АНГЛИЙСКИЙ ЯЗЫК (ENGLISH) (последнее)
SCIENCE AND CULTURE. A Word by the Theatre Director
Актуальные публикации по английскому языку. История Великобритании и других англоязычных стран. Публикации, книги, статьи, заметки на английском языке.
We have been kept in a cage for a long period of time - almost 73 years. And all of a sudden the cage was unlocked. All of us were released: you can develop... you can split, unite, scream, search, do whatever you want to. Now some people - those who had been locked up for a long time - when they inhaled deeply, started shouting out: "Freedom! Freedom at last!" Others who were used to a strictly defined existence model for 73 years ("a step to the left, a step to the right is regarded as an attempted flight"), were taken aback and stood paralysed near their cages when they were freed. They found themselves outside of the caged system. They had lost their purpose of life. For a short while of having "freedom from the cage" many preferred to do the easiest thing: they neglected everything, razed everything to the ground and then...
And then a period of general destruction came. And now the USSR, the huge cage, fell apart... to a great many small and not that small, independent and too very independent... cages.
Both in Georgia and in Abkhazia, Russia, Tadjikistan and Uzbekistan, even in Lithuania-these small oases of calmness and culture-shed blood. Human blood! And only in Belarus, despite all conservatism, inconsistency, illogicality and stupidity of powers that be there was no bloodshed. Everything remained decently calm.
Belarusians remained immune to all the bloodshed around them, since tolerance is a historic inherent feature often ironically regarded. I can dream of foretelling a great future to the Belarusians' tolerance and kindness. The Chernobyl devastation is an example. Having survived the Chernobyl catastrophe, Belarusians or, to be precise, all citizens of the republic saw what was behind the door of death...
At the same time, the problems of the huge USSR moved to the independent republics. The growing problems remained unsolved and vast.
Freedom has come! Write, film, stage whatever you want to-so far you will not be arrested for it. However, there are two eternal questions-what and how? The theatre space has narrowed, reduced, shivered like shagreen leather. And our big ship-society, politically, legally and otherwise independent, has run aground in the middle of the lake. However, everyone is misled to think that our ship is sailing smoothly in the deep waters of the ocean.
Anyway, what is happening with theatres? With art in general?
The artistic intelligentsia was so used to cocking a snook at former authorities that after taking the hands out, it realised that they were empty. Then the imitation began. Broadcasters were the first to start talking with a slight foreign accent. Later, newsreaders and commentators changed poses and rigid statures. Audacious renovations swept over the mass media, excluding only local newspapers. The monotonous plainness of the Communist ideology was replaced by the flamboyant colours of the prolonged transitional period. The old idols were thrown away, but there was no time to create new ones. Did anyone think about that?
Shakespeare's tragedy is nothing compared to this! A mysterious tragedy of a huge country was developing before the eyes of the amazed audience in which they, having not become the heroes, turned out to be the victims.
Five years of the dreadful fight for power and property ensued. People were assigned the part of an extra, knowing neither the play nor the director's conception of the play. You are free, people were told after the monetary reform, which shamelessly deprived the old people of their scanty savings, palming them off with a sweet mirage of easy money through financial pyramids, like the MMM.
People hurried to banks and companies, keeping up the old custom of believing published words and television screens. They gave the banks and companies back their roubles at "high" per cents. The banks and firms went bankrupt. Along with their money people lost all hope for a good life.
And now another mirage emerged: "A referendum!" People were only clutching at a straw of the strong presidential power which gave to state officials everything that was still left: both a legitimate parliament, the Constitutional Court, the right to elect local authorities, transparency of the budget appropriations, and independent media...
Where was the salt of the earth-Belarusian intelligentsia? As usual, the intelligentsia claimed they were with the people supping from the common stock of poverty and misbelieve. Pretty soon, the oak bars of ideological and political captivity turned into the steel bars of economic dependence and the private houses were turned back into cages.
And from all these mirages, the people lost their faith in everything and everybody!
