“Is this really a bummer?”
In late 2001, the large hall of the Philharmonic Hall of one of Russia’s cities of millions was filled with young people with their hair tied up in some way and wearing “Vivat Anarchia” necklaces – these “King and Clown” were walking around. A brand new album for the country “Like in an old tale”. The song “Cursed Old House” in it seems too smooth and too “emotional” to old fans of the band…
“Is this really a bummer?“- I ask myself, crumpling the laser-embroidered sheepskin, which was popular that winter, in my hand. The cloakroom attendant, tired of empty hangers, does not accept clothes, saying “you won’t have time to buy them anyway, so I’m closing at 21.00.”
“And it’s definitely punk? — Ask the organizers of the “Punk Culture” exhibition. The King and the Clown”. And if this question were not for this purely punk suspicion, the statement itself would not exist. This project is a reflection of what punk is, its stereotypes about destruction and toilets, the wider genre of which the slogan “do it yourself” is most important It is an attempt to elegantly incorporate it into its structure. Do it yourself, try it yourself, without reference to brands and authorities; there are no gods, no masters.
“Mishuta, help me”
Many works included in the exhibition were gifted to the organizers by Mikhail Gorshenev’s mother, Tatyana Ivanovna. He came to the event with a bag in which he brought his school notebooks, the musician’s homemade comic “Game of the Gods”, his son’s drawings and magazines, and the first publications about “The King and the Clown” – consider it his own little exhibition.
According to the woman, at first letters from fans of the rock legend were laid out in front of visitors, but then they decided to remove them due to their reluctance to anonymise the girls who confessed their crazy love for the musician. . But, as Tatyana Ivanovna assured, there are already enough artifacts from her son’s personal belongings to fill a truck.
I ask a woman about her favorite exhibit in the exhibition, and I already suspect the answer will be cunning. She smiles conspiratorially, starts looking for something in her bag, can’t find it right away, and laughs: “When I can’t find something, I say: “Okay Mishuta, please help me.” Now he has nothing to do there, so he helps everyone; you can try it yourself .” Then, from her bag, she pulls out a ballpoint pen drawing of rookie punks entering a rock club.
The series “The King and the Fool” was at the top of “Kinopoisk” for eight weeks; The group’s songs did not leave the top of “Yandex Music” for nine months. Gorsheneva says that it is difficult not to notice the new wave of interest in her son’s work – at the Bogoslovskoye cemetery on Gorshka’s grave, even children began to approach him for autographs:
“Half of the fans in Bogoslovsky are children now. I ask them to sing for the autograph and they sing! This does not surprise me: after all, there is energy, there are fairy tales and horror stories. My children grew up listening to the classics; I played Tchaikovsky and Chopin at home. Let’s rock.”
Maybe soon new fans will be added – on November 12, the premiere of the next tour of the universe based on the world of the group, the symphonic show “Punk Fairytale King and the Clown” will be held in St. Petersburg. .Petersburg.
St. Petersburg version
“It would be extremely unreasonable for us not to bring the exhibition to St. Petersburg, the homeland of punk culture,” laughs Mazavrishvili. St. Curators for the St. Petersburg exhibition (music critic and radio host Boris Barabanov, art critic Vasily Uspensky, producer Igor “Punker” Gudkov, Andrei Knyazev himself, music video director and photographer Agata Nigrovskaya) It has collected spectacular exhibitions, from punk icon Vivienne Westwood to original prints by Jamie Reid, the author of Sex Pistols album covers.
Here for the first time some personal belongings of Knyazev and Gorshenev were shown, including painted shirts from the first years of popularity, the atmosphere of the legendary Leningrad punk rock club Tamtam, especially St. Reproduced for the St. Petersburg exhibition, the widow of “Civil Defense” leader Yegor Letov Natalya Chumakova helped to recreate the interior of her husband’s studio with real instruments and the view from the window. Civil Defense branded guitars decorated with stickers were also included in the exhibition.
Old DIY meets new technologies here: a VR room equipped for visitors with a 360° clip for one of the band’s hits, embodied in the fantasy scene by the stars of the “King and the Clown” series, Konstantin Plotnikov and Vlad Konoplev. film set. The punk canteen at the exit will not let you leave the exhibition hungry with its bold menu by KUZNYAHOUSE chef Ruslan Zakirov, who knows exactly what is inside the upside-down “Mamaanarchy” sandwich and whether you want to sing God Bless the Soup. after soup.
Punk as a chance to make your own rules
Last year St. Another big one in St. Petersburg is St. Petersburg. Architect Agniya Sterligova, founder of Planet9, which organized a popular touring exhibition about St. Petersburg native Alexei Balabanov, said there were many differences from the Moscow version of “Punk Culture” in particular. The exhibition itself was expanded, as it was possible to present large-scale installations in the Sevkabel space that were not available in Winzavod.
“At the end of ‘The King and the Fool,’ we made a cyber tree; Visualization of the song ‘The Gathering’. “We thought it was important to show in a positive and kind way how old friends gather under a tree and how the group continues to exist despite being physically dispersed,” he explained.
Sterligova also attended St. He also suggested paying attention to the art district in St. Petersburg, where new and unexpected works are exhibited (Leo Tolstoy is there!), but he called the two teddy bears in the DIY district his favorite, non-obvious exhibit: “They are sitting, children, one from London, the other from Russia – punk bears. The DIY motto is about recreating the world to suit you and your preferences. Besides the cool clothes, records and adult stuff we expect from punks, it’s really nice to see some sweet punk bears here.”
So why talk about punk in 2023, decades after the disgusting culture’s heyday, when its central figures are slowly turning tan? According to Sterligova, a conversation about punk is, first of all, a conversation about creativity and freedom.