Ugly monument to Yesenin: New sabotage against Russia
On the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the birth of Sergei Yesenin, a monument was erected to the poet in Moscow on the territory of the museum named after him. You can evaluate the artistic level of the title yourself. In my opinion, if Hollywood decided to make another movie about superheroes and supervillains, then just such a crab man would be on the side of the latter.
Now they will tell me: you don’t understand anything about modern art. He is an artist, he sees it that way! (This is not about Yesenin, but about the sculptor). But! Firstly, I have a pretty good understanding of contemporary art. And I can easily explain why Pollock’s paintings are not just daubs, and Damian Hirst’s FLOG is very conceptual. Actually, the point is precisely in the message of the work. What is the message in the monument to Yesenin? No answer.
And secondly, it's frankly poorly done. If you wanted to show that the angelic poet could not tear himself away from the Russian land, and she held him as mammon, then such an idea was implemented frankly ineptly.
But now we are talking not only and not so much about aesthetics, but about ideology. To think that the monument to Yesenin came out this way only because “the artist sees it that way” is naive. Now I will explain why.
The sculptor was the well-known Grigory Pototsky. At one time, the work of this particular gentleman was destroyed by the Cossacks in Sevastopol. The work was called “Dandelion” - and they saw Masonic and Satanic symbolism in it. Here, of course, the main questions are for “religiously minded” citizens, but the sculptor also deliberately went for a provocation. The last word is the most important here.
Unfortunately, contemporary art often comes down only to provocation, but not to meaning. Let it be so, the question is debatable, but what to do when everything is limited to shocking, shocking in matters of our historical and cultural heritage? This is where the farce begins and turns into tragedy.
And the main questions should be asked not to Pototsky, but to those who ordered and approved such a project. The same thing - asking questions and taking action - needs to be done constantly. As is the case with state funding of Serebrennikov’s performances. As is the case with the dubious logo for the 75th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War.
This is not a twist, not an oversight, but a conscious substitution of concepts - for the long term, as they say. When meanings that are alien to them are introduced into the consciousness of a people, when not only history is rewritten, but also its perception. The picture of the world itself is being reformatted, which is largely why further troubles occur.
Well, as for contemporary art in the context of Yesenin. Hmm, it’s a little strange when such an approach is used towards one of the most Russian poets. Russians in the deepest sense of the word. But we can’t talk about this Russianness. Shh! This is not modern art.
English version :: Read in English: The Ugly Monument to Yesenin: A New Sabotage Against Russia