The work of Alexander Sokurov and a group of young authors (sculptors Vladimir Brodarsky and Ekaterina Pilnikova, as well as artist Alexei Perepelkin) saw the light last year in the Russian pavilion of the Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art. Then the theme of the Biennale was the saying: “May you live in interesting times.” The staging of the exposition in the Hermitage was organized during the tightening of Rosseti.
So they say in China when they wish bad things. Confucius warned: “God forbid you live in an era of change!” In the Russian interpretation of Tyutchev (“Blessed is he who visited this world in his fatal moments”), everything is not so gloomy, but these days, Chinese colleagues seem more perspicacious. Spectators of Sokurov’s project, who today are simultaneously watching the Syrian war, the political crisis in Belarus, and the protracted Ukrainian jump into Europe without a parachute, are unlikely to share Tyutchev’s optimism.
The numbers at the beginning of the installation’s title refer to the Gospel of Luke, to the very place from which the parable of the prodigal son came into the world. As Luke tells, a certain son of a certain father left his parental home and squandered his estate, living dissolutely. These are difficult times. The son became impoverished, starved, repented and decided to return to his father. The father, seeing him from afar, ordered to prepare a feast, for “my son was dead and is alive again, he was lost and was found.” And then everyone started having fun. Indeed, there is something to rejoice when the son, having tried other ways, recognizes that the truth is on the side of the father. This is the canon story.
It must be said that the story of the prodigal son interested Rembrandt for many decades. At the age of 29, he began by investigating the first part of the gospel parable – debauchery and the fall. This process in the image of Rembrandt – the canvas “Prodigal Son in a Tavern” (Self-portrait with Saskia on his knees) 1635 – looks very attractive: literally wine, cinema, dominoes and beautiful women. This was followed by two etchings, and only at the very end of his life Rembrandt decided on his most magnificent experiment on a religious theme – The Return of the Prodigal Son was completed in the year of the artist’s death.
Once in the Hermitage during the time of Catherine the Great, the picture to this day is what art historians call the pearl of the collection. Seeing this huge (260 x 203 cm) canvas and not only dying, but starting life anew – Benjamin Britten, Andrei Tarkovsky, and thousands of unknown spectators experienced this state. And Alexander Sokurov himself. However, if Tarkovsky literally quotes Rembrandt, ending his “Solaris” with the scene of the protagonist kneeling before his father, then Sokurov is not at all inclined to act on the principle of “animating the picture.”
Sokurov generally refuses the gospel interpretation, taking as a basis not the Christian canon, but the experience of personal experience “here and now.” If St. Luke – and after him Tarkovsky with Britten (his opera The Prodigal Son was a reaction to a visit to the Hermitage in 1967) – suggests that the meeting of father and son ends the story, then for Sokurov everything just begins with it. This is not at all the gospel jubilation with rams slaughtered for a feast and the sacramental “my son died and came to life.” Sokurov honestly admits that modern sons, having returned, are not at all inclined to recognize the correctness of their elders. From now on, their return marks the beginning of a new plot, which promises not feasts and joy at all, but outright fear of the future.
The installation in the White Hall of the General Staff building begins with sound. The swirling rumble, interrupted by the distant echo of explosions, birdsong and the Russian Horn Orchestra (composer Andrey Sigle), cancels out the sense of reality. Entering the hall, the viewer finds himself in a concentrated nowhere, in the very depths of the black king’s sleep, where there is no time, only meanings remain. The first meeting is the eyes from the “Portrait of an Elderly Woman” (Rembrandt, 1655) and the sculptural figure of the son – the same bald-headed guy who kneels before his father in Rembrandt’s version.
Sokurov’s son is far from repentance. Loneliness, rage and readiness to fight – this is what a young modern demobilization looks like. The woman behind him looks bitterly, sometimes closing her eyes. This mother is no longer waiting for the children to return. But the son still comes back. The sculptural group of father and son reproduces Rembrandt’s mise-en-scène, on which the homage to the artist ends. The next sculpture depicts a father and son in a completely different state – this is a frenzied fight between two already almost animals. Humility is forgotten, only rage and hatred remain. From this fight, the father comes out alone. The rejected son remains on the screen, where the scene of the burning of two soldiers is projected (a real episode of the war in Syria, when ISIS fighters burned two Turkish soldiers alive).
The image on the second screen refers to the “Tower of Babel” by Pieter Brueghel – but what happened to her! These are flaming ruins, in the broken rooms of which the last survivors shoot back, a blood-fiery river flows, and a boy forgotten by all greedily eats stew from a bowl. Everything ends with a reminder of where it all began – a sketch for the painting “The Return of the Prodigal Son” (author Alexey Perepelkin). But this is only a sketch – the artist’s dream, which can change at any moment under the destructive influence of reality.
And reality really dictates other rules to the old plot. The very fall through which a young and stupid boy from a good family is doomed to go through is far from always associated with the image of the beautiful Saskia on her knees these days. Now everything is much scarier. Young people do not go to merry taverns. They are waiting for the horrors of war, murder and destruction. Yes, this is a school for young people, but what do they learn in it? “The returner is dangerous, we don’t know what to expect from him,” Sokurov repeats, commenting on his creation.
It seems to be true. Evangelical humility was replaced not by universal love, to which the evangelists called, but by old testamentary hatred and the revival of the pagan instinct – to survive at any cost. Love has turned into fear, contemplation into fury, forgiveness and reconciliation into a total war of everyone against everyone. Whether our children, who have gone through hell, will be able to believe in the possibilities of goodness and creativity again is a big question. And here Sokurov is not deceiving anyone – everything is just beginning, he says, the answer simply does not exist.
When in 2015 the Vatican gave rise to an extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, Pope Francis declared Rembrandt’s The Return of the Prodigal Son to be its symbol, a fragment of which was embossed on the reverse of the year’s commemorative medal. So the pontiff hinted to the city and the world about the Christian version of the outcome of “interesting times.” But the world seems to think otherwise. Now the happy ending of the journey to freedom seems more and more doubtful. This is especially true of the Russian world, which became not just a witness, but also a participant in the geopolitical version of the gospel story about the prodigal son.
The Soviet Union, which suddenly parted with most of its children, became that very lonely Sokurov father, watching with horror the fall of his sons. And happiness will be if this disturbing observation does not turn into a fight. If the children nevertheless decide to return, which is quite likely in the case of Belarus and even Ukraine, what will this return be like? What will the sons who have taken a sip of dubious and often destructive freedom bring to their home? And will they return? Or will we, as in the Hermitage installation, see the scene of the slow incineration of two helpless youthful figures on the screen of the era?
In this case, Russia, like that old woman of Rembrandt, is better off just closing her eyes.