|
|
|
|
|
|
|
   Interview with the magazine Direct Investments - Mikhail Borisovich, you often say that working in the Hermitage is like a hobby. Then what do you consider real work to be? - You must understand that such a turn of speech is intended to highlight an issue. I have a profession. I also have a job, which is director of the Hermitage. I consider that a museum, a huge humanitarian institution, should be run not by pure managers but by scholars. Not everyone shares this point of view. In America nearly all the museums are run by scholars who at the same time continue to pursue their scholarly interests as art specialists, historians, or archeologists, and their experience in scholarly work is a major component in their activity as administrators. This is because they know very well what must not be done. Like any museum director, I should remain a specialist in the field of museum affairs, whereas management, administration, is something else. That expertise should also be present, but it is secondary. The idea of the universality of managerial methods is exactly the same as what we had in the Soviet period. A good party official could manage anything. There is such a thing as the science of management and people should learn it, but it is not sufficient to ensure that a museum employee will perform his functions properly and that traditions will be upheld. - Is there anything you do not know about the Hermitage? - Of course. It would be odd if I knew everything about the Hermitage. And that is one of the special attractions. Why is it that we so love to organize exhibitions? Because a great many interesting things emerge from the preparations for exhibitions. Knowledge is born. That is the sense behind all of the museum's work. Very often wholly new ideas are produced. New attributions are made. We arrive at new concepts or we shed new light on material. This leads us to the second part of work in the museum: pleasure. Museum employees have no place in their life for hobbies: research and work in the museum exhaust all capability for enjoyment that a man has. - If you weren't the director of the Hermitage, which museum would you like to head? - None. I am an orientalist and archeologist. I have led huge expeditions. Before arriving here, I worked in the Academy of Sciences. You can leave activities like these only for the Hermitage. Not for some Metropolitan Museum in New York. - Do you remember what was the first directive you issued as director of the Hermitage? - Of course. It was an order appointing the former director as expert consultant to the Hermitage. That went against all our traditions. If someone was relieved of his duties, then he was expected to disappear forever - it was all over for him. Instead I appointed him and for many years he worked as a consultant to the management board. He performed splendidly and lived well. His departure was painless. - What is it that the director of the Hermitage cannot allow himself to do? - There is almost nothing that I cannot do. However, for one thing, I cannot buy first quality paintings for myself or put together a collection of my own, though I might like to. In general this is a sort of principle which is discussed time and again. But I think a museum director should not himself be a collector. - What prevents other Russian museums from attaining the level of success of the Hermitage? - I believe that museums are among the most successful institutions in the cultural realm in our country. During the 1980's, the general attitude towards museums, though not necessarily towards the Hermitage could be summed up as: Clear out! We have no money for you! Who needs you! However, the museums found their niche and in doing so they conformed to tendencies seen the world over. They became more and more important for the spiritual life of people. They are very democratic institutions. Theaters can accommodate relatively few people. In literature there is elite reading but mostly a lot of rubbish. Museums, by contrast, can interest people on many different levels. Museums gathered strength and found their place in society. I am the president of the Union of Russian Museums and I know the situation quite well. There are a great many successful museums. For example, in St Petersburg all of our major museums - Tsarskoye Selo, Peterhof, the Russian Museum - have their own forms of success and their own ways of working. The role of museums in society is growing. And when success does come, then both the State and private benefactors begin to carry out their obligations more energetically. - At what point did you understand that your family name Piotrovsky imposed certain obligations on you? - I always knew that. Surely from the age of seven or eight, from the moment when I started attending school. I lived in a St Petersburg milieu where this was always clear. I can cite a classic example. When I was a first-year student, Professor Ilya Pavlovich Petrushevsky asked me: “Aren't you the son of Boris Piotrovsky?...In that case in order to get an A you will have to give me A+ work. All my life I have felt obliged to earn an A+. - Where and how did your parents meet? - They met on an archeological dig at the site of an ancient Urart city and fortress on the hill Karmir-Blur