We are entering into a new world and working out new mechanisms for interaction. The Hermitage is acting as an experimenter in this regard. What I want to speak about are things that are important for culture in general.
The British journalist Geraldine Norman and I together wrote the book Culture as Scandal. A revealing scandal ensued, although it did not relate to the contents of the book. The book was prepared by an English publishing house, typeset. Even the cover is ready, quoting feedback from directors of leading world museums: “Never has such a candid book about museums been written.” The price had even been announced. Then came February 2022. We were informed that the book will not be published. I got an idea of what it’s like when your book gets banned. There was such a practice in the USSR. Now it is happening in our own time, and not with us.
In the book, in my dialogue with Geraldine Norman, there are descriptions of sensational stories, real and invented, connected with the Hermitage. Since the society in which we live relishes discussing them, the idea arose to use scandals as a way to tell about the essence of museum life. The book has been brought out [in translation] by the Russian publishing house SLOVO.
What is a scandal? It is an event that produces public resonance. In the year now ending there were a few. The first was the module in the gateway of the Winter Palace, installed for carrying out security checks. In the current circumstances it is vital to the museum. Initially, there were a lot of protests. In my opinion, the module is carefully positioned. It cannot be seen from the square. Naturally, everyone who was criticizing photographed it from the courtyard side. I read the social networks attentively. As always, a large portion of the criticism comes from people who do not visit the museum. At the same time, there was discussion of the question of how security ought to be combined with aesthetics. A museum presupposes aesthetics. We successfully resolved the situation, cleared out the entrance zone to the Hermitage. That has become calmer and more comfortable. The module has proved itself splendidly. It even has a facial recognition function. Each known rogue and pickpocket, and also unauthorized tour guides are already identified the moment they enter the museum.
Our life cannot be ideal. We need to understand how to combine the scandal with life, security with aesthetics.
Another high-profile story this year was the handing over to the Church of the tomb and shrine (casket) of Alexander Nevsky. Church art has religious and artistic meaning. The two do not always coincide. For a museum the artistic value is important, for the Church the religious one. In this instance, proceeding from the general geopolitical situation in the country and a request from the Patriarch, the decision was taken that today the religious aspect is more important. The museum presence has not disappeared either, though. A climate control system has been created in the Annunciation Sepulchre of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery. There is daily monitoring. In parallel, by way of a yardstick, the same parameters are being measured in the Alexander Hall of the Winter Palace, where silver is kept. The display showing how the museum saved the tomb has also remained in the Winter Palace.
Each museum is unlike the others. Each should have a certain degree of autonomy, the right to resolve its own internal issues. That right needs to be upheld. As the result of a long struggle, the State Duma, Federation Council and the President have just made amendments to the Law on Museums. It now states that museum collections are indivisible. There are only a small number of exceptions allowing the removal of items. It imposes serious obligations on museums which need to understand why they have those items in their keeping and on those who want to take something from them. And such attempts are going on around the world.
There is endless talk in society about museums’ storerooms. Museums are supposedly hiding a lot away from people. I never tire of explaining that the repositories are the most important thing in a museum. Much is being done to make them as open as possible. Still there needs to be a certain hierarchy, establishing different access for different groups of visitors. Today we have constructed that system. It extends from the Hermitage Square in Staraya Derevnya to the Hermitage on Palace Square. There are open storage facilities, reserve galleries, galleries with changing contents, refurbished permanent displays. Plus the museum’s satellites, where exhibitions are held, and Hermitage Days.
The centre is intended for a visitor coming to the Hermitage for the first time. All the rest for those who want to see more. We try to explain that museum exhibitions have multiple layers. It is an iceberg – something attractive and interesting on the surface, but with deeper meanings as well. The exhibition “The Artistic Legacy of the Pomorian Old Believers” tells about the Old Ritualists’ Vygovskaya Pustyn, a monastery that was the foremost spiritual and cultural centre of Pomorye from the 18th century to the middle of the 19th. The Old Believers revived the old-fashioned icon as a cultural artefact, created a school of icon-painting and of copper-casting. Only now is an awareness being reached of how much Old Believer culture gave to Russia – from the development of icon-painting to the development of Russian capitalism. The monastery was destroyed, Old Believers’ art gathered up in dribs and drabs. Collectors saved those remarkable icons.
The exhibition about the imperial children is an encyclopaedia of the domestic culture of the Silver Age and a return to the tragedy of the Tsar’s family. “Tsars and Knights” is a story about the Middle Ages and about Nicholas I. The exhibition about the French Salons is an account of the relations between Diderot and Catherine. Today the tradition of tearing Peter I to pieces still endures. The museum does not argue with anyone. It shows the different sides of the Emperor’s life and his myth.
I like subjects that might be termed the “rhythms of history”.
As a historian, I try to look at events currently taking place as a part of history. The number of people who criticized me when I said that over its history Russia has always adhered to the tradition of Scythian warfare: to retreat and, having thus deceived the enemy, to turn around at the opportune moment…
This year presented a chance to think about the rhythms of history through another example. I am referring to the Middle East. Everything taking place there is described in the Bible. Many are recalling that just now. Admittedly, there are few who remember that Gaza, around which events are currently turning, was once the capital of the Philistines. They were a people against whom the Israelites waged war for possession of the Holy Land. The Bible describes Samson’s great deeds. There was such a hero. The Philistines lured him to Gaza, captured and blinded him. He dreamt of taking revenge and brought the temple down on thousands of Philistines. That is how buildings collapsed in Gaza.
Netanyahu’s response to the pogrom launched by Hamas is expressed in wording that is also historical: “We are fighting with the Amalekites, they must be destroyed.” Biblical history again. The Amalekites were an ethnic group who lived on the Sinai Peninsula. People of the desert, Bedouins stood in the way of the Israelites when they departed from Egypt. There was a struggle. God said to Moses: “You must destroy them all – the children, women, animals. Otherwise, they will attack again.” Netanyahu references that biblical text. An implacable enemy needs to be destroyed.
Everything is constructed upon biblical allusions. Sometimes they make it possible to justify actions; sometimes they mean nothing; sometimes they give a warning.
A constant war of words is underway, a confusing of Arab and Jewish conceptions. They can be misinterpreted in any way at all. Right now, a song of revenge is popular in Israel. In it they mention the names of people who ought to be annihilated. Yet the title of the song comes from Arabic – Harbu Darbu. A war cry of Syrian Bedouins – “swords and strikes”. An Arab slogan becomes an Israeli anthem.
This material was published in the Sankt-Petersburgskie Vedomosti newspaper, №245 (7574) on 27 December 2023 with the headline “How to combine the substance of life and scandal”.
