A scandal is roaring on the Internet: the artist Gudkov made a parody of the patriotic clip of the singer Shaman. I did not watch the artist Gudkov – there are emotional experiences that are better not to deal with at this sad time of the year. However, singer Shaman’s music video was also included.
There are things like this: space. Rye listens to her waist. In the midst of all this splendor, the singer Shaman appears and squeals, as if being cut with a blunt knife at this moment – “I am Russian”. During those 15 seconds when I clung to the life-giving source, everything in the clip “Russia for Foreigners” took place in the frame – the sunset, the ears of corn, the wind, an unbuttoned shirt. True, I was very missing for a bear, balalaika and Dzhigurda.
This unobtrusive visual style is what my friends and I call “doing our best at once.”
I remember once in the program “Scandal School” nationalist Belov-Potkin tried to explain why he loves his Motherland. From the statements it follows that the nationalist Potkin loves his great country for the flavor of pies. He may have heard of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, great Russian culture in general, but that narrowed it down to the size of a pinhole for him. To the scale of the composition of Oleg Gazmanov, where the bells ring and the aroma of pies.
His appearance is frankly fascinating.
I was exactly the same astonished when I met the work of the Painter Shaman. Russia is a country with a great culture, the largest. But why be so arrogant?
I understand very well why the shaman is praised. The situation escalated, the community eventually split into two camps, people support their own camp. And the most disturbing thing for me in this whole story is that we are talking about like-minded people!
He will explain. When “artist” Pavlensky years ago nailed something to the cobblestones and was promptly declared a genius by our liberals for nailing him against Putin, I laughed. I laughed when the nervous and smug epigone Zvyagintsev was declared genius for exactly the same reason.
And now I’m sorry. Every year, I give the most insignificant thought – the talent of the author and the artistic level of the work are in no way associated with anyone’s political views. For example, the writer Limonov was very unpleasant for me. This did not prevent him from becoming a great Russian writer.
And no matter how much the singer Shaman shouts about his love for Russia, this does not make him any more talented.
No parody can offend my personal patriotic feelings. A similar original – yes, maybe. Because that’s stupid. Because a bad taste shows itself throughout the country.
And in parallel, I observe another terrible process. Far from understanding the cultural mechanisms, the man in the street has armed himself with the age-old formula of “art for the people” and “it should be clear to the common man”. And he demands to crucify the objectionable. He is calm, now in the center of the universe – because he loves his homeland. He can do anything.
Olga Sedakova has a wonderful work – “Mediocrity as a social danger”, the author there fully reveals the theme of the common man and leaves no room for counter-arguments.
I will say only one thing – it is extremely unpleasant for me to watch how a militant and ignorant inhabitant of my country begins to dictate cultural policy. Censorship call. A call to jail for parodies returning to Gudkov.
In general, I am against printing for words on the Internet, but under the conditions of a special operation, yes, I and as a lawyer also support the penalty of spreading falsehood. We are talking about an artistic(!) work here. Some people didn’t like it.
I love my country very much, so I firmly believe that any attempt to reduce culture to the level of political agitation will not lead to anything good. As it was never brought.
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the editors’ position.