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   Even Scandals Can Educate
and Change People... Despite how busy he is, it literally took the director of the State Hermitage Museum, Mikhail Piotrovsky, five minutes to agree to a request by the Erarta museum of contemporary art in Petersburg to give an open, public lecture entitled “Museum as a Mirror”. The director Alexander Sokurov, a national artist of Russia who once shot the film “Russian Ark” within the walls of the Hermitage gave the introductory remarks before the lecture. The lecture itself took more than an hour, after which Mikhail Borisovich provided exhaustive answers to the assembled guests’ critical questions - not only about museums, but about culture in general. During the course of the meeting, correspondent of Vechernyaya Moskva in Petersburg was able to ask the Director of the Hermitage a few questions. - Mikhail Borisovich, are their plans for exchange exhibits with the Moscow museums in the near future? - We no longer do exchange exhibits. There’s no such thing as “you give me this, I’ll give you that.” We just do exhibits in different places. We participated in all of the Moscow exhibits by the Pushkin Museums on the “December Evenings”, participated in a large exhibit, but there are no special plans for exhibits from the Hermitage as of yet. We are currently occupied with preparations for a major Dutch exhibit that will be held in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. I always say that we are glad to see Muscovites at the Hermitage. We are separated by no more than one night by train, or a few hours on the Sapsan express train. There is something to see at the Hermitage at any time of year, any day but Mondays, when we’re closed. By the way, the Hermitage is open until nine PM on Wednesday, which is convenient not only for Petersburgers, but for Muscovites as well, since they sometimes come for one day. It is easy to learn about the schedule of exhibits and other events at the Hermitage on our site. It seems to me that a trip to the Hermitage is a great way to spend leisure time and learn about priceless cultural treasures. -How is the process of transferring the relics of saints that were removed from the Orthodox Church after the revolution and stored in museum collections going? Is it true that you stopped the process of returning relics at your own museum out of a feeling of solidarity with the Moscow museum workers? - It was four years ago, by the way, on the initiative of Georgy Sergeyevich Poltavchenko that we entered into negotiations with mother Sophia about identifying and transferring about 50 relic items that are stored in the museum to the Church. We identified them, I have a list, and we are prepared to begin the rather long ceremony of separating those relics from an icon’s inventory number... The same thing happened in the Kremlin museums, were they also prepared to transfer those relics. As you understand yourself, however, in the Kremlin Armoury those relics are in caskets and reliquaries that are themselves masterpieces of the jeweller’s art. At some time a situation emerged where it was necessary to give up works of art along with the relics. It emerged sharply, politically, and we, out of solidarity with the Moscow museum workers, said, “Stop, let’s wait and see how the situation is resolved there”. It wasn’t resolved for a long time, but now everything has worked out, copies of the caskets have been made and they will be transferred to the Orthodox Church along with the relics. We do not need to make copies, because what we have in the Hermitage is primarily hanging pieces for icons, on which it is written what relics they contain. I consider the process of returning relics a normal procedure, there is nothing too grand about it. That is how it ought to be. The Hermitage quite recently returned the relics of saints of the Armenian Church, and the container, a masterpiece, remained in the Hermitage; a copy will be made that will later hold the saints’ relics. This is a good example of how everything can be done, if there are no “activists” around to stir up people’s passions. So when people ask me how much time the process of returning the relics will take, then I answer honestly, “I don’t know. Everything is ready on our end, but some kind of scandal could happen at any moment, a situation could come up that would make everything grind to a halt again...” - We have been informed that the Duma is once again planning to consider a Law on Patronage of the Arts... Your opinion on that matter? - It’s my opinion that no special law about patronage of the arts is needed. I can already hear the shouts of “Patronage! And on and on...” Two or three clauses in the tax code, nothing more is necessary. There are already several clauses in the tax code. For example, starting on January 1st of this year, plans call for a large discount, a large percentage off the taxable base for private individuals that give money to cultural institutions. For private individuals! But not for corporations. Almost nowhere in the world can you find laws about patronage of the art. Tax reductions recently appeared in France, but they do not exist in England. They have them in America and Canada, a whole business has sprung up around those things. But we, first of all, need to learn to use what we have effectively, and then say what was done and what isn’t working. Since we have a lot of swindlers, everyone is afraid that the people that give money to museums will cheat... Our position is simple; let them cheat, so long as they’re giving us the money (smiles). - The well-known member of the Legislative Assembly of Petersburg, Vitaly Milonov, famous for the “anti-gay law” and attempts to bring charges against Madonna and Lady Gaga for bold speeches at their concerts in Petersburg recently found another loud topic; he wrote a letter to the director of the Hermitage proposing the idea of holding multi-confessional prayers in the Hermitage on February 10th, 2013 on the day set aside to remember the Russian