The Communist deceived and robbed the common people. Businessmen deceived and robbed their workers. The State is deceiving and robbing the citizens. Where can a poor Belarusian strive to live for himself? Every alley is a dead end. Let us summon up tolerance, the Belarusian says to himself. Who knows, maybe everything will be solved by itself? Many people think along similar lines. In addition, there is also fear not to make the authorities angry. It does not really matter that you are not guilty of anything. The key point is to find a person-the article of law will always be there. If you hide and give no sign of life -perhaps, it will all be over.
After the referendum, there was discussion of strengthening the regime, it has become popular among the artistic intelligentsia to accuse... the stupid Belarusian people. They say the Belarusians do not know what they are doing... they do! They know very well! They simply see no other way, living in the cage.
But does this way exist at all?
When N. Khrushchev, the premier of the USSR, accused Georgia of not completely developing along the socialist terms, the city of Kutaisi, Georgia, responded by suggesting to set up a sanctuary of all drawbacks of socialism on its territory. Along the same lines, I would also like to make a proposal: let us make Belarus a sanctuary for all the drawbacks of democracy.
I would like to tell a story.
The father of a famous movie actor Vladislav Dvorzhetsky served his term in the Stalinist concentration camps. He was humiliated, tormented and beaten there. On top of all that-the living conditions were like that of a dog: there was dirt, cold and diseases everywhere. The man was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Once, digging a ditch, he found a piece of an iron rail. He began sharpening it at night and soon crafted something like a knife, having all of a sudden realised that he had become free. At any time he could have committed suicide or escaped. In other words, there was an alternative, an option that equalled freedom itself. This helped him to survive.
I heard this story from Dvorzhetsky, Snr, sitting with him in a cosy cafeteria at the festival in Tver'. It was hard to believe that this man had been in prison. He had inspired eyes of a priest.
It is an example of spiritual enlightenment, a way of acquiring personal freedom.
Reading a newspaper, I ran across an article that really shocked me. A 33-year-old American, an engineer, a well-off man with a wonderful family took part in a civil rights movement against the war in Vietnam. He organised meetings, marches of protest, wrote letters to the president, in other words he was trying to destroy the bloody cage, moving heaven and earth to achieve his goal.
Nothing helped. Then he sent a note to the U.S. Congress with a demand to stop this disgraceful war or otherwise he would burn himself near the White House. Being aware that by doing so he would either be regarded as a psychologically insane man or as an individual who has his personal motives for committing suicide, this man prepared and notarised the documents proving that he was sound, well-to-do and had normal family relations. In other words, according to all the existing criteria, he looked like a man with an absolutely normal life. On a fixed day and time he impregnated his clothing with a highly flammable liquid and burnt himself near the White House.
Is it worthwhile to indicate that this man's highest moral and human deed was conditioned by the desire to escape himself and lead others out of the war hysteria cage?
Apparently this altruistic suicide is the path of saints and heroes. I would not be able to commit such a good deed. However, even this act of self-sacrifice failed to stop the war.
And art? What can be said about it?
Two hundred and fifty years ago the Dijon Academy announced a special award for the best essay about the topic: "Does art contribute to the improvement of morals?" Jean Jacques Rousseau won this contest. His answer to the question was negative: "I would like to respect art, but only in case someone will prove to me that a beautiful statue is worth more than a good deed..." Since the primitive communal system, rock paintings and ritual dances, art has been fostering certain qualities inherent to the culture of a particular period of time.
Along with a change of history's epochs, the ideals, glorified by art, passed a long way from a uniquely childish rock drawings of a caveman to the complex diversity and indiscriminate omnivorousness of our civilisation.
But has society progressively become more moral?
On the whole, of course, not! A human thought developed faster, the modern tools were invented quicker, and the more advanced tools of trade became, the more advanced tools to murder became-the result being multiplying the number of wars. Today, when mankind is capable of destroying life on earth (including mankind itself), regrettably, one has to admit that art has never, not even during its flowering, been able to stop the insanity of wars, violence and chaos. Art is like Don Quixote fighting against windmills.
