Since Perm became the capital of contemporary art, the issue of locating a local art gallery has been one of the most acute for the city. In 2008, a high-profile international competition for the project of a new building for the gallery was held, which, we recall, was won by two proposals at once - Valerio Olgiati and Boris Bernasconi - over time, alas, happily forgotten. They started talking about the gallery again last year, when the guru of modern architecture Peter Zumthor appeared in Perm at the invitation of the regional authorities. And while the Swiss, together with the same Boris Bernasconi, is working on the project, the gallery continues to occupy the building of the Transfiguration Cathedral, in which it settled, of course, during the Soviet era. And just recently, the Russian Orthodox Church, apparently spurred on by the law on restitution that came into force and the plans for the gallery's relocation, which had already been discussed for many years, decided to speed up events and came up with an initiative to hold services in the Transfiguration Church.
On this occasion, a grandiose scandal erupted in Perm. As they write in the Opinion.ru blog, "the portraits of Argunov, Borovikovsky, Karavakk, Rokotov are surrounded by priests with candles and praying parishioners, and the art gallery is saturated with the smell of incense." “To make room for services, the exposition had to be cut: today the museum begins in the 19th century - the collection of 18th century paintings and the collection of icons had to be removed,” comments the Kommersant newspaper. Regional Minister of Culture Boris Milgram in the same Opinion.ru blog assured: "We will not let the collection be destroyed, although we are talking about the eviction of the gallery, our goal is to give this building to the Church." By the way, "Kommersant", according to the Deputy Minister of Culture Veronica Vaisman, writes that by the end of September Milgram undertook to conclude an official agreement with Peter Zumthor. Then, apparently, the timing of the move will finally become clear.
Museum director Nadezhda Belyaeva, continuing the discussion on Opinion.ru, on the contrary, noted that “there is no talk of evicting the gallery yet. So far, the question is only about safety,”- I mean, first of all, the threat of fire, which multiplies when using lighted candles in the museum. According to Nadezhda Agisheva, head of the New Collection Foundation, the trouble is that decisions have so far been made behind the scenes: “With public support, it will be easier to find funds, public control will ensure the continuity of the idea of new construction, regardless of personalities at different levels of government and political layouts ". Pavel Pechenkin, head of the cultural commission in the regional Public Chamber, confirms: “The museum staff were not warned of the invasion in any way, everything was done behind the scenes, in Moscow. Rosimushchestvo, apparently, agreed on this with the patriarch. " Gallery employee Nina Kazarinova clarifies: “The entrance to the cathedral is leased to the Russian Orthodox Church. They rent three rooms right at the entrance to the Gallery and hold services here every Sunday and all twelve holidays."
No matter how quickly Zumthor worked, it is clear that the building of the gallery can hardly be built in the next year. This means that for some time the church and the museum will inevitably have to coexist. “Now there is a law, there is no need to crawl quietly. The church must get out of this conflict on its own. She has already received the bonus, the rest will be received in 2015,”Perm human rights activist Denis Galitsky commented on the situation to Kommersant. And in his blog, he noted that the "misuse" use of religious buildings in Western Europe has long been a place, and as an example he cited French Dijon, where two old churches housed a municipal library and a theater. “Our churchmen will strangle themselves, but they will not hand over the buildings. They would rather allow them to collapse than place something useful there,”agrees kostyanus. Galitsky is sure that the acceleration of the transfer of real estate to the Russian Orthodox Church is simply a property interest. And worst of all, the current scandal is going sideways for both culture and the church. sputnik_perm notes: “This is not the first time this is happening. Remember the scandalous move of the Local History Museum to the Meshkov House. It can be said that it was lucky that there, and not in the semi-emergency building of the river station (which was proposed by officials), where, in principle, it is impossible either to exhibit or store collections …”.
