Interview with Mikhail Shemyakin

[Mark]

artist Mikhail Shemyakin: "I saved the KGB. I do not hide"

Two years ago, artist Mikhail Shemyakin moved from the United States, where he lived for nearly 20 years in Europe. In central France, he bought an old castle Shamusso with twenty hectares of land.

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It Shemyakin posted studios, a unique library, the Institute of Philosophy and psychology of creativity and dreams of turning his estate in Russia's bastion of culture in the West. " The correspondent of "Izvestia" examined the ownership and talked to their master.

"I came to France to be closer to Russia"

question: Do not feel sorry, Misha, that moved from the Mecca of American art in the quiet French harbor?

answer: the French situation is in fact for me is very similar to the U.S.. There was a two-hour drive to New York, but here are two - to Paris. But here I have a lot more territory. And the very nature much closer to the U.S.. I came here in order to be closer to Russia.

in: You're still going to arrange for his French lands of Russia's cultural beachhead?

about: I am all alone to pull hard. Last year on his plane flew me Arsen Kanokov, president of Kabardino-Balkaria. From there was born and my father. Kanokov supported my idea of a cultural center and has pledged the first installment in October. But the crisis erupted, and Mr. Kanokov disappeared from sight. I'm not Abramovich - live from contract to contract. But still I hope that my voice in the wilderness to reach the ears sudbovershiteley. And the top understand how all this is important.

Q: What are you going to do with his estate in Klaverake near New York?

A: I again write a letter to the Government of Russia and propose to create a cultural foundation in Klaverake - there I have 12 hectares of land. But I get failures - no money. At the time, Putin gave me a room of 600 square meters for my Foundation in St. Petersburg. But then somehow went into the sand. But while I live - I hope.

in: Grievances of the fatherland does not hold?

about: What's the point? The pain is. But I served, serve and will serve Russia. 5 September in Beslan - the fifth anniversary of the tragedy - will open a monument to my work. He is ready to make a left pedestal.

To: To you in Shamusso now came a young choreographer Kirill Simonov, winner of several "Golden masks. What are you bother with him?

A: We have set with Kirill "The Nutcracker", which at the Mariinsky Theater is the ninth year with sold out. Now we are preparing a new production of Delibes ballet "Coppelia" for the Vilnius Opera and Ballet Theater. I want a cloying vaudeville to the present Hoffman.

in: whether to continue the theme Vysockogo you?

A: I worked for many years on a series of illustrations for a book to Vysotsky "Two destinies. It should go in the publishing house "Vita Nova". The book will include my memories of Vysotsky, his songs and 43 of my illustrations. Each year, dedicated to his life and the last - his portrait. And not so long ago in Samara, opened my monument to Vysotsky.

"A serious collector will buy a dead shark for five million dollars"

Q: What is your problem solves Institute of philosophy and psychology of creativity?

A: This encyclopedic database, which frees the artist from having to reinvent the wheel. If the artist wanted to say, write a still life with skull, he presses the button, and on the computer screen will be all that was done on this subject in painting, drawing, sculpture.

Q: Is there some logic in the development of fine art?

about: Absolutely. There are several types of paintings. First of all, for examining - for example, the work of the Wanderers. You see a scene that captures an artist. There are pictures for contemplation. You can not, as the Wanderers, looking at abstract paintings of Kandinsky and Mark Rothko. There color spots. Before you a symphony, created a grand master. And you have to switch to other registers of perception. You begin to enjoy the picture as the music and understand that to contemplate some sort of revelation.

in: Well, the installation?

about: Their understanding is not through aesthetics. The object serves as a room in which hung dirty socks scattered cigarette butts, is a chamber pot. Let's call it a mathematical comprehension. Delve into the situation not the soul, and convolutions.

in: Is it possible in a single cart harness classics and the latest trends?

about: That's why I propose to establish a system of blocks in the museum. One - for the performance, which frolic of his followers. The second unit - for installations, where they bring garbage, old newspapers, shoes and so on. Third - video, where continuously rotated movies. Finally, another block, which expose people who have the audacity to paint with oil, watercolor or pencil. In short, those "renegades" who continue to lag behind in progress.