Does anyone currently need to hold onto the gallantry of a knight? Isn't this fantasy ridiculous?
I assume the knight is necessary. At least, to save in people's hearts hope for the final victory of good and noble over evil and sinister. Maybe, one day Don Quixote would defeat the windmill of the dark forces. However, this feat is difficult. As a rule, unscrupulous people, able to violate any law to achieve their means, come to power.
Anyway, what has happened to art, to society? To all of us, named Homo sapiens? "'A human being' sounds proudly," M. Gorky's words were convincing us from childhood. Besides, we were also proud of our state. It was our own national state. Remember, there was a saying: "Not a head, but rather a House of Soviets". Incidentally, I imagine that every human being is a sovereign state with a president, parliament, army, means of transport of its own, etc.
Everyone will be able to find different types of states in himself. Shall we have a try? Brain is a president, intellect -the parliament, fists- the army, feet-the transport, hands -the economy, stomach-the source of power...
Subsequently, the state of Belarus hypothetically does not exist. However, there is a commonwealth of 10 million independent states. That is exactly with whom one has to consider, and whose interests to protect. If you want to make some changes in the Commonwealth of Independent States, named Belarus, then exercise influence on every "president" through every personal "parliament."
Is art capable of that?
A human being is a mixture of everything: a certain per cent of nobility and meanness, love and hatred, courage and cowardliness, diligence and laziness, kindness and malice... The purpose of art is to change this proportion, at least a little bit, towards love, kindness and nobility. How does art do it? The key point is not to try to cure everybody with the same medicine. In our theatre we are trying to solve this task by individual influence over every audience member. In our repertoire there are plays where the audience are directly involved in the action: they conduct a conversation, vote, answer questions ("Free Marriage"); sing, tell jokes, sit at the same table with the actors ("Perpetual Motion or the Night of Jewish Jokes"); pray ("May God Bless Us ")...
I would like to share my dream. This dream has already been partly realised: we are creating a new theatre, named "Theatre Under the Domes". The hall and the stage are already half-made. Now it is just a matter of technical equipment and soon we will be able to receive an audience. It will be the third stage of the Russian Academic Drama Theatre, its altar, where we will stage plays affecting primarily not the intellect, but rather a spectator's soul.
The words of great Camus come to mind: "A man is sitting in some sort of a very thick shell without seeing or hearing anybody, and only art is able to knock at each other through this shell." Theatre today, the way I see it, is a workshop where people get rid of their personal cages of hatred, meanness, anger, greed, envy... Maybe only one spectator out of a thousand will be able to become free! Then the actor's life has not been wasted, and the Theatre has justified its existence.
To pull a man out of his cage of circumstances, to give him a chance to reign over them, rather then be their slave - this is the most important task of art. However, when the creator himself remains in this cage, then his art worships not God, but rather the golden calf, asking slavishly: "What would you like?" May those who were not sinful of that throw a stone at me. We were all born in the same cage. But how can we leave it? From my soap box, there is only one way out: spiritual evolution of a human being.
Andrei Makayonok, one of the classics of Belarusian drama, used to say: "At the end of the day ask yourself: what have you done today? Have you offended anyone? Criticised? Punished? Discharged from work? Or blamed? Whom? What for? Was that fair? What will that lead to tomorrow? In a year? In a century? Will that be forgiven?"
Lazarev poses a question in his famous book Diagnostics of Karma : "What is the biggest crime a man can commit?" He receives the answer: "Murdering another man? No, the worst crime is killing love."
"...I may give everything I have to feed people. And I may even give my body as an offering to be burned. But I gain nothing by doing these things if I don't have love..." ( The Bible . New Testament. 1 Corinthians 13:3).
Mankind has entered the era of Aquarius. Extremely gifted children are born with huge vital energy and great abilities. Look at them closely. This is our hope. Not the most powerful, but rather more moral people will win the eternal struggle between good and evil.
