Culture Clash

Let me just briefly remind, on December 8, 2013 in Kiev statue of Lenin have been painted over, smashed with sledgehammers, covered with derogatory graffiti, shot with paintball guns, broken and dressed in a rabbit mask. The symbolic gesture signaled the protesters' desire to tear away from Ukraine's Soviet history and the country's ongoing dependence on modern Russia.

To some Lenin is a reminder of a Soviet-time. However to others, the statues are historical treasures. This monument was created by famous sculptor Sergey Merkurov. The statue of the Kremlin’s first Communist ruler was located on one of Kiev's main boulevards some 900 metres from Independence Square. Sergey Merkurov was a prominent Soviet sculptor-monumentalist, a People’s artist of the USSR and director of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Art from 1944 to 1949.

The BONJOURIST asked what thinks about this act of vandalism descendant of the famous sculptor, his great-grandson Anton Merkurov.

Yana B.: Dear, Anton

for those that don’t know, could you tell us a bit about yourself and what you do?

Anton M.: In last years, I am consulting various companies to work with new technologies. I prefer to operate the term "Internet expert" , don't like to explain what I exactly do. Everyone is happy.

Yana B.: You shared on your website big article “Good bye Lenin, hello bastards”. Do you consider that as an act of barbarism? Where is now the wreckage of the monument? There are now 100 gold child mannequins, what do you think about this kind of art gesture?

Anton M.: This is not a “big article”, just post some things in my personal blog, it was a logical response to me and it was important to spread my opinion to audience. It turned out perfectly. I'm the only speaker from the family was obliged to say something. Monument destroyed. To build any plans in Ukraine during political crisis is simply impossible. Mannequins and other initiatives are forms of creativity. New installations don’t have any relationship to the previous stories. I stopped to watch it because do not want to become upset once again.

Yana B.: What are you working on at the moment, are there any projects that you can shed some light on?

Anton M.: One of the most interesting projects that I have is “Strana Detey", unique and most ambitious project in the field of children's activities. Large network of modern children’s recreation centres. It's an amazing story that gives me a lot of interesting things every day .

Yana B.: Do you have the rights to inheritance of your grand-grand father? How do you manage this opportunity?

Anton M.: There are many different conditions. Formally my rights as an heir are controlled by the Geneva Convention. In practice everything is much more more difficult. Legislation in the field of copyright in Russia is not ideally. For example, managment of a regional museum recently asked me if they can use a picture of the monument under the license Creative Commons, which I gladly gave. As for the objects, monuments or death masks, they belong to governments. Russia and Armenia are mainly. House-Museum in Armenia is native to me, I have a great relationship with the Ministry of Culture and if I need somethingf for the exhibition I can easily decide that question. In Russia I asked the Historical Museum to give me access to one of the copies of the death mask of Lenin and my request was refused. Today it is no longer a question of copyright but question of my desire to do something interesting.

Yana B.: I know that you initiated the publication the book about life and work of Sergey Merkurov. How long you were preparing all materials? Where we can buy it?

Anton M.: With the book it was a long process. All materials in the 80-90th year were prepared by my grandparents. Alas, a country stopped to exist - the USSR was collapsed, and later died my grandparents. I stayed with the layout, which I tried unsuccessfully to publish during 10 years. It is a big luck that I could so quickly agree with the publishing comapny Kremlin Multimedia. The book is just great. However of the 1,000 editions can now be found only a few probably on the Internet. Everything was sold.

Yana B.: Do you develop any strategies for the Merkurov Foundation?

Anton M.: Heritage of Segey Merkurov is very profitable content. This is beneficial for Armenia - tourism and cultural development, it is beneficial to Russia, especially given the worsening of relations with Ukraine, and the fate of the statue of Lenin. The death masks are simply unique unexplored part of his creativity. I would like to publish a number of books in different languages, something I would like to republish, to set to rights some issues - the place where was a studio in Izmailovo, everything is destroyed there now. There are a lot of work in the house-museum in Gyumri. But all these stories are finished and therefore in the long term, I would like to promote the sculpture as a phenomenon. Establish a prize for young sculptors, organize a private sculpture park like Moscow Muzeon for instance. I have a lot of ideas, but it requires significant financial investments.

Yana B.: Tell me about projects you would like organize, that would be dedicated to Sergey Merkurov Heritage. Any exhibition probably?

Anton M.: The main idea for me now it is a large-scale exhibition of Death Masks. With the use of new technologies (eg part of masks to print on 3D-printer, or to represent with 3D projections). Then to show this project abroad at the best art spaces. I think it would be an amazing event. Hopefully that will be. Well, the 20th of April in the sculpture park "Muzeon" was opened the photo exhibition. For the first time were shown a number of documents from the archives of S. Merkurov.

You can follow Anton here http://merkurov.com