RUSSIA

Russia’s 'sacred' Olympic Games no joking matter

 The 2014 winter Olympic Games are not to be scoffed at in Russia. After having shut down a satirical art exhibit titled “Welcome! Sochi 2014” earlier this month, Russian authorities fired a museum director who dared to showcase the same artwork just a few days later.

Advertising

Paintings by Russian artist Vasiliy Slonov. The image on the right is a nightmarish version of Russia's Olympics mascot. 

 

 

The 2014 winter Olympic Games are not to be scoffed at in Russia. After having shut down a satirical art exhibit titled “Welcome! Sochi 2014” earlier this month, Russian authorities fired a museum director who dared to showcase the same artwork just a few days later.

 

Marat Guelman was one of the organisers of the first exhibit, held in the city of Perm in the Ural Mountains as part of a cultural festival. However, the satirical paintings by artist Vasiliy Slonov were not to the taste of the region’s culture ministry, which forced the organisers to take the pieces down. A few days later, Guelman decided to exhibit them again, this time on the walls of the city’s modern art museum, which he directed. His bold move quickly got him fired.

 

Meanwhile, Slonov, whose paintings include caricatures of Olympic Game mascots, stands accused of having illegally used Olympic symbols in his work. Russian authorities have also opened an investigation to determine whether his artwork is “extremist”. In the wake of this incident, a senator said that Slonov’s work was “disrespectful and humiliating to the great power [that is Russia].”

 

Several other artistic events were cancelled in Perm during the “White Nights” festival, which ended on Monday. One exhibit was shut down after its organisers expressed support for Slonov. Another that was shuttered included photographs of anti-Putin protests. Workshops to teach youth how to make absurd, satirical signs – a phenomenon called “monstrating” in Russia – were cancelled.

 

"The authorities don’t care about local residents’ feelings; the only thing that matters is Putin’s feelings"

Marat Guelman is the former director of the PERMM modern art museum.

 

During my career, several exhibitions I worked on have run into trouble with the authorities – especially during this past year and a half [Editor’s Note: since president Vladimir Putin’s re-election]. One example is the exhibit “Rodina” (“The Homeland”) in the Siberian capital Novossibirsk in May 2012. The city’s mayor first decided to ban it from a local museum, and then put pressure on the owners of a private gallery where it was exposed. We finally were able to hold the exhibit in a third venue. There was a similar situation in St Petersburg, where we were pressured to shut down the exhibit “Icons” [which portrayed religious icons, and drew the ire of many believers]. But we still managed to go through with it and it was a great success.

 

In Perm, we have exhibited some much more satirical work than Slonov’s in the past. So I get the impression that the authorities see the Olympic Games as almost sacred, despite the numerous political scandals that have already emerged. Recently, Russia adopted a law to protect the feelings of believers. In Perm, people joke that we might soon have a law protecting the feelings of those who believe in the Olympic Games!

 

The authorities don’t care about local residents’ feelings; the only thing that matters is Putin’s feelings. And the Olympic Games are his favourite toy.

 

You can still see Slonov’s work at the PERMM museum. I may have been fired, but the authorities didn’t shut down the exhibit for a second time. Being persistent paid off. It was worth it. Now, the entire world knows about this exhibit. If I were in the authorities’ shoes, I would be careful before banning art exhibits, because in the end, doing so gives them publicity.

 

 

This painting (above) is one of my favourites. It shows Stalin hiding being a mask of Mishka [Russia’s mascot in the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow]. Russia is telling the whole world “Welcome to Sochi”, inviting everyone with open arms as if it were any other civilised country. And at the very same time, Russia is working on a new history book for schoolchildren, in which the horrors of Stalin’s reign won’t even be mentioned. The authorities seem to think that these two faces of Russia can co-exist.

 

In the end, the Slonov exhibit isn’t really about the Olympic Games; it’s about the Russian authorities’ duality. On one side, they want to stay loyal to Stalin’s reputation, and on the other, they want to convince everyone that Russia is a democratic country.

 

 

A balalaïka crossed with an AK-47.

 

Post written with freelance journalist Polina Myakinchenko.