Knights without fear and reproach, able to sacrifice themselves for the sake of art, have not become extinct in Belarus yet. They are quite a few, and that inspires optimism. No nation's art can develop in a vacuum. Belarusian art not only absorbs, but also produces the world class works. This is not the Renaissance yet. Renaissance begins with making great demands on artist's personality. This includes the knowledge of languages, history, painting, music and traditions. The great Renaissance begins only with the completion of necessary accumulation, and only after generations are brought up in line with these traditions, will it flourish.
Potentially, our art has great capabilities: we have a magnificent ballet school, wonderful artists, sculptors, architects, musicians and actors. However, this valuable layer can be eliminated by a destructive wave of a lack of claim, misunderstanding, or an ugly grimace of an exultant boor...
A group of children in kindergarten were questioned what they would like to do in the future. Most of them wanted to become... businessmen! This is a dangerous sign. The example of poor artists the children see does not attract the young generation. In all civilised countries there is preferential taxation on the investment in art. Unfortunately, it is not the case in our country. But even the current law on culture, being reasonable in many ways, is not fulfilled because the economic and political status of society is similar to the caricature that I have recently seen.
A rock rises above the sea. In the waves one can see thousands of dying people, calling for help. There is one lonely man on the rock with the only life buoy. Who should he to throw it to? All these things are happening because the economic reforms are unreasonably slow. It is similar to the tale about a pussy cat whose tail is being cut off "gradually-humanely" bit by bit, so that by the end of the procedure she has safely passed away. Unfortunately, our pussy cat is at her last gasp. However, while the pussy cats are being drained of life, the state administrative system is alive and kicking.
In most cases, all theatres of the world are subsidised by the state. But I am against the state or, to be precise, the state officials to be our lord and master: "It is entirely up to me either to give you something from my grand table or to refuse." We are subsidised by taxpayers. It is up to them to decide whether they need a cultural genetic basis. I believe that every nation's instinct for self-preservation is strong enough to prevent the death of culture.
A well-known Moscow journalist and theatre critic Elena Yampolskaya in her article "Who needs you, masters of culture?" ( Izvestiya , N 30, 15 February 1997) wrote: "Artistic intelligentsia is no longer regarded by the authorities as a political force." Actually, we can agree with this assessment. The victorious government would prefer executive rather than creative forces.
I think that today we have become more free of the written rules and regulations, however, our spirit is enslaved. A man creates the cage he is in himself and the way out of enslavement ultimately rests upon him. I can recall a lecture of the known Polish director, Jerzy Grotovski, who finished with these words: "I desperately want to escape from my own cage and fly! And you?"
And then a period of general destruction came. And now the USSR, the huge cage, fell apart... to a great many small and not that small, independent and too very independent... cages.
Both in Georgia and in Abkhazia, Russia, Tadjikistan and Uzbekistan, even in Lithuania-these small oases of calmness and culture-shed blood. Human blood! And only in Belarus, despite all conservatism, inconsistency, illogicality and stupidity of powers that be there was no bloodshed. Everything remained decently calm.
Belarusians remained immune to all the bloodshed around them, since tolerance is a historic inherent feature often ironically regarded. I can dream of foretelling a great future to the Belarusians' tolerance and kindness. The Chernobyl devastation is an example. Having survived the Chernobyl catastrophe, Belarusians or, to be precise, all citizens of the republic saw what was behind the door of death...
At the same time, the problems of the huge USSR moved to the independent republics. The growing problems remained unsolved and vast.
Freedom has come! Write, film, stage whatever you want to-so far you will not be arrested for it. However, there are two eternal questions-what and how? The theatre space has narrowed, reduced, shivered like shagreen leather. And our big ship-society, politically, legally and otherwise independent, has run aground in the middle of the lake. However, everyone is misled to think that our ship is sailing smoothly in the deep waters of the ocean.
Anyway, what is happening with theatres? With art in general?
The artistic intelligentsia was so used to cocking a snook at former authorities that after taking the hands out, it realised that they were empty. Then the imitation began. Broadcasters were the first to start talking with a slight foreign accent. Later, newsreaders and commentators changed poses and rigid statures. Audacious renovations swept over the mass media, excluding only local newspapers. The monotonous plainness of the Communist ideology was replaced by the flamboyant colours of the prolonged transitional period. The old idols were thrown away, but there was no time to create new ones. Did anyone think about that?
