The recent scandal (and scandals for this either a museum or a pantheon is quite a characteristic thing) turned out to be again connected with a “childish” orientation. Let me remind you that at one time the already mentioned Nikita Mikhalkov spoke out against the demonstration in the EC of the sensational pseudo-historical video for the younger generation. In the video, the whole history of Russia was shown as something dirty and bloody, and the time in power of Boris Yeltsin was bright and adored by everyone ... Now the so-called Cindy Sherman workshops have been launched at the Yeltsin Center. This is a contemporary American artist, whom ArtFacts magazine called, no less, the "most influential artist in the world in the history of art." Influential, so influential - God bless her, but the question is what exactly depicts Sherman on his canvases (and not only canvases) such that her work has become a segment of the work of children's workshops? It can be attributed to children's artists, well, to put it mildly, with a big stretch.
How the project presents itself "Yeltsin Center":
As a child, artist Cindy Sherman loved to fantasize, and when she grew up, with the help of photography and the self-portrait genre she managed to place herself in the worlds she wanted to be in. At the lesson we will think about the ideal place that we would like to visit, create it in a collage technique, and by means of photomontage we will place our self-portrait in this world.
From the work of Ms. Sherman:
I wonder what kind of workshop for Russian children is arranged in this version of the work of an American artist? Maybe a master class on the use of a sick imagination.
This is a less strange work, but again, where is the children's workshop here?
Sherman teach the "right" adolescent depression?
Well, or this:
It is possible, of course, to assume that the author of the material is an utter obscurantist, who does not understand anything in true children's creativity, as well as in modern creativity of adults for children. If it makes life easier for those who arrange such events, then let it be so ... It is more expedient to discuss the question of whether any alternatives are being created in our country to the Sherman children's workshops, if anything then propagandizing, it’s certainly not rational, kind, eternal ...
As it turns out, are being created. And more about that.
So, in the same Yekaterinburg, under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and Science, the park “Russia is My History. Sverdlovsk region". How far this regional park will be able to compete with the ultra-liberal "Yeltsin Center" in its scale is a separate question. However, the point is, in general, not in the scale, but in the essence of the project. To understand the essence is to provide press release from the Ministry of Education and Science on the creation of a park in the largest city of the Urals:
The exposition of the park will reflect the most important events in the history of the Middle Urals, including the settlement and development of the region, the industrial development of the Sverdlovsk region, the founding of cities, the years of the Civil War. Particular attention will be paid to the feat of the inhabitants of the Urals during the Great Patriotic War.
In addition, the park will include a gallery of famous historical figures who have made a significant contribution to the development of the Urals. Among them will be presented Vasily Tatishchev, Wilhelm de Gennin, Ermak, Simeon Verkhotursky, Akinfiy and Nikita Demidov, Cherepanov’s father and son, Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak and a number of others.
The park includes both federal and regional content. The park presents historical periods of the Russian state in four sections: “Rurikovich”, “Romanovs”, “From Great Shocks to the Great Victory”, “Russia is my story. 1945-2016.
To create a regional component of the multimedia historical park “Russia - My Story. Sverdlovsk Region ”the regional ministry of culture created a working and expert group that completed the development, preparation and evaluation of materials of the regional component of the historical park. They included leading Ural historians and local historians, representatives of museums and libraries, the regional Archives Office, the Yekaterinburg Metropolis of the Russian Orthodox Church.
In addition, the park will include a gallery of famous historical figures who have made a significant contribution to the development of the Urals. Among them will be presented Vasily Tatishchev, Wilhelm de Gennin, Ermak, Simeon Verkhotursky, Akinfiy and Nikita Demidov, Cherepanov’s father and son, Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak and a number of others.
The park includes both federal and regional content. The park presents historical periods of the Russian state in four sections: “Rurikovich”, “Romanovs”, “From Great Shocks to the Great Victory”, “Russia is my story. 1945-2016.
To create a regional component of the multimedia historical park “Russia - My Story. Sverdlovsk Region ”the regional ministry of culture created a working and expert group that completed the development, preparation and evaluation of materials of the regional component of the historical park. They included leading Ural historians and local historians, representatives of museums and libraries, the regional Archives Office, the Yekaterinburg Metropolis of the Russian Orthodox Church.
It can be assumed that there will be an alternative to the TC. Yes, of course, this is not about the mentioned “Stalin-Grozny-Center”, but still ... The main emphasis is placed on the younger generation, while the younger generation of the same Ural should look at history and modernity not only from the objects of the exhibition and multimedia "Yeltsin Center". The opening ceremony of the park is scheduled for September 3.
Moscow Center for the History of the Fatherland
If such parks will be opened in different regions of Russia (and there is a similar park in Moscow at the Exhibition of Economic Achievements and Ufa), and if our common history and culture are objectively covered in them, then this is much more effective than talking about the demolition of liberal centers and rolling up the concrete of the ultra-liberals themselves. Let them eat themselves and then roll up. Russia is a civilized country, in the image and likeness of modern Ukraine or the United States, to engage in the struggle with its own history and to burn out dissent. We have gone through too much to allow ourselves to smash and destroy again. But we have gone through too much to give someone a chance to plunge our country into the worship of alien values against the background of self-blame about their own pages of history and pushing the country into chaos.
Hopefully, the Ministry of Education and Science will succeed in this.