However, it turns out that it is still possible to combine beautifully and conceptually a temple and art, and not only by placing in old churches the various cultural institutions that Galitsky wrote about. Young Belgian architects Pieterjan Gijs and Arnout Van Vaerenbergh, for example, turned the very architecture and typology of the church building into a work of art - their project of a transparent church with the symbolic title "Reading Between the Lines" is now actively discussed in blogs. The Belgians may not have bypassed in originality and grace the same Peter Zumthor, known for similar projects, but their concept is beautiful in its simplicity: the church is made up of 100 layers of iron ribbons-plates, the gaps between which allow visitors to literally look through the walls … “Sunrise, sunset and all four seasons live here together with parishioners,” the blog author asaratov quotes the description of the project.
The network community mostly liked the project. According to voevodina_s, it is “mesmerizing”. arskvv added skepticism: "It is very similar to a house of dominoes, but I hope it is stronger." “Nice, but not new. It is now fashionable to build gazebos using this technology (only wooden ones),”said anatoly_sidorov. And govorikrasivo believes that “looking through the walls” is not suitable for the church at all: “The Church is a sacrament…. For the State Duma, this is the very thing. " But oldsibiryak objects: “Excuse me, but the building of the church is not a sacrament. The sacrament is the Church, in the spiritual sense of the word. The rest is architecture."
In the blog of Marat Guelman, the project also caused a lively discussion. pino_noir The interior of the church resembled Yuri Grigoryan's "leaky barn", built as part of one of the "Archstoyanias". And bagdasarov_lj saw in him the embodiment of the possibilities that “dormant in wooden cage architecture, for example, in the cathedral in Kizhi”. “However, for the temple to be functional, there must be an appropriate priest's vestment, interior decoration, maybe mirrored walls or something like that,” the author says. chertiayka, on the contrary, believes that the presence of people here is not necessary at all, if we consider the building as a chapel: “In the latter, a long absence of people was generally allowed …. The building replaced the presence of man in nature … "And he continues:" It's even interesting how it would look in different seasons in Siberia, covered with frost, ice, snow in winter, maybe even rusting."
Another unpleasant news for cultural ideologists came from Tver: the local River Station, which the same Marat Gelman conquered in the spring for the Tvertsa exhibition center, may be demolished next year. This was reported by a number of media outlets. Against the background of the reshuffle in the Tver administration, the money for the restoration of the monument ended abruptly: as a result, the workers of contemporary art did not even have time to finish the repair of the building's outline, and it is not at all favorable for him to meet winter in this state. immortaz in Gelman's blog advises on how to defend Rechnoy: “By artistic means - by making a short film competition associated with him. By commercial means - transferring there some cultural or educational programs, for which (and not for the building itself) you can receive funds. " There is, however, an opinion that the amount required to save the monument is unrealistic: “As for repairs and winter, this is generally from a series of previous“examinations”, when they asked for 1.5 billion,“there’s no other way, like just demolition”. All lie - pests."
While the Perm audience is looking for compromises between the spiritual and the secular, the main reason for discussion in Moscow is still the doubling of the capital's territories in the southwest direction. This time we will cite the opinions of famous people, journalists and experts who expressed themselves in the blog of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation. “There are things that must be done, the expansion of Moscow’s borders is just such a thing,” Vyacheslav Glazychev is sure, however, adding that “the onset of a new era” should not be expected earlier than five years from now. Sergei Dorenko is glad that such an "absolutely inhuman city" as Moscow was given a chance for development. Zurab Tsereteli is also glad: “All progressive artists, progressive art critics are very glad that Moscow is expanding. The expansion of Moscow will solve problems with roads, problems with housing - this is happiness for Muscovites. If we are attracted to participate in this project, it will be a fairy tale. " Dmitry Glukhovsky is more restrained in his forecasts: “It’s not a bad idea to take the power structures somewhere far away, to enclose them with a cast-iron fence so that they stop driving around the city in cars with flashing lights. Another thing is that the initiative is clearly hasty, which means that there will be people willing to take advantage of the "muddy waters" in order to throw their bait into the budget. " Alexei Levinson noted that according to the polls, Muscovites themselves do not want to go to work in the periphery, but they actively welcome the relocation of officials. But according to the experience of Kazakhstan, "some separate ministries that do not have the strength to resist" will leave, Levinson said. So the only benefit from this project can be derived, perhaps by making Moscow "a locomotive for the development of regions, and not just its immediate periphery."