Shakespeare's tragedy is nothing compared to this! A mysterious tragedy of a huge country was developing before the eyes of the amazed audience in which they, having not become the heroes, turned out to be the victims.
Five years of the dreadful fight for power and property ensued. People were assigned the part of an extra, knowing neither the play nor the director's conception of the play. You are free, people were told after the monetary reform, which shamelessly deprived the old people of their scanty savings, palming them off with a sweet mirage of easy money through financial pyramids, like the MMM.
People hurried to banks and companies, keeping up the old custom of believing published words and television screens. They gave the banks and companies back their roubles at "high" per cents. The banks and firms went bankrupt. Along with their money people lost all hope for a good life.
And now another mirage emerged: "A referendum!" People were only clutching at a straw of the strong presidential power which gave to state officials everything that was still left: both a legitimate parliament, the Constitutional Court, the right to elect local authorities, transparency of the budget appropriations, and independent media...
Where was the salt of the earth-Belarusian intelligentsia? As usual, the intelligentsia claimed they were with the people supping from the common stock of poverty and misbelieve. Pretty soon, the oak bars of ideological and political captivity turned into the steel bars of economic dependence and the private houses were turned back into cages.
And from all these mirages, the people lost their faith in everything and everybody!
The Communist deceived and robbed the common people. Businessmen deceived and robbed their workers. The State is deceiving and robbing the citizens. Where can a poor Belarusian strive to live for himself? Every alley is a dead end. Let us summon up tolerance, the Belarusian says to himself. Who knows, maybe everything will be solved by itself? Many people think along similar lines. In addition, there is also fear not to make the authorities angry. It does not really matter that you are not guilty of anything. The key point is to find a person-the article of law will always be there. If you hide and give no sign of life -perhaps, it will all be over.
After the referendum, there was discussion of strengthening the regime, it has become popular among the artistic intelligentsia to accuse... the stupid Belarusian people. They say the Belarusians do not know what they are doing... they do! They know very well! They simply see no other way, living in the cage.
But does this way exist at all?
When N. Khrushchev, the premier of the USSR, accused Georgia of not completely developing along the socialist terms, the city of Kutaisi, Georgia, responded by suggesting to set up a sanctuary of all drawbacks of socialism on its territory. Along the same lines, I would also like to make a proposal: let us make Belarus a sanctuary for all the drawbacks of democracy.
I would like to tell a story.
The father of a famous movie actor Vladislav Dvorzhetsky served his term in the Stalinist concentration camps. He was humiliated, tormented and beaten there. On top of all that-the living conditions were like that of a dog: there was dirt, cold and diseases everywhere. The man was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Once, digging a ditch, he found a piece of an iron rail. He began sharpening it at night and soon crafted something like a knife, having all of a sudden realised that he had become free. At any time he could have committed suicide or escaped. In other words, there was an alternative, an option that equalled freedom itself. This helped him to survive.
I heard this story from Dvorzhetsky, Snr, sitting with him in a cosy cafeteria at the festival in Tver'. It was hard to believe that this man had been in prison. He had inspired eyes of a priest.
It is an example of spiritual enlightenment, a way of acquiring personal freedom.
Reading a newspaper, I ran across an article that really shocked me. A 33-year-old American, an engineer, a well-off man with a wonderful family took part in a civil rights movement against the war in Vietnam. He organised meetings, marches of protest, wrote letters to the president, in other words he was trying to destroy the bloody cage, moving heaven and earth to achieve his goal.
Nothing helped. Then he sent a note to the U.S. Congress with a demand to stop this disgraceful war or otherwise he would burn himself near the White House. Being aware that by doing so he would either be regarded as a psychologically insane man or as an individual who has his personal motives for committing suicide, this man prepared and notarised the documents proving that he was sound, well-to-do and had normal family relations. In other words, according to all the existing criteria, he looked like a man with an absolutely normal life. On a fixed day and time he impregnated his clothing with a highly flammable liquid and burnt himself near the White House.
