Mikhail Piotrovsky. The Therapeutic Effect of Culture

Today the world is concerned about the state of the climate on our planet. People hold meetings and argue about it. The fate of humankind on a global scale depends on whether there is warming or not. There is also another kind of climate – the psychological one. It has been engendered by the pandemic, and the future of each one of us depends upon it. People do not understand what tomorrow will bring. They are irritable, on the brink of hysteria. That manifests itself in a variety of situations.

The Hermitage is constantly receiving letters saying that naked figures should not be on display in the museum. That happened in Soviet times and post-Soviet times. No-one took it seriously. Now, when I mentioned it half-jokingly, a reaction ensued. People started to actively write in and speak up. A discussion began. The majority condemned narrow-minded views and the desire to impose one’s own viewpoint on others. It is important that this is happening in the sphere of culture. It should be providing “medicine” to counter the general frayed nerves.

I often say that culture is a medicine for the pandemic if only because it helps to bring out irritation. In the social networks we commemorated the date when the Hermitage acquired the Benois Madonna. And suddenly we read in the commentaries: “What are you so proud of? You snatched someone else’s painting. It should be returned to Italy. Collect Russian art.” Don’t imagine that was someone with an Italian surname writing.

We never used to have anything like this. People are on the brink of a nervous breakdown. We are getting hysterical outbursts not just over exhibitions of contemporary art. The Hermitage has found the way to introduce certain concessions: reductions on tickets, free-of-charge visits. The response has been “too little, it’s still expensive…” There is the suspicion that this is the reaction of people who don’t go to the museum.

Everyone is quick to take offence, prepared to speak out against anything at all. They say bad things about the Chinese, discuss what will happen when they come back. That is an important issue to do with tourism. Tourism does not just mean money from foreigners coming here: it is a cultural dialogue. In Soviet times foreign tourists differed noticeably from our own compatriots – different people, a different culture, a different way of behaving. No-one protested. Now things have changed. The information has come out that a museum of Islamic art is being created. We immediately hear, “Why on earth is that happening in our city?” Yet the world’s most beautiful mosque is located here.

Discussion takes place not on the level of criticism, but on the brink of hysteria. How can that be cured?

There are museum prescriptions. I would term them “inclusion” in a broad sense. Museums are the most democratic institutions in the world. They have everything for everyone – for any age, level of knowledge and taste. Inclusion means involving different categories of people in what we do. From those who can’t see well to those who are short of money. We need to think of ways to allow everyone to receive what the museum is giving. We now have Hermitage “television” with a variety of genres aimed at different audiences. Instagram for one audience, the social networks for another, lectures given by the Hermitage Academy for a third… When each person finds something to suit them, that should have a calming effect. If there is a wheelchair ramp, that means we thought about a person. If there are reductions on tickets, free-of-charge visits – a person should realize that they have not been forgotten. That, too, is medicine.

The museum is a visual institution. We are proud of the website for the visually impaired, and also of the performance for those without sight created by the Pro Arte foundation around a painting by Rembrandt. We have presented tactile innovations and will continue to do so. Together with Azerbaijani colleagues we produced relief carpets with a pattern modelled on the Pazyryk carpet – the oldest in the world. You can feel them, which is also important for people who do have vision. The whole sense of inclusion is that it is good for everyone.

It is important to include people in discussions on burning issues. An online seminar was just held in Paris about the monuments of the South Caucasus. It was organized by the [French] Institut national du patrimoine and Europa Nostra, an organization concerned with the protection of cultural monuments. It is clear that the situation in the South Caucasus is tense, that sites are under threat. Many seminars are being held on this matter. Usually just one of the sides in conflict takes part. As far as I can recall, this was the first time that not only scholars from different countries, but also cultural figures from Armenia and Azerbaijan participated. There were academic presentations on the heritage and diversity of sites in the South Caucasus – and very highly strung emotional statements. Both sides accused each other of destroying monuments, distorting history… This resulted in a list of the pain spots, something that is indeed needed.

Christian and Muslim sites are under threat, and there are also those that do not belong to anyone. All that fits together with the Derbent Appeal that I published, calling for constant monitoring of all sites in the region. Modern technology makes that possible. There are no places more tense than the Caucasus and the Middle East, where monuments serve as an argument in disputes and lead to conflicts. This is not about reconciliation, but about venues where a dialogue can take place. Those include museums.

During the seminar, I showed the newly revamped Caucasus display in the Hermitage. There are dozens of halls presenting Muslim Daghestan, the North Caucasus, Christian Georgia and Armenia, Muslim Azerbaijan… An example of the way in which it is possible to tell about different cultures that have historically been in conflict. It does not eliminate the tension altogether, but to some degree it shifts mutual reproaches into discussion.

We are prepared to provoke the public more than usual in order for people to let their emotions out. There have been plenty of piquant topics recently: jewellery, paintings made with ashes, pictures taken by a stylish photographer…

The Hermitage will soon be opening the exhibition “On Opposite Sides of the Front Line”. It is about cultural-propaganda publications during the Siege of Leningrad – on the German and Russian sides. Some interesting materials that until recently could not be touched upon. Everything turns around the cultural monuments. There are photographs showing Germans visiting our city’s beautiful suburbs that they had captured. And German photographs of those same suburbs, but already in ruins. Leaflets that one side would drop into the trenches of the other to serve as a pass for those ready to surrender. Some people have kept them to this day. Alongside we are displaying unexploded shells, tongs for extinguishing incendiary bombs…

There is another medicine for irritation – festivities. The Hermitage recently celebrated Patron’s Day. We know that [the Roman aristocrat and patron of the arts] Maecenas was born in April, although we do not know which year. The celebration is held in his honour – an opportunity to say thank-you to those who look after animals, those who present palatial furniture to the Hermitage, and those who help the sick… We were the first to begin marking this day, then others took it up. The habit of expressing thanks is also a medicine. It eases the soul.

Formal rituals will also improve one’s mood. On Saturday, the Hermitage held a Day of Caspar David Friedrich. In Moscow, a major exhibition of the great German Romantic artist has opened at the Tretyakov Gallery. Marion Ackermann, Director of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, came to visit us. The show we put on – a ceremony and a small scholarly conference – was a reminder that Friedrich is a Hermitage artist. We have the best collection of his paintings. Nicholas I bought them for his own private gallery. It was [the poet] Zhukovsky who infected him with a love of Friedrich. He was acquainted with the artist and had a whole room hung with his pictures. Now the Hermitage has a Friedrich Hall, just like the Rembrandt Hall. It is a temple to his memory, a recollection of the artist. Rituals also have a therapeutic effect.

When nerves are frayed, it is useful not only to intensify the discussion, but also to make comparisons. If something is bad with us, let’s take a look at what it’s like elsewhere.

In our city there are tense discussions about the boundaries of a possible archaeological preserve on the Okhta Spit. Artefacts that have been found there are kept in the Hermitage. They make it possible to understand what the talk is about, and we will soon be putting them on display. For comparison, the museum community is greatly troubled by the issue of the preservation of monuments and nature on the Crimean coast. There intensive construction is underway in many places without any sort of permits or discussion.

People complain about having to follow fixed routes when going around the Hermitage. Let’s look about us: the Louvre in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the British Museum in London are all closed.

Comparison is also a healing technique. The ability to draw comparisons can relieve frayed nerves.