Q: I lost a classic painting battle for hearts and wallets for? Perhaps the most expensive modern master - Britain's Damien Hirst - places in aquariums with formalin carcasses of fish and animals ...

about: It's boring all. Serious collector will buy a dead shark for five million dollars.

Q: I pushed a spirited avant-garde figurative art?

about: It's not that cramped, and just threw us off our sites. We, along with Cezanne stayed somewhere in the past.

Q: What areas do you mean?

about: Imagine this situation. Rostropovich comes and says he wants to play Bach in the Metropolitan Opera. And he answered: "You know, we have today guys revolve - rap goes, but you are getting with his cello. The trouble is that these boys took of gallery space, namolennye artists, and say: "Before, everything was g. .., but we'll show you what we should!".

in: In a word, is difficult fight for the survival of figurative art?

about: And we must win. Wins harmony and beauty. Otherwise the art is simply no longer.

"I love my American passport"

In: Was there really that mythical KGB colonel, who was allegedly collecting your work and help you move to the West?

about: He's not mythical. At one time it seemed to me Semyonov, and it turned out that his name was Popov. I was not so long ago invited to tea in the "Big House" - the St. Petersburg FSB. I met the same people who were involved in my exile. I welcomed the generals and led by the same familiar corridors. "Why do you have the floors have not been changed since that time, when I called to you for questioning?" - I asked. - "No money, Mikhail Mikhailovich! We are looking for sponsors." Then I was solemnly presented a barometer of the inscription: "Dear genius - Mikhail Shemyakin by veteran security officers on the day of the anniversary of the Petrograd Cheka." Been handed a valuable instrument in the same office where they interrogated me ...

Q: And if Shemyakin not left Russia?

about: I would no longer be alive. I would either drunk or rotting in the camps. At the same time Colonel Popov said that I have three choices: jail, insane asylum or exile. He offered a choice. He warned that in an insane asylum from me for two or three years with the help of psychotropic drugs will do just a vegetable.

in: So, the choice actually was not?

A: Yes, but the expulsion was a secret. I even forbade notify parents that I'm leaving. This was an operation of a department of the KGB. And when I inquired why these precautions, I was told: "Michal Mihalich, their worst enemies!" We have another department, who believes that you group around the intellectuals. And after you comfortable to watch. And you go and break up the circle. We believe that you need to save for art. "

in: It turns out that you, a dissident, saved the KGB?

about: And so it was saved - I do not hide. At a farewell to the expulsion of Colonel Popov admonished me: "Try to act less in the West. There is speculation that Russia would be another. Maybe you are able to return. And we would like you to come back with a shield rather than a shield." That I remember for a lifetime. Maybe the same way and wanted to save Brodsky, who was two months after I was expelled from the Soviet Union.

in: Probably great to be a citizen of the universe?

about: I love my American passport. No other it would not change. Since it is easy to move around the world, to live where you like and feel like a normal person. Russian passport I have no - I travel to Russia on a visa. I still believe that real democracy - with all its imperfections, frustrations and shameful downs - there are still only in America. I'm in the United States the same rights as that of any American, whose ancestors lived there for two hundred years.

http://www.izvestia.ru/culture/article3131410/?print

Quite amusing material. And there's the story with the KGB, may ktonnes knows? Or the usual "persecution of free thought"?

[Jasmin]

Love Shemyakina - the artist! But, in my opinion, a beautiful tale of the KGB, who saved him, and Brodsky, he recently came up with ... but I do not blame him. Read, as they are expelled ...

[Кирилл Сызранский]

Сообщение от Jasmin

But, in my opinion, a beautiful tale of the KGB, who saved him and Brodsky, he recently came up ...

But the KGB as its been kicked out of the country, it is a fact. And really saved it, or simply allowed to leave, not what already. And as he went on what visa, on what grounds, by the way?
Marriage to a foreigner, an Israeli visa?

[Mark]

A good artist .. And his monument to Peter I? Best, in my opinion, the sculpture of Peter the Great

[Сергеич]

At the farewell to the expulsion of Colonel Popov admonished me: "Try to act less in the West. There is speculation that Russia would be another. Maybe you are able to return. And we would like you to come back with a shield and not on the shield" .

Shemyakin expelled from the Soviet Union in 1971 is that, at Colonel Popov already at that time was information about future events Gorbachev years. I do not believe ever.
And all the strange interview, but a good artist.