A new security checkpoint module has been installed in the gateway of the Winter Palace to monitor visitors entering the Hermitage from Palace Square. As soon as it appeared, people began complaining that it disfigures the look of the Winter Palace.
First and foremost, I want to point out that it is not disfiguring. A sentry box has always stood in that place, in tsarist times and in our own. People passed by to the right and left. There is no call to stylize a technical installation to match the appearance of the palace. The public toilet on the square supposedly imitates the look of the palace. That looks terrible. Right alongside is the pavilion of the tourism bureau that is becoming covered in more and more pictures. Once upon a time, we agreed to their installation because tourists needed them. In summertime, structures are continuously appearing on Palace Square. They not merely disfigure, but totally butcher its appearance. We are constantly pressing for them to be set up and dismantled rapidly.
The objections regarding a technical installation in the palace gateway are not very admissable. There are many such installations in the Hermitage. The turnstiles and monitoring devices located in the Jordan Gallery are worse than the checkpoint module with regard to both aesthetics and comfort.
The museum itself is a piece of technology installed in the building of the palace.
The module is our response to a challenge of the times. Almost every week, there is a phone call about a bomb in the Hermitage. The media report that the museum has been closed. In the event of a bomb scare, we have to get people out and check the entire museum… Under the current monitoring system, people proceed unhindered as far as the checkpoint, already leaving items in storage and their coats in the cloakroom, using the toilets.
The Hermitage is identifying the weak points together with the appropriate authorities. Studies led to the idea of the module at the gateway onto the square. It was made by defence-industry enterprises, the best specialists in the field, using the latest technologies. There is no checkpoint of such a standard with a range of capabilities anywhere.
The module frees up the museum’s entrance zone, making it more hospitable. Those who wish can go through into the courtyard, even if they do not intend to enter the Hermitage. Additional attention is being drawn to the garden. The gates, like the garden, appeared in the reign of Alexander III. They bear his monogram and that of [his wife] Maria Feodorovna. The Emperor did not reside in the Winter Palace; he travelled here to work. Maria Feodorovna disliked the parade ground in the courtyard. Alexander III had a garden laid out there, and much of it has survived. The flowerbeds in the corners have gone, but half the trees are from that time and the fountain is the same one. It was designed to send a jet 11 metres into the air.
In the Hermitage everywhere is a museum space. Now, when we are shifting the entrance zone to the gateway, the garden has become part of the displays, a museum space. At one time, even before the glass pyramid appeared in the courtyard of the Louvre, the idea of creating an underground entrance to the Hermitage was being discussed. Removing the fountain, felling the trees. It is a good thing that the idea was rejected. As for the demountable module, we are not prepared to discuss its existence, but we are prepared to discuss the colour of the exterior and the addition of the traditional black stripes. We have already had suggestions from friendly visitors.
Not everything needs to be discussed, but everything needs to be shown to the world. The exhibition and evening in memory of Ilya Kabakov are an event of world significance. And, as it turned out, they resounded in just that way – many people heard and appreciated. Ilya Kabakov created pieces for many museums. The Hermitage was the first in the world to hold an evening devoted to his memory.
Among the notable events I can also include an evening in memory of Oleg Karavaichuk. That is also Hermitage history, the history of the imperial grand piano that Karavaichuk played. The exhibition “OTMA and Alexei. The Children of the Last Russian Emperor” is running in the Manege of the Small Hermitage. The best film about Nicholas II’s children was made at the Documentary Film Studio by the director Nikolai Obukhovich. Its title is Sonm belykh kniazhon [A Bevy of White Duchesses]. Karavaichuk wrote the music for it.
Something else that has become an event is the exhibition “Arnold Böcklin, Carlo Böcklin: Isle of the Dead” which just started in the General Staff building. The opening featured a performance of Rachmaninov’s symphonic poem devoted to the painting Isle of the Dead. We are presenting a picture that had already been hanging in the Hermitage for a long time. The museum bought it from the owners last year. Dealers suddenly realized that they could buy it for the same price and sell it for much more, but the owners waited until the Hermitage was able to buy the picture. That is confirmation of something I often say: a museum is the best place for works of art. To get into one is the highest rating there can be. Anything that is created sooner or later turns to dust. What makes it into a museum is preserved for generations to come. Talk of “give it back, stolen goods, not made for a museum” is worthless.
Continuing the theme of responses to current challenges, I must make mention of the line that is being called a “Turn to the East”. We proved to be prepared for that as well. The first exhibition last year, which was devoted to the 350th anniversary of Peter the Great’s birth, “Exotic and Lavish China. Knowledge of the Orient” presented goods and precious objects from China that were used by Peter and his entourage. We also held an exhibition of gifts from the Chinese emperors to the Russian emperors and Russian court. Exhibits can tell a lot about the relations between the rulers of our state and those of the Orient and the European powers.
The Hermitage has signed an agreement with a sponsor for the funding of a new China display that is in preparation. The displays of the mediaeval East, Iran, Middle East, Turkey and Central Asia have been revamped. The museum is ready to tell about the East in such a way as to be useful and helpful to a turn towards it.
One of the round table discussions at the Saint Petersburg Economic Forum was organized by the university’s Faculty of Oriental Studies. It was devoted to oriental studies, to telling about its distinctive character as a field of learning. It is a discipline involving the dialogue of cultures and discovering the other.
There was discussion of specific problems: how to teach Orientalists and how to avoid blunders when interacting intensively with the East. Today we live in the age of Google translation. It seems that anything can be translated and it’s not complicated. However, to conduct negotiations, including business ones, that kind of translation is not enough. That is beyond the scope of the knowledge “at your fingertips” and Google translation. Many examples were cited. People attribute the saying that “it’s hard to catch a black cat in a dark room, especially when it’s not there” to Confucius, but he never said that. Equally incorrect is the idea that the Chinese word for “crisis” is written with two characters that mean “danger” and “opportunity”.
There are invented conceptions of the Orient that are capable of harming business relations. People in the East are used to their ways of conducting a conversation. It is easy to lose face if you start to present yourself as a knowledgeable person.
Many things connected with culture were discussed at the Forum. A separate round table was devoted to existing myths and legends, how they come into being, which of them bring in money. Myth and legends associated with museums also play a role. The simplest example is that exhibits in the Hermitage are substitute copies. Utter nonsense, but it’s convenient when a painting allegedly from the Hermitage is being sold on the black market somewhere or other. It will find a buyer.
One of the round tables was devoted to the dialogue of cultures, with speakers from this country and abroad participating. The talk was of culture as a “soft power”, which today is acquiring particular significance. The role of the culture industries was also debated. On the one hand, they make money, on the other they perform an important ideological role. Not allowing “mistaken performers” a stage is a primitive approach. We need to see to it that events that draw large numbers of people, including those on Palace Square, stand out for their good taste and accord with the “soft power” of culture.
The Forum included discussion of the holding of Hermitage Days in Serbia. New forms of interaction are being devised, Today it is not possible to take items from the Hermitage to Serbia. It is, however, possible to go there, to take a team of people, an exhibition devoted to inclusivity and an exhibition from the Imperial Porcelain Factory that produces copies of the emperors’ dining services. The Ballet Theatre named after Leonid Yakobson will be going to Serbia with the Hermitage.
This material was published in the Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti newspaper, №116 (7445) on 28 June 2023 under the title " A Response to a Challenge of the Times".
