscow. Museum criteria make it possible to perform a correct evaluation and make compromises, including compromises in the legal realm. If they wanted to make the Okhta Center a center of contemporary art, it wouldn’t have been so tall. Museums have the noblest of all goals. After the revolution, it was thought noble to use beautiful buildings as childcare center. That was the right thing to do; it introduced orphaned children to beauty. Today, the goals of museums consist of better use of monuments and a better way of using money. Experience shows that endless repetition of things that are important for us, holding conferences and distributing documents gets results. We are shouting about civil society because we know our history. Civil society was born in ancient Rome, where there were citizens (free people) and non-citizens (slaves). Society determined the rights of citizens and the allotment granted to slaves. Civil society in the new sense means uniting people of a noble profession, who are working to preserve a unified museum system in Russia. In our country, people often consider museums repositories as treasures that must be “grabbed.” Sometimes as a “freebie,” instantly and without paying. Of course, the conversation also addressed the question of salaries in the sphere of culture, which have only just reached the minimum living wage. This is an important political problem. The issue is not how much the millionaires have. It’s all the same to us how much money they have. However, what isn’t all the same to us is that society is now split into the somewhat rich (the middle class) and the poor (government employees). The financial position of museum workers creates social tension. There is a powerful class of “custodians of memory” who deserve to be compensated for their work, no less than junior officers. Museums represent memory, and memory is the right to immortality. A person is still alive so long as he remembers. A museum, with its genuine pieces, is an antidote to the virtual reality that surrounds us. Virtual reality is various forms of lies. http://www.spbvedomosti.ru/article.htm?id=10286801@SV_Articles |
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