It was around one o'clock in the morning. My friends and I sat in a warm company in an architectural workshop.
— What happened at the Academy of Arts? I asked. We were all graduates of this university, however, in different years and different faculties. I briefly heard about some recent scandal.
- Yes, he's an asshole! - the ambitious architect of radical right-wing views answered me sharply. He fought for several years in the east of Ukraine, was contused, but recovered and believed in our victory, making all possible efforts both on the volunteer and professional fronts. The same architect took an active public position and occasionally organized scandalous art performances against illegal constructions in the City.
Anna Cooper
- Who's an asshole? I clarified.
— Well, this, Spartacus, is a joke. The Ukrainian army is mocked.
In the nineties, when I studied at the Academy, we had one Spartak. Sitter. He was already about fifty then, but he regularly went to the gym and looked really like a gladiator. Is it the same one?
- A model? I asked.
- What model? - the architect did not understand. — Sculptor, mother ego!
- Ah, a sculptor? Okay, it's not important, - I decided to keep the topic under wraps, fearing the heat that would arise.
The next day I went to Facebook. The whole social network was buzzing about the scandal that broke out at my alma mater. It turned out that he was provoked by a student of the fourth year of the sculpture faculty.
The video of the action, which was organized by students of the Academy in support of Spartak, was interrupted: the connection in the basement cafe, where I went to have dinner, was bad. But I patiently waited for the image to load completely.
Spartak Khachanov turned out not to look like a gladiator at all: a thin man of thirty-three with an oriental appearance, with long arms and dull pain in his eyes. Wavy dark hair stuck out from under a blue cap; hands in knitted gloves fiddled with a piece of cloth on which was written: "We are against censorship in the Academy!".
The journalist interviewed Spartak:
— What do you think caused the Academy teacher to destroy your semester project and why did the right-wing radical organization "C14" visit the university? Have you ever heard of her before?
- No, why listen to such a thing at all? They tried to take me outside to talk. But about what? What do I have to do with them?
— What was the idea behind your project?
The footage of the interview was interspersed with images of the installation: plaster figurines with red-painted tips, clearly phallic in shape, were displayed in rows in the corridors of the Academy. "Parade of members," read the poster.
"This is an art installation about all the military parades that are held in the world," Spartak explained. - It is not about today's war, but about military parades in general. About how they wave... weapons at parades.
— Do you think that the problem is in the parades, and not in the violence of the war? asked the journalist.
"The parade is the beginning of violence..." the artist continued to rub the fabric with his hands, but spoke calmly.
- So it's not about Ukraine?
— No, of course, I have always supported Ukraine. I'm not a cotton candy or a separatist, as some people call me. I was on the Maidan in Kharkiv when I was studying. My classmates and I hung the Ukrainian flag on the school building during the anti-Maidan action, and we hung a black and red flag in the auditorium. Then he distributed a petition in support of Oleg Sentsov... This installation symbolizes my attitude to the war. Why war if you can come to an agreement? I myself am from Armenia, there are constant wars. It is close and understandable to me.
— Why penises?
— Weapons resemble phallic symbols: look at the rockets! Besides, these images surround us everywhere. Look at the skyscraper: isn't it a phallus? Greek columns too...
— How do you feel about the current situation? — asked Spartak a young journalist with the logo of a well-known TV channel on the microphone.
- This is not the end, this is only the beginning...
— The leadership of the Academy said that your installation is a departure from the canons, that it is not academic. How do you comment on this?
— The topic was free. I spoke on a free topic.
- So they just didn't understand you? What did they think?
- Ask them. Everyone sees what he wants to see.
- Where were you born?
"In Baku," answered the artist.
— There were anti-Armenian movements in Azerbaijan at one time. Did they touch your family?
— Of course, I was two years old, we moved to Armenia because of this. I lived there until I was six years old. Then they left for Ukraine, Snezhnoe, Donetsk region. Then I studied at an art school in Kharkov, and after the start of the war in Donbass, when our house was bombed, I entered the Academy of Art and moved to Kyiv.
— Are there teachers who support you? asked the first journalist.
- Yes, young people. But this action is not in support of me, but against censorship. We don't live in the USSR!
— How do you earn a living?
— I make money with art. Here, he made sculptures in a psychiatric hospital. But I take orders only when they give me freedom of creative expression.
— Have you been thinking about this installation for a long time?
- How can you tell me? Ripe, ripe... and ripe. Military parades are not held in civilized countries. My teacher told me that he would bury me in Podol. Well, I understand: he is an ATO officer... And the department wants to expel me for not fulfilling the curriculum. They said they would send a letter.
I knew from my experience that it is very difficult to get into the Academy: the competition is several tens of people per place. But, having entered, it is simply impossible to drop out — this is a very democratic university. I already had something to compare it with.
— How do you react to public attention? the journalist continued.
— The artist is a public, media person. I react normally.
— Do you think your performance was successful? asked the girl with the microphone.
— I took a risk, of course, but I did not expect such a reaction. What is the immorality of male genital organs? Women are gossiped about, but men are not allowed? Among the classics, it happens that my works are not next to each other. It turns out, the ancient Greeks are immoral, Roden is immoral... all art is immoral, isn't it?
