为什么俄罗斯生产了如此多的激进艺术?
为什么俄罗斯生产了如此多的激进艺术?
Artists have always held a special place in Russian society. My father, the playwright Alexander Guelman, was well known in the 1970s and was once lauded by Mikhail Gorbachev as the father of perestroika , the movement for reform within the Communist Party. At that time, theater was changing the perceptions of an entire generation.
艺术家在俄罗斯社会中一直占有特殊的地位。我的父亲是剧作家亚历山大·格尔曼，他在上世纪70年代很有名，曾被米哈伊尔·戈尔巴乔夫(Mikhail Gorbachev)誉为“改革之父”，即共产党内部的改革运动。当时，戏剧正在改变整整一代人的观念。
During the period of glasnost ("openness") in the mid-1980s, restrictions on forbidden books were relaxed . This newly available literature allowed people to evaluate society in ways that had previously been suppressed by communist propaganda.
在20世纪80年代中期的开放时期，对禁书的限制有所放松。这种新出版的文学作品使人们能够用以前被共产主义宣传会所压制的方式来评价社会。
Now, social debate in Russia has been catalyzed by contemporary art, and provocative performances have proven the most effective medium for influencing public opinion. Artists have their fingers firmly on the pulse of the rapid changes taking place in Russian society.
如今，俄罗斯的社会辩论已被当代艺术所催化，而挑衅性表演已被证明是影响公众舆论最有效的媒介。艺术家们紧紧抓住俄罗斯社会迅速变化的脉搏。
A new subversion
一个新的颠覆
Until 2012, many of us assumed that, after communism, Russia would develop as a democracy. The authorities paid lip service to European values, but after Putin's reelection in 2012, Russia's work-in-progress democracy transformed into a stereotypical autocracy.
直到2012年，我们许多人都认为，在共产主义之后，俄罗斯将发展成为一个民主国家。当局嘴上说的是欧洲价值观，但在2012年普京连任之后，俄罗斯正在进行的民主变成了一种典型的独裁政体。
The Russian government dropped any pretense of appearing Western; officials stopped trying to hide the wealth they had accumulated through corruption ; and the media was increasingly regarded as a tool of state propaganda. Courts became punitive rather than judicial bodies, with political disagreements treated as criminal conduct .
俄罗斯政府不再假装自己是西方人;官员们不再试图隐藏他们通过腐败积累的财富;媒体也越来越被视为国家宣传的工具。法院变得更具惩罚性，而不是司法机构，政治分歧被视为犯罪行为。
In these circumstances, even the most politically engaged segment of Russian society became despondent and apathetic. After all, as one often hears uttered in Russia, "There's nothing we can do."
在这种情况下，即使是俄罗斯社会中最热衷政治的部分也变得沮丧和冷漠。毕竟，正如人们在俄罗斯经常听到的那样，“我们无能为力。”
Artistic awakening
艺术的觉醒
Russia's descent into authoritarianism has led to a crackdown on everything from supporting homosexuality and offending Orthodox Christians to criticizing authorities.
俄罗斯陷入威权主义导致了对一切的镇压，从支持同性恋、冒犯东正教徒到批评当局。
In 2013, when I was director of the Perm Museum of Contemporary Art, we hosted Siberian artist Vasily Slonov's "Welcome! Sochi 2014," an exhibition that mocked the 2014 Winter Olympics. The exhibition was shut down the authorities, and I was dismissed from the museum.
2013年，当我担任彼尔姆当代艺术博物馆馆长时，我们举办了西伯利亚艺术家瓦西里·斯洛诺夫的《欢迎!2014索契冬奥会》，一个嘲弄2014年冬季奥运会的展览。展览被当局关闭了，我也被逐出了博物馆。
But resisting such restrictions has offered another important artistic strategy. Siberian artist Damir Muratov does so by tackling the centralization of power through the language of art. He has created a separatist Siberian state from his own home (which he calls Bednotown, or "poor city"), which has many of the hallmarks of a real country: a coat of arms, a flag, a postal stamp and a currency. I once saw images of Muratov's works when I was being interrogated at a police station, but he has managