Scandal in the Hermitage. “Shame on the Hermitage” was not shared in the museum: the Hermitage commented on the exhibition of dead animals (photo). Hanging stuffed dogs and cats in the General Staff building
Angry Internet users launched the hashtag #shame on the Hermitage to express a negative opinion about the exhibition “Knight of Despair - Warrior of Beauty” by Jan Fabre, which opened at the State Hermitage at the end of October. The exhibition features animals suspended on hooks.
“Complete trash and degradation! Why all these rallies against flayers?! Let people and children go to such exhibitions and look. And then it will be in their heads that THIS is normal. Ugh. Shame on the Hermitage,” writes one eyewitnesses (spelling and punctuation preserved - note "360").
The corpses of dogs, cats, hares and other animals are displayed against the backdrop of paintings by Flemish artists. At the same time, Fabra himself claims that the event is aimed against consumerism towards animals, and he picked up their bodies on the highway.
“The whole of Russia is fighting against the flayers, such a difficult moment for all of us, the Hermitage spits right in our faces by opening an exhibition by Jan Fabre called “the carnival of dead tramps”! Where the corpses of animals are crucified, suspended on hooks, cats, rabbits, dogs with festive caps on “Where are we going if THIS is now called art?! There are no words,” wrote one of the network users.
In addition, indignant account owners compare Fabre with the notorious Khabarovsk knackers and demand the closure of the shocking exhibition.
However, oddly enough, some Internet users spoke out in defense of the Belgian and his strange art.
“Jan Fabre has repeatedly told journalists that the dogs and cats that appear in his installations are stray animals that have died on the roads. Fabre is trying to give them a new life in art and, thus, defeat death,” noted Ekaterina Dorofeeva.
HOUSE ARREST OF MIKHAIL NOVIKOV
ON THIS TOPIC
As press secretary of the Lefortovo court Ekaterina Krasnova told Interfax, a preventive measure in the form of house arrest for two months was chosen against Novikov Sr. from March 28, 2017. It is known that the deputy head of one of the largest museums in Russia is currently suspected of fraud (Part 4, Article 159 of the Criminal Code of Russia).
By the way, Article 159 speaks of theft on an especially large scale committed by a group of persons, which means that other Hermitage employees must also be involved in Novikov’s alleged illegal actions. However, the press has not yet given any comments about what really could have happened in the St. Petersburg museum.
DETENTION OF NOVIKOV JUNIOR
Then no less shocking information appeared in the media. An Interfax source reported that Mikhail Novikov’s son Artem was also detained by law enforcement officers. Novikov Jr., by the way, is a major official - he holds the post of director of the department of investment, restoration and construction of the Ministry of Culture. The publication reported that on March 28, Artem Mikhailovich was arrested right in the department building.
WHAT THE MINISTRY SAYS
However, employees of the Ministry of Culture denied information about the detention of Artem Novikov, TASS reports. As it turned out, today Novikov will take part in the work of the ministry board.
“Unfortunately, journalists are not even capable of double-checking information and are ready to give any unverified news as a sensation,” the press service was indignant.
RESULTS
Where the information about the detention of Novikov Jr. came from and who needed it is not clear. As Lenta.ru notes, many publications reported that the official was interrogated as a suspect in a criminal case and then released. Is the mentioned criminal case related to the one for which Mikhail Novikov is currently serving house arrest? Unfortunately, there is no answer to this question.
The Hermitage exhibition “Jan Fabre: Knight of Despair - Warrior of Beauty” led to a scandal of federal proportions. Not only St. Petersburg residents, but also residents of other cities were outraged by the stuffed dogs, cats and hares displayed and launched an Instagram marathon with the hashtag #shame on the Hermitage. In response, the museum came up with the counter-hashtag #catszafabra, and the curator of the exhibition under discussion, Dmitry Ozerkov, has repeatedly publicly explained why the Belgian artist’s works actually call for the protection of animals.
"Paper" publishes fragments of Dmitry Ozerkov’s lecture “Contemporary Art and the Problem of Animal Protection,” which took place at the Social Club cafe.
Dmitry Ozerkov
Exhibition curator Jana Fabre
and head of the Hermitage 20/21 project
As a person who stirred up this mess not only as an exhibition curator, but also as the head of the Hermitage 20/21 department, I consider it necessary to explain who we are and what we do in general. Initially, the Hermitage showed old art and, until 2003–2004, some contemporary projects. There was a Warhol exhibition, his car; Jackson Pollock exhibition of one painting and nine graphic works. These were targeted injections. It was great then. Then we began to understand that this was already pointless: everyone saw it - and there was a need to do “Andy Warhol and...”, “Andy Warhol in the context of...”, “Andy Warhol about...” and so on.
“Hermitage 20/21” is a project about Western and European art of the post-revolutionary period, which, as you might guess, is not in the museum’s collection. We were originally created as a project that was supposed to fill this void by displaying works of contemporary artists specially created for us.
“Hermitage 20/21” has never sought to smooth out the corners: we think it is important that the city talks about contemporary art
When we started doing this, some exhibitions caused a certain public outcry. For example, the exhibition of the Chapman brothers (more than a hundred people saw extremism in the works of English artists - approx. "Papers"). “Hermitage 20/21” has never sought to smooth out the corners: we think it is important that the city talks about contemporary art. In the case of Jan Fabre, the story is exactly the same: his exhibition is complex and multi-component.
St. Petersburg is now divided into two camps: one consists of people who were at the exhibition and have their own opinion, the other - of people who have not been to the exhibition, but nevertheless have their own opinion. Some say: what a wonderful exhibition of Jan Fabre in the Hermitage, an amazing story, an amazing dialogue with the collection. And others: how can you mock the corpses of animals, this is impossible, inhumane, and so on.
Hanging stuffed dogs and cats in the General Staff building
In fact, one of the chapters of Jan Fabre's exhibition, which caused all this resonance, was a story about stray animals. While still a young artist, Jan Fabre, driving along a Belgian highway, saw many bodies of run-down animals. And he, close to the topic of pets (he always had a lot of dogs, cats and parrots at home), began to find out what was the matter.
It turned out that it is too expensive for poor people to treat their sick pet, so they, bypassing European laws, simply drop their pet off on the highway to be run over. And with peace of mind they get themselves a new one. Then Jan realized that there was a social duplicity here: when, on the one hand, people talk about how cute and cool their animals are, and on the other, the bodies of these same animals are lying abandoned on the freeway. The young artist took some of the bodies of these animals, took them to a taxidermist to have them stuffed, and began to create an exhibition out of it.
As you know, this installation is divided into two parts: one where the dogs hang, and the other where the cats hang. The part with dogs is made with colored ribbons, there is oil for dogs. With cats - white, there is milk in bowls. Dogs and cats, masculine and feminine, loyalty and betrayal - these themes, according to Jan Fabre, need to be explored. It is necessary to explain to children that if you take a pet, you need to be responsible for it. Sometimes you can even tell a child that an animal has died, that animals are mortal. The second is a complex theological moment. Raised in a Catholic and Protestant family, Jan Fabre ponders: “Do animals have souls?” and “Where do animals go after they die?”
Stuffed hares and birds in the Snyders Hall
The second part of Fabre's diptych is located in the Snyders Hall, where paintings depicting five large hunts and five shops hang. For him, this is not about fruits or fish, not even about abundance, but about the vanity of existence: everything that comes, everything will die. That is why the exhibition includes skulls decorated with beetle shells. These skulls have hares, squirrels, and birds in their teeth.
In addition to all the futility of existence, in these works there is a moment that speaks of duplicity and poor understanding of everything that happens. The moment when we say that we love the old masters and admire their canvases, but we don’t love dead animals. Jan Fabre says: “Imagine a painting by an old master, oil on canvas. What is it written with? Oil paints. And what are they applied to the picture with? With brushes. What are these brushes made of? These same brushes are made from the same kolinas, squirrels, and hares. When we admire an old painting, we don't want to know how it came to be. It’s the same thing when we wear fur coats and eat meat, but we fight for animal rights.”
Insect shells in numerous works in the Hermitage
The beetles, whose shells are presented in the “green” part of the exhibition, live in Asia. They are used to make souvenirs and even eat them. Fabre used them to talk about Belgium's colonial policy in the Congo. When Africa separated, the weakest country in Europe, Belgium, took control of the Congo, on whose territory gold was later discovered (which, of course, no one expected). Brussels was actually built with this money. Topics that logically follow from this: emigrants, terror in Brussels, the Muslim population, colonialism.
Initially, Fabre was looking for a way to convey the problem of colonialism in Belgium, which has been going on since then. Jan Fabre had an agreement with a restaurant that supplied him with the shells of eaten beetles. He thermally treated them to get rid of organic matter.
An exhibition of the Belgian artist Jan Fabre “Knight of Despair - Warrior of Beauty” opens at the Hermitage. Stuffed animals and skulls, a video with a living knight in the Knight's Hall and paintings drawn with a Bic pen - “Paper” tells what was brought to the Winter Palace and the General Staff, what the “Fabre style” carnival is, which will be held at the museum in December, and what The Belgian became famous for his provocative works.