in Armenia. My mother was an archeologist and worked as a researcher in my father's expedition. They got married there. It was all quite simple. I don't like to talk about my family, about my mother, my wife and so on, since these are private matters. - What did your mother teach you? - My mother taught me that the main thing in the family was my father and his work. Very likely that was difficult for her and she had a sense of loss. But if you were in our family, then you had to understand that the Hermitage was a profession and it was the main thing. All of us and the people close to us had to cope with the demands of this profession and this institution. - Do you mean to say that your mother accepted sacrifices for the cause? - Women always make sacrifices. She taught us that this is normal. - In Sokurov's film The Russian Ark you meet and converse with your father. In real life do you feel his presence? - As regards sensations and feelings, please bear in mind that I came to work in the museum after my father was here. I sit in his office, in his armchair. I occupy his post. I walk through the halls where he walked. I sense his presence, how he follows me, and I feel when he is not satisfied. Why? For no particular reason. If you have not dealt with the other world, then it is a complex system. You cannot stop time. It is not like in Sokurov's films. This is no film. - This sounds like an inner dialogue with oneself. - It was always like this. My father was not talkative and I knew without his saying so whether he was pleased with what I was doing or not. - Was it something in his look? - Perhaps, in his look. But I simply knew. To be sure, quite often I did things first and knew afterwards… - You put in 16 hours of work every day. As a rule, you are on business trips one week a month. How does your family take this work schedule? - My family makes even bigger sacrifices than my mother did, since I work even more. But my family is remarkable and understands everything. We do not see one another all that often, but, on the other hand, we have no chance to get tired of one other. We rarely get together as a threesome; still more rarely as a foursome. Our daughter lives in Moscow. All of us have our own activities. The youngsters go out at night. We are busy in the daytime. We see one another every day, but there is no time to spend the whole day together or even to sit and converse over dinner for several hours. - You once told your son that 36 is a good age to get married. What does a man know at that age that is useful in raising a family? - My father got married at age 36 and his marriage was a very happy one. I married at 36 and my marriage has also been a happy one. Before that age a man can experience life a bit and begin to appreciate what is truly valuable. By age 36 people can choose their mates sensibly, as if for the last time. At an age like this, some people may be getting married a second time. But for me it was the first and last time. - This year you and your wife are celebrating your silver anniversary. Will you do something special? - We will celebrate it in one way or another. Most likely we will go out together or maybe as a foursome. But we sometimes tend to forget our wedding day and then we remember all of a sudden. - But surely you remember the date? - Of course. It's September 3rd. - What kind of gift do your usually give? - It varies. Sometimes a flower. Sometimes nothing. It depends. - Have you ever had to choose between the Hermitage and your family? - No, there was never such a choice. They are one and the same. For real Hermitage people, the museum is their home and their family. The two homes are really always together, not only for the staff but also for their families. - What a lucky man you are! - Yes, this is good fortune. - You don't like to draw attention to your birthday. Can it be that you ignored your 60th birthday last year? - I never celebrate birthdays. - Don't you get any presents? - I always get presents. Here is a small chest which our restorer gave me for my birthday. It is a copy of a well-known chest by Roentgen. The same thing was made as a music box. - Are you consulted as a specialist on Arab affairs when there are policy questions regarding the Middle East? -Yes, I am occasionally asked. But not often. - What did archeology teach you? - This is part of my specialty. Firstly, it gave me a body of knowledge. Secondly, it taught me how to raise money for expeditions. - In one interview you said that by nationality you are a Russian nobleman. What did you mean by that? - I think we have a lot of harmful nationalism which is unseemly for a nation like Russia and which pits Russians against other nations. For Russia this is unnatural. Russia is an open country which has no precise definition of national ethnic stock and features. It is a country without borders, and it is for that reason so open to the world. Therefore when people start talking about what is Russian, what is non-Russian or foreign, you have to remember that we live on territory that was once conquered. In all these discussions I have my own formulation, my own polemic: "My nationality is Russian nobleman." Many people who consider themselves to be Russian nationalists cannot say why they are Russians