"What a mockery of God..." I thought. In ancient Sparta, newborn children who did not meet the established athletic standards were thrown into the landfill. Therefore, the history of art does not know a single great artist or sculptor from Sparta: children inclined to visual arts are often not distinguished by a strong physique. I wonder what Khachanov's parents were thinking when they named the boy after a gladiator?
The video switched to the rally. Some young man was proving to a friend the validity of right-wing views. The second was seething and talking about democracy. The shooting was delayed for a long time due to the quarrel about the historical mistakes of Ukraine. The disputants were heated in the frame, but at some point they decided to get to know each other:
- I'm Igor, and what's your name?
— Bohdan. We met you somewhere...
- It is possible.
At this, the disputants shook each other's hands. In profile, they looked like brothers, the same age and the same black Hutsul type.
The shot changed to a medium shot of a woman.
— I am an art historian, specializing in contemporary art, and I declare with full responsibility that the Academy is entered for the educational process! This is not a place for gallery actions, let him do them with grant money! You need to have a conscience!
- And what about the avant-garde? asked the journalist.
— All modern Ukrainian avant-garde artists are graduates of our Academy. Spartak's project is not up to par, it's not art...
The second woman, wrapped in a shawl, burst into tears, addressing the young students who came to the rally in support of Spartak:
- I feel sorry for you, girls! We taught you good, kind, beautiful, and you... eh... Look here: Apollo is standing, how is he naked? Culturally undressed! And that's not all...
The female students laughed cheekily in response.
The rally was attended by the police and employees of the Red Cross: Ukraine was on the eve of two political elections, the powder keg could explode at any moment.
"It's a pity that the youth from "C14" oppose the youth of the Academy," said the representative of the Red Cross, an elderly calm man. — They should not conflict, they should unite. It's sad...
I was saddened by the second.
I remembered a young man, an architect, whose professional creative career was practically broken in 2015. At that time, real harassment took place on Facebook. On his sketch of the reconstruction of the House of Trade Unions, which burned down during the Maidan and became a grave for several dozen people, numerous "photo frogs" laid out. Everyone laughed at the author, but it was not funny to me. Yes, his project proposal, which represented the image of a large, unmistakably recognizable feminine outline, obviously did not correspond to the architectural ensemble of Khreshchatyk Street. But there was one "but": the project was developed in March 2014, immediately after the revolution. And it seemed that this is a creative sublimation of trauma from events with the participation of a large number of belligerent, armed, prickly and aggressive men. I experienced this trauma myself, then I painted a Ukrainian house with patterns in two weeks, being in a completely insane state.
I had only one complaint then. Not to the author, but to the management of the architectural office where he worked. Why was this project published? Especially an hour after the tragedy? The man spoke up, it became easier for him, but the product of art therapy does not always need to be brought to the public.
Regarding the scandal with the "Parade of Members", I have a question not related to the author of the project. Why did the creative director not find an approach to the student? Most likely, the sculptor has post-traumatic syndrome after being shelled by "hail" and several wars. The project lacked clarity of articulation, which provoked its perception as a mockery of the Ukrainian army.
Art is the territory of freedom. It takes the viewer out of the comfort zone and hits the emotional field with catharsis or pain. This is one of the facets of public consciousness that provokes public discussion, so art should not avoid difficult or traumatic topics.
The Academy of Arts today, as at its foundation in 1917, during the rule of the Ukrainian Central Rada, adheres to "right-wing" views. In the 1930s, after issuing a decree on the only correct style - socialist realism - Stalin's henchmen shot all the "rightists" of that time: Mikhail Boychuk, Ivan Padalka, others, and the Academy became "leftist" for a long time, but at the same time skillfully balanced at the intersection of values, all while preserving the freedom of self-expression for students.
In the nineties, with Ukraine gaining independence, the Academy again "corrected". When the plaster fell off in one of the art workshops that year and a monumental painting from the "Boychukist" period was discovered under it, we went to look at it as if it were a miracle. And for thirty years now, the Academy has proudly carried the "right" Ukrainian idea.
It is, on the one hand, a state university, and on the other, it is an "assembly point" for people of art. In this way, the Academy always reflects the dominant ideology in society, and the Ukrainian society "corrects" more and more every year - a completely predictable reaction to a long scoop. And the classic criteria for evaluating works are unshakable: composition, form, color, chiaroscuro, knowledge of materials and plot.
But contemporary art adds another important criterion: an idea, most often a provocative one.
The scandal that broke out had almost nothing to do with the installation. He became an illustration of the conflict between traditional Ukraine and modern Ukraine, which are forever fighting within the walls of the Academy. At the same time, for art, "right" and "left" are nothing more than tools of creative expression, since it stands above politics, only interpreting and reacting to it. Then who is the real voice of the ideology of art: the state university or free artists? Does art need ideology at all?
Outrage, provocation is often the only way to reach today's viewer, raped by information. Art therapy works most often do not stand the test of time: the big one is visible from a distance.
"But what if the artist's goal was shock and he did not aim for eternity? In this case, the "Parade" was a success!" - I thought, closing the laptop, paid and went home.
/January 2019/
Illustrations: Valery Yudina