We knew very well that such an outcome was possible in which an aggressive wave would begin. In fact, everything about the essence of the exhibition is perfectly written in the booklets and on the website. The problem here is public hysteria. A person is shown a picture, and he explodes, screams, without trying to understand the essence, and after a few minutes he forgets what he was shouting about.
This is the episode where a man leaves a church and throws a coin to a homeless person. And it seems to solve all the problems of the world. Nevertheless, we are glad that this happened. The reputation of a museum like the Hermitage is almost impossible to tarnish, and our goal has been achieved: people are talking about protecting animals.
I may say something terrible, but a museum should not focus on society. If we follow society, we will end up sitting in some dull room and scrolling through our phones. Society must follow us. We are showing something that is one step ahead, which is not available in Russia. And if people want to delve into it and listen, then let them follow us; if they don’t want to, we have no right to impose. But we can offer.
For assistance in preparing the material, “Paper” thanks the cultural and educational project “
Egor Russak/TASS
Exhibition of the famous Belgian Yana Fabra“The Knight of Despair - Warrior of Beauty” opened at the Hermitage on October 22 in buildings on Palace Embankment and premises in the General Staff Building. Opponents of modern art found a weak point in the exhibition. They turned out to be cats and dogs: in the paired installation “Carnival of Dead Mutts” (2006) and “Protest of Dead Stray Cats” (2007), located in the General Staff Building and occupying one of the enfilade halls, the artist used stuffed animals against the background of classical Dutch and Flemish painting , including still lifes with killed game. The museum immediately explained: Fabre picked up corpses on the sides of the highway, where animals thrown out by their owners had been shot down. The corresponding exhibition halls are marked with an age marking of 16+.
However, this story continued: on November 10, at exactly 15:00, a network attack on the museum began - massive reposts with the hashtag #shame on the Hermitage. As always in such cases, these posts are dominated by aggressive statements using profanity. People who were not at the exhibition (as evidenced by the photo attached to their complaints with a crucified kitten, which is not in the exhibition) and are not able to write the name of the museum director without errors, called for the closure of the exhibition, the dismissal of the director, voices were heard in the same crowd about physical violence against the artist and museum workers.
The singer was predictably among the uncompromising critics of contemporary art Elena Vaenga and deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Vitaly Milonov.
Fabre's outrage at the exhibition is shared by Liana Roginskaya, the artist's widow Mikhail Roginsky, known for her fanatical love of animals. “In my opinion, this has nothing to do with art, but it is an excellent example of the vileness to which narcissism and exhibitionism, combined with a lack of talent, can reach. One question: if the corpses were not dogs, but human ones, would you also applaud this? Hurst for the poor? — declares she.
On November 11, opponents of the exhibition created a petition on the change.org portal to the Minister of Culture demanding that the exhibition be closed. It is characteristic that the text itself again mentions the “crucified cat,” which “shocked the believers, deeply hurting their feelings,” although, we repeat, there is no such work in the exhibition. To date, the petition has been signed by almost 10 thousand people.
In response, the Ministry of Culture posted a comment on its website, declaring that it did not consider it necessary to interfere in the exhibition policy of the museum: “The State Hermitage, like other Russian museums, having fairly broad independence and freedom, independently determines the priorities of exhibition activities, their thematic focus, artistic solution and design."
Head of the Department of Newest Trends at the State Russian Museum Alexander Borovsky, who is very critical of Fabre’s work, wrote: “I think, regarding this particular petition, it’s not about the animals at all. I’m ready to apologize to simple-minded lovers of living things - I’m not talking about you. I would simply urge you not to take art literally - otherwise it will be difficult to find anything completely neutral and pleasing for yourself. Especially in contemporary art. So take care of yourself. Or try to take a slightly broader view. I'm talking about the authors of the petition. And the comments on the networks - I was not too lazy to look through them. They are written in surprisingly angry, uncompromisingly accusatory language. In such an intolerant tone that you understand: dislike for people exceeds the love for animals, allegedly trampled upon by the artist and his Hermitage curators. If you care about living things, they don’t write about people like that. Demands to apply the highest measure were written in this tone in ancient times.”
Fabre's side is a St. Petersburg animal activist Anna Kondratieva, wrote on his Facebook account: “And in order to show (tell - TANR) kind and impressionable viewers about those thousands and thousands of abandoned animals that died under the wheels and were brought to be euthanized. Fabre seems to be taking skeletons out of closets and presenting them to the public. IMHO, fur coats and fur boas on the shoulders of fashionistas are much less appropriate than stuffed animals in the halls of the Hermitage.”