instead of Tartars, although half of their family may be Tartar. In Russia service to the Fatherland is what determined one's belonging to the Russian nation. In this sense the Baltic Germans were more Russian than the merchants in Moscow markets who staged pogroms. As an hereditary Russian nobleman, I have the right to speak in the name of Russia and the Russian people and to set criteria for what the Russian nation is. For this same reason I can speak rather harshly about the ultra-nationalists who have become so numerous in recent years. - Without mincing any words? - Yes. I can speak both diplomatically and undiplomatically, like any educated person. And though my education may not have been perfect, I try to behave like a refined person. - Is there anything in your life that you are ashamed of? - I have never been ashamed of my work. I even love to leaf through what I have written and published. - May I ask one forbidden question? - About scarves? - Yes. How many do you have? - I don't know the exact number. As you can imagine, after my birthday the number grew considerably, to around ten. Usually I wear a black or navy blue scarf. - Are you a religious person? - I don't go to church or follow the rites but I do know about God and about all the rest. While other people may talk about their beliefs, I have knowledge. Of course, there are supreme beings and the like. - But do you take on faith what you do not know? - I do, if people whom I respect say so. That is normal within knowledge and science. I don't know precisely how electricity is generated. They explained it somehow in school. I more or less believe in what I accept, which may be another way of saying it. - Are you a superstitious person? - Yes and no. But it is not so much superstition as normal knowledge. There are things which should not be said prior to something occurring; but this is not a matter of superstition. Faith is knowledge. There is a sort of set of limitations which in themselves have no meaning but which delimit our action. You simply do not do certain things or say things before the time comes. You don't tell people how you intend to invest your money, etc. There are timeworn prohibitions, perhaps of religious or superstitious or political or factional origin, which limit our freedom of action and prevent us from doing foolish things. For example, one should knock wood more often. - Do you have any enemies? - Quite a few. Sometimes people tell me I can't imagine how many people hate me...That is normal. Of course there are enemies, people who are envious. People become enemies out of envy, out of intellectual conviction, out of the importance museums enjoy in our culture, over my nationality as a Russian nobleman, over my honesty. Many people don't like how my colleagues and I run our affairs. - How do you defend yourself against your enemies? - I don't. When we fight, we fight. The episode of calumny and slander in the Accounting Office showed that my colleagues and I know how to defend ourselves and are not afraid of scuffles. We know how to fend off blows. - Have you taken part in a real scuffle? - Only in my childhood. - Did you draw blood? - No. Those were just normal children's games. Nothing very nasty. - Do you have friends? - I do. But these days we get together rarely. - Do you visit your friends? - I visit friends, but very rarely. All my friends are busy at society functions and official events which I also attend, so we more commonly meet there. - When life is difficult, do you have a shoulder to cry on? - My family performs that role. I don't necessarily have to tell them the details of what happened. It is enough just to be with them and then everything falls into place. - In reality are you more an oriental or a Western person? What are your favorite dishes? - There is no difference between oriental and Western cuisines. I am a Russian. And for Russians it is all the same whether we are talking about the West or the East. Today we can have rice pilaf. Tomorrow it will be mushrooms in sour cream. - How do you usually relax? - I read books. - Do you engage in any sports? - No. - What is the role of money in your life? - It does not play a large role. Thank heaven I was never destitute. I have known poverty. A person should have two main virtues: service and generosity. Whether you have money or don't should not be decisive. - Does the salary of director of the Hermitage take you very far? - Once upon a time it was hardly enough to buy anything. Now things have changed somewhat and it is sufficient to live on, though it is incomparable with what people of this rank make elsewhere in the world. My income is both what I earn in the Hermitage and my salary at St Petersburg University, where I lecture. - If you believe in reincarnation, what museum exhibit would you like to become? - None. I would only want to be reincarnated as director of the Hermitage. - What are you proud of? - Firstly, I am proud of what I have - my splendid children, my splendid family, and I am also proud to have written some books which are not at all bad. - Are you celebrating the 60 years you have lived or the 60 to come? - Neither the one nor the other. This is simply the start of a new phase in life. |
||||
Copyright © 2011 State Hermitage Museum |
