The Blue Noses
30 Jun - 31 Jul 2010
THE BLUE NOSES
“A La Russe”
30.06 /31.07, 2010
The exhibition A La Russe is arranged to coincide with the anniversary of Dyagilev’s «Ballets Russes» Any Russian artist who works on a project for the anniversary of «Ballets Russes» (and in the «Year of Russia in France» on top of that), faces a question: is he to make play with numerous «export clichés» concerning Russia and the Russians.
Nearly all of these clichés were invented by the French in the process of long Franco- Russian relations.
In brief it looks like that:
For centuries France used to represent the whole European culture, being the style-setter and the outpost of progress. The Russian aristocrats preferred to speak French, at the same time speaking their mother tongue very poorly and being exposed to ridicule at home. Even the poet Pushkin, who is considered to be the founder of Russian literary language, learned to speak French before Russian.
In the Age of Enlightenment a sort of «Russian illusion» was created in France. The Empress Catherine II was in correspondence with Diderot and Voltaire in order to advertise herself as an enlightened ruler. As a result, Voltaire believed that in France everything is bad while in Russia everything is good, including the real freedom of speech, ant that only Russians in Paris can know the worth of French cultural values. Nevertheless, Voltaire did not go to Russia.
Marquis de Custine, who had come to St Petersburg at the invitation of Nicholas I, was struck by the difference between «the Russian illusion» and the reality and, as a result, invented «Russophobia». De Custine named Russia «the prison of peoples», «the land of slaves» and «the Asian tyranny». Later these words were more than once cited by V. I. Lenin.
Napoleon I, in order to form European public opinion before his invasion of Russia, invented «the Russian threat». For this purpose he used the forged will of Peter the Great, according to which it was not Napoleon, but Russia who aimed at conquering the whole Europe; so Napoleon has nothing to do but to counter this aggression.
Later, it was vicomte de Vogüé who invented «the Russian soul» and brought «the Great Russian Literature» — Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Chekhov and others — into vogue. According to de Vogüé, the Russian soul is like borsch or okroshka — soups, consisting of many unpredictable ingredients. He considered his French countrymen too cynical and earthly, while in Russia and in his Russian wife he found something antipodal.
There happened to be only one enterprising Russian — Sergey Dyagilev — who began to fob off the French with the myths they had invented themselves. Owing to Dyagilev, the world knows exotic «Russian ballets» and «Russian avant-garde». Since then American ballerinas used to assume Russian names while the French started once more to decipher «the Russian soul». One can see all this stuff up to date, e.g. in the works by Werber or Beigbeder.
Are we to exploit this rubbish further on?
The Blue Noses decided to do it, making a medley of «Russian beauties», «Russian spirituality», «Russian avant-garde» , «Russian tyranny» and other French phantasms, united in the formalistic objects vaguely resembling iconostasis, gonfalons and fairytale palaces; with music by Stravinsky; in the suprematist armor and against the background of folklore patterns of Palekh and Khokhloma. The «beauties» themselves liked it very much.
The Blue Noses is an artistic group, formed in 1999 by Siberian artists Viacheslav Mizin and Alexander Shaburov/ The participated in the in the 50th and 51st Venice Biennales, 1st, 2nd and 3rd Moscow Biennales of Contemporary Art, and other international exhibitions. In 2007 the group became infamous due to the Russian Minister of Culture, A. Sokolov, who prohibited their works’ transportation to the «Sots Art» exhibition in Paris and called them «a shame of Russia ».
During «The Year of Russia in France» the Blue Noses will take part in exhibitions in Paris, antes and Lyon. The exhibition was organised with the aid of Perm’s Contemporary Art Museum and the Siberian Centre of Contemporary Art
“A La Russe”
30.06 /31.07, 2010
The exhibition A La Russe is arranged to coincide with the anniversary of Dyagilev’s «Ballets Russes» Any Russian artist who works on a project for the anniversary of «Ballets Russes» (and in the «Year of Russia in France» on top of that), faces a question: is he to make play with numerous «export clichés» concerning Russia and the Russians.
Nearly all of these clichés were invented by the French in the process of long Franco- Russian relations.
In brief it looks like that:
For centuries France used to represent the whole European culture, being the style-setter and the outpost of progress. The Russian aristocrats preferred to speak French, at the same time speaking their mother tongue very poorly and being exposed to ridicule at home. Even the poet Pushkin, who is considered to be the founder of Russian literary language, learned to speak French before Russian.
In the Age of Enlightenment a sort of «Russian illusion» was created in France. The Empress Catherine II was in correspondence with Diderot and Voltaire in order to advertise herself as an enlightened ruler. As a result, Voltaire believed that in France everything is bad while in Russia everything is good, including the real freedom of speech, ant that only Russians in Paris can know the worth of French cultural values. Nevertheless, Voltaire did not go to Russia.
Marquis de Custine, who had come to St Petersburg at the invitation of Nicholas I, was struck by the difference between «the Russian illusion» and the reality and, as a result, invented «Russophobia». De Custine named Russia «the prison of peoples», «the land of slaves» and «the Asian tyranny». Later these words were more than once cited by V. I. Lenin.
Napoleon I, in order to form European public opinion before his invasion of Russia, invented «the Russian threat». For this purpose he used the forged will of Peter the Great, according to which it was not Napoleon, but Russia who aimed at conquering the whole Europe; so Napoleon has nothing to do but to counter this aggression.
Later, it was vicomte de Vogüé who invented «the Russian soul» and brought «the Great Russian Literature» — Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Chekhov and others — into vogue. According to de Vogüé, the Russian soul is like borsch or okroshka — soups, consisting of many unpredictable ingredients. He considered his French countrymen too cynical and earthly, while in Russia and in his Russian wife he found something antipodal.
There happened to be only one enterprising Russian — Sergey Dyagilev — who began to fob off the French with the myths they had invented themselves. Owing to Dyagilev, the world knows exotic «Russian ballets» and «Russian avant-garde». Since then American ballerinas used to assume Russian names while the French started once more to decipher «the Russian soul». One can see all this stuff up to date, e.g. in the works by Werber or Beigbeder.
Are we to exploit this rubbish further on?
The Blue Noses decided to do it, making a medley of «Russian beauties», «Russian spirituality», «Russian avant-garde» , «Russian tyranny» and other French phantasms, united in the formalistic objects vaguely resembling iconostasis, gonfalons and fairytale palaces; with music by Stravinsky; in the suprematist armor and against the background of folklore patterns of Palekh and Khokhloma. The «beauties» themselves liked it very much.
The Blue Noses is an artistic group, formed in 1999 by Siberian artists Viacheslav Mizin and Alexander Shaburov/ The participated in the in the 50th and 51st Venice Biennales, 1st, 2nd and 3rd Moscow Biennales of Contemporary Art, and other international exhibitions. In 2007 the group became infamous due to the Russian Minister of Culture, A. Sokolov, who prohibited their works’ transportation to the «Sots Art» exhibition in Paris and called them «a shame of Russia ».
During «The Year of Russia in France» the Blue Noses will take part in exhibitions in Paris, antes and Lyon. The exhibition was organised with the aid of Perm’s Contemporary Art Museum and the Siberian Centre of Contemporary Art