St. Petersburg artist and volunteer at the Sirin Center for Wild Animals Alexandra Garth exactly noted on his Facebook page: “In connection with the latest outbreak of zooschizoid activity in the feed, the following thought came to mind - and Hirst is a great guy, a smart guy. No one feels sorry for the pigs and sharks, even though they were killed specifically for his works. And the evil, bad man Fabre stuffs cats and dogs, even though they are already dead, to hang him on hooks!”
On November 12, the Hermitage launched a response hashtag #catszafabra and received support, in particular, from the museum and cafe “Republic of Cats,” where cats taken from the Hermitage live, among others. “Not a single cat was harmed during the preparation of the Jan Fabre exhibition, no matter how the authors of the hashtag #shamethehermitage might have wanted it,” he wrote on Facebook. Dmitry Ozerkov, head of the contemporary art department of the Hermitage.
The Hermitage is the only museum in the world that has had an entire team of cats on its staff for decades and even holds an annual “Cat Day” celebration.
General Director of the State Hermitage Museum Mikhail Piotrovsky in his article for the newspaper St. Petersburg Vedomosti he wrote:
“An exhibition of a wise artist has opened in the Hermitage Yana Fabra. Everyone is looking at still lifes Snyders and think how beautiful they are. But cut fruits and killed animals are reminders of death. It’s worth imagining for a second what Snyders’s “Game Shop” or “Fish Shop” smells like. His still lifes have a second meaning. Looking at them, a person should see the artist’s skill and think that life is passing by.
That's why Fabre inserts skulls between the paintings. Remember! Opposite he places a stuffed peacock held by a skeleton. Remember! He places his image close to the picture so that blood “flows from his nose.” Getting too close to art is dangerous. Fabre has complex meanings everywhere.
His installations with stuffed cats and dogs in the General Staff building are shocking. But this is a reminder of the barbaric attitude towards animals, as even the name indicates. We should not be indignant, but think about what the artist is talking about.
Yes, very sharply. But art should not always provide only aesthetic pleasure. Fabre “screams” about what is happening in the world. Uncomfortable? Yes, but remember what is happening.
I have a stack of protests on my desk. They write like a carbon copy: “remove Fabre from the Hermitage” (this, they say, is “lack of culture”). They reproach: how can you show this now, when the country is agitated by the story of the Khabarovsk knackers. Right now it sounds special. Horrors are characteristic of our time, as is intolerance.
There is a lot of deep meaning in Fabre’s “cry”. If you don't want to hear, don't listen. He is flawless, as if he stops on the edge beyond which there is horror and dirt.
Contemporary art is a challenge. By provoking, it makes people think. We should be happy about this, and not snap at it. If someone doesn’t like this kind of art or not everyone understands it, that’s normal.”
Published 11/12/16 11:02The Ministry of Culture has distanced itself from the scandalous exhibition of dead animals in the Hermitage.
The Hermitage urged people to look at dead animals on hooks as if they were a soft toy."
The head of the Hermitage’s contemporary art department, Dmitry Ozerkov, commented on the scandalous exhibition of the contemporary Belgian artist Jan Fabre, “The Knight of Despair - Warrior of Beauty,” where visitors could see stuffed dead animals hanging on hooks.
It is difficult to guess what the author wanted to say when looking at the paintings on the Internet. Need to come intkbbee to the exhibition and understand what this exhibition is about. The author wanted to say a lot of things, a conversation about the meaning of old art, a conversation about the Hermitage collection, a conversation about social problems that exist all over the world. It’s better to see once than to hear a hundred times, as it always happens. The thing is, when you say "corpses," you're immediately telling a different story. There is the word "stuffed animals", there is the word "soft toy" and completely different words. When you say "corpses", you bring some context. The word "corpses" is not true. If you come to Peter's Winter Palace, you will see a stuffed pet dog, Peter, which is on display. Why doesn’t the stuffed dog Peter bother anyone, but stray dogs do,” Ozerkov told Life in an interview.
According to him, “the corpses of tortured animals” are presented to children as “modernity.” The deputy also expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that “individual people” manage the museum “as they want,” but did not give a clear answer to the question of whether visitors should boycott the high-profile exhibition or the organizers should close it.
“This is not a garage or a bathhouse for individuals. This is a state museum. This means that the exhibition should serve the interests of the state,” Milonov believes.