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Host: In early May, the Venice Biennale became the arena for roaring protests organized by the Ukraine-founded FEMEN movement and the Russian punk group Pussy Riot, in connection with the opening of the Russian Pavilion in the fifth year of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Three days after its opening, the Russian pavilion was shut down, and until the end of the Biennale, visitors can view the exhibition "A Tree Rooted in the Sky" only through the windows. How did it happen that the Biennale management and a segment of public opinion in Italy and Europe failed to see a scandal in this? We asked the prominent Russian gallerist, art manager, former political strategist, and current active member of the Russian opposition abroad, Marat Guelman.
Marat Guelman: We comprehend that the corruption component is highly vital here. Second, of course, we comprehend that Europe is fatigued. Forces that argue we must think about ourselves, cheap gas, or something else have reared their heads in Europe. Meaning, in the fifth year of the war, it is rather natural that various kinds of individuals wishing to assist the Kremlin have emerged. We call them "useful idiots." These people do not comprehend what they are doing, that they are participating in this hybrid war. It appears to them that they are simply resolving some bureaucratic hurdles.
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Host: Russia's participation in the Biennale is not a cultural project, but a purely political one, Marat Guelman is convinced. At the heart of their strategy is an attempt to quietly, by stealth, normalize its participation in European cultural events. In the case of the Biennale, this failed, the expert believes. The opening of the Venice showcase turned into a conversation about the impermissibility of Russia's participation as a state. Serious damage was inflicted upon the reputation of the Biennale itself.
Guelman: Today, the aggressor can be stopped in such a manner that a sense of bewilderment or even a protest against the war will emerge within Russian society. And for that to transpire, people of art, who constitute a vital part of this society, must comprehend that they have no right to cooperate with the Kremlin; otherwise, they will be barred from entry. Concurrently, thousands of Russian artists and musicians who disagree with the war and who left on an individual basis are participating in the cultural life of Europe. And this is welcomed. Andrey Zvyagintsev receives awards. I mount exhibitions every five days—this does not imply the "cancellation of Russian culture." These are precisely barriers erected against the participation of the aggressor state.
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Host: Why does Russia expend so much effort on art-washing or, as Hermitage Director Mikhail Piotrovsky put it, "cultural special operations"?
Guelman: Because the regime has lost the support of the majority of leading national cultural figures. If during the Soviet era the Communist Party endeavored to turn artists into propagandists, now they are attempting to turn propagandists into artists. The fact that no actual artists were present there is highly telling. For example, the current chairman of the Writers' Union in Russia is Vladimir Medinsky—meaning he is not a writer at all, he is a PR man, a propagandist. The writers have all left. It has already become quite ridiculous: when they host congresses, they invite the relatives of writers—Solzhenitsyn’s widow, or Pushkin’s tenth niece. They possess no genuine support within culture. It is very good news for all of us that the split of the elites has already occurred, and the cultural elite stands opposed to the bureaucratic and military elite of Russia.