New Martyrs and Confessors... Why did you refuse? - Because the idea of prayers by all confessions dedicated to the 400-year anniversary of the house of Romanov does not fit in with the Hermitage’s program. Our program has events that will be held exclusively in the Winter Palace, and they will be going on all year. In particular, one of them will be dedicated to the ball in 1903 that means a lot for Russian history. I did not see anything special in Mr. Milonov’s letter. I can say that I get letters like that every year, and it all ends with us, naturally, not permitting any prayers in the Winter Palace, at the very least because the Emperor left the Winter Palace (Nikolai II lived in the Winter Palace until 1904, after which his residence was the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoe Selo - author’s note)... As a rule, it ends with various prayers and various actions outside the Winter Palace, to which we, of course, are not an obstacle. This is not a new initiative by any means, we have been through it many times. - Why is it that Petersburg and not Moscow has recently become the place for conflicts and information battles based on orthodoxy, homophobia and so on? And those absurd attacks on Madonna, Lady Gaga that led to other stars being afraid to come to our Northern Capital on tour? - We live in a virtual world, where “misguided Cossacks, misguided believers and misguided Hassids” and other virtual images have appeared. I have often written in my columns that there is money in Moscow, and money tends to smooth everything out, with conflicts get sharper and sharper in Petersburg, since it isn’t that rich. We are experiencing sharp conflicts between black and white, good and evil, good and bad. Museums are on the front lines. Not only the Hermitage, but also the Nabokov museum, that has been receiving constant threats, and then a bottle with a bible quote written on it that was thrown to a window, accusing the writer and the museum workers of promoting paedophilia. That bottle was a challenge to everyone who is involved in culture in some way. After all, museums ought to cultivate good taste, museums save a nation’s honour and are located (alas, we would prefer it were otherwise) on the front lines, the last lines of defence for culture. But I do not agree that scandalous actions of that kind, as loud as they may be, have really spoiled the image of Petersburg as the cultural capital. So it happens with images, no problem, as much as we have already been through. The image of “gangster Petersburg” has spoiled more for our city than the issues with sexual minorities. As you know, the most news the better, really! I think that everyone who is truly interested in our city knows what Saint Petersburg is. But there is one more thing; not that many people in the world are interested in Russia, and Petersburg in particular. Unfortunately, the number of such people is falling. We haven’t been the centre of the world for a long time… Lack of culture in the world and in our country is, alas, an undeniable fact, and our task it to somehow change that situation for the better, by finding ways to change that lack of culture into culture, to educate and change people somehow. How can that be done? Perhaps, with the help of scandals as well. We have to remember that our national idea is our cultural heritage. We must preserve a sense of our own historical dignity. Not “it’s as good as won!” or “God, what idiots we are”, but preserve our historical dignity (there is the foreign word “patriotism”, and the Russian - a sense of our own historical dignity, understanding of our history, as it is, every page of it). It is museums that support that national idea, which we need to nourish and cherish. That is why museums have to value and listen to what museum workers say. - Is it true that when you took on the post of director twenty years ago, certain taboos have appeared at the Hermitage. For example, you don’t sell... matryoshkas (Russian nesting dolls) here! - We don’t and we never will! I reached an agreement with all of our stores and kiosks about that. People that come to our museum must see Russian culture as the Hermitage sees it... We have other taboos at the Hermitage. I, for example, never use the word “Peter”, I think that using that name for our city is parochial. It’s Petersburg. By the way, in conversation it is better to say “Petersburg” than “Saint Petersburg.” In this case, “Leningrad” is better than “Peter”. We also don’t use the expression “ladies and gentlemen”. We never say “respected” but rather “deeply respected” or “greatly respected”. We use the Russian word for “presentation”, rather than the English word as it has been transplanted into Russian. - Mikhail Borisovich, you are always in the public eye, every year we learn about your new achievements, appoints and we are simply amazed that one person has time to do so much! Do you work a lot more today than you did twenty years ago, when you became the director of the Hermitage? - Since I became the director of the Hermitage I’ve been writing fewer books and articles in my field (Piotrovsky is an orientalist, Islam-specialist and Quran-specialist - author’s note)... All of work in my field is keeping closer to night or at night. But it’s nothing, we can handle it. Working as the director gives me opportunities to do things that no one without the name of the Hermitage behind him can do. This is the reason for my participation in many councils, academic departments, and so forth. Some situations can only be resolved when you’ve already built up a biography. Yes, it takes nerves, but it’s worth it. Information sheet from Vechernyaya Moskva Mikhail Piotrovsky is the director of the State Hermitage, a distinguished citizen of Petersburg, deputy chairman of the Presidential Council for Culture and Art, an academician and a professor. Mikhail Sadchikov http://vmdaily.ru/news/mihail-piotrovskij-dazhe-skandali-mogut-obrazovivat-i-menyat-lyudej1359121101.html |
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