Is it worthwhile to indicate that this man's highest moral and human deed was conditioned by the desire to escape himself and lead others out of the war hysteria cage?
Apparently this altruistic suicide is the path of saints and heroes. I would not be able to commit such a good deed. However, even this act of self-sacrifice failed to stop the war.
And art? What can be said about it?
Two hundred and fifty years ago the Dijon Academy announced a special award for the best essay about the topic: "Does art contribute to the improvement of morals?" Jean Jacques Rousseau won this contest. His answer to the question was negative: "I would like to respect art, but only in case someone will prove to me that a beautiful statue is worth more than a good deed..." Since the primitive communal system, rock paintings and ritual dances, art has been fostering certain qualities inherent to the culture of a particular period of time.
Along with a change of history's epochs, the ideals, glorified by art, passed a long way from a uniquely childish rock drawings of a caveman to the complex diversity and indiscriminate omnivorousness of our civilisation.
But has society progressively become more moral?
On the whole, of course, not! A human thought developed faster, the modern tools were invented quicker, and the more advanced tools of trade became, the more advanced tools to murder became-the result being multiplying the number of wars. Today, when mankind is capable of destroying life on earth (including mankind itself), regrettably, one has to admit that art has never, not even during its flowering, been able to stop the insanity of wars, violence and chaos. Art is like Don Quixote fighting against windmills.
Does anyone currently need to hold onto the gallantry of a knight? Isn't this fantasy ridiculous?
I assume the knight is necessary. At least, to save in people's hearts hope for the final victory of good and noble over evil and sinister. Maybe, one day Don Quixote would defeat the windmill of the dark forces. However, this feat is difficult. As a rule, unscrupulous people, able to violate any law to achieve their means, come to power.
Anyway, what has happened to art, to society? To all of us, named Homo sapiens? "'A human being' sounds proudly," M. Gorky's words were convincing us from childhood. Besides, we were also proud of our state. It was our own national state. Remember, there was a saying: "Not a head, but rather a House of Soviets". Incidentally, I imagine that every human being is a sovereign state with a president, parliament, army, means of transport of its own, etc.
Everyone will be able to find different types of states in himself. Shall we have a try? Brain is a president, intellect -the parliament, fists- the army, feet-the transport, hands -the economy, stomach-the source of power...
Subsequently, the state of Belarus hypothetically does not exist. However, there is a commonwealth of 10 million independent states. That is exactly with whom one has to consider, and whose interests to protect. If you want to make some changes in the Commonwealth of Independent States, named Belarus, then exercise influence on every "president" through every personal "parliament."
Is art capable of that?
A human being is a mixture of everything: a certain per cent of nobility and meanness, love and hatred, courage and cowardliness, diligence and laziness, kindness and malice... The purpose of art is to change this proportion, at least a little bit, towards love, kindness and nobility. How does art do it? The key point is not to try to cure everybody with the same medicine. In our theatre we are trying to solve this task by individual influence over every audience member. In our repertoire there are plays where the audience are directly involved in the action: they conduct a conversation, vote, answer questions ("Free Marriage"); sing, tell jokes, sit at the same table with the actors ("Perpetual Motion or the Night of Jewish Jokes"); pray ("May God Bless Us ")...
I would like to share my dream. This dream has already been partly realised: we are creating a new theatre, named "Theatre Under the Domes". The hall and the stage are already half-made. Now it is just a matter of technical equipment and soon we will be able to receive an audience. It will be the third stage of the Russian Academic Drama Theatre, its altar, where we will stage plays affecting primarily not the intellect, but rather a spectator's soul.
The words of great Camus come to mind: "A man is sitting in some sort of a very thick shell without seeing or hearing anybody, and only art is able to knock at each other through this shell." Theatre today, the way I see it, is a workshop where people get rid of their personal cages of hatred, meanness, anger, greed, envy... Maybe only one spectator out of a thousand will be able to become free! Then the actor's life has not been wasted, and the Theatre has justified its existence.
To pull a man out of his cage of circumstances, to give him a chance to reign over them, rather then be their slave - this is the most important task of art. However, when the creator himself remains in this cage, then his art worships not God, but rather the golden calf, asking slavishly: "What would you like?" May those who were not sinful of that throw a stone at me. We were all born in the same cage. But how can we leave it? From my soap box, there is only one way out: spiritual evolution of a human being.
Andrei Makayonok, one of the classics of Belarusian drama, used to say: "At the end of the day ask yourself: what have you done today? Have you offended anyone? Criticised? Punished? Discharged from work? Or blamed? Whom? What for? Was that fair? What will that lead to tomorrow? In a year? In a century? Will that be forgiven?"
Lazarev poses a question in his famous book Diagnostics of Karma : "What is the biggest crime a man can commit?" He receives the answer: "Murdering another man? No, the worst crime is killing love."
"...I may give everything I have to feed people. And I may even give my body as an offering to be burned. But I gain nothing by doing these things if I don't have love..." ( The Bible . New Testament. 1 Corinthians 13:3).
Mankind has entered the era of Aquarius. Extremely gifted children are born with huge vital energy and great abilities. Look at them closely. This is our hope. Not the most powerful, but rather more moral people will win the eternal struggle between good and evil.
Knights without fear and reproach, able to sacrifice themselves for the sake of art, have not become extinct in Belarus yet. They are quite a few, and that inspires optimism. No nation's art can develop in a vacuum. Belarusian art not only absorbs, but also produces the world class works. This is not the Renaissance yet. Renaissance begins with making great demands on artist's personality. This includes the knowledge of languages, history, painting, music and traditions. The great Renaissance begins only with the completion of necessary accumulation, and only after generations are brought up in line with these traditions, will it flourish.
Potentially, our art has great capabilities: we have a magnificent ballet school, wonderful artists, sculptors, architects, musicians and actors. However, this valuable layer can be eliminated by a destructive wave of a lack of claim, misunderstanding, or an ugly grimace of an exultant boor...
A group of children in kindergarten were questioned what they would like to do in the future. Most of them wanted to become... businessmen! This is a dangerous sign. The example of poor artists the children see does not attract the young generation. In all civilised countries there is preferential taxation on the investment in art. Unfortunately, it is not the case in our country. But even the current law on culture, being reasonable in many ways, is not fulfilled because the economic and political status of society is similar to the caricature that I have recently seen.
A rock rises above the sea. In the waves one can see thousands of dying people, calling for help. There is one lonely man on the rock with the only life buoy. Who should he to throw it to? All these things are happening because the economic reforms are unreasonably slow. It is similar to the tale about a pussy cat whose tail is being cut off "gradually-humanely" bit by bit, so that by the end of the procedure she has safely passed away. Unfortunately, our pussy cat is at her last gasp. However, while the pussy cats are being drained of life, the state administrative system is alive and kicking.
In most cases, all theatres of the world are subsidised by the state. But I am against the state or, to be precise, the state officials to be our lord and master: "It is entirely up to me either to give you something from my grand table or to refuse." We are subsidised by taxpayers. It is up to them to decide whether they need a cultural genetic basis. I believe that every nation's instinct for self-preservation is strong enough to prevent the death of culture.
A well-known Moscow journalist and theatre critic Elena Yampolskaya in her article "Who needs you, masters of culture?" ( Izvestiya , N 30, 15 February 1997) wrote: "Artistic intelligentsia is no longer regarded by the authorities as a political force." Actually, we can agree with this assessment. The victorious government would prefer executive rather than creative forces.
I think that today we have become more free of the written rules and regulations, however, our spirit is enslaved. A man creates the cage he is in himself and the way out of enslavement ultimately rests upon him. I can recall a lecture of the known Polish director, Jerzy Grotovski, who finished with these words: "I desperately want to escape from my own cage and fly! And you?"
Опубликовано 29 апреля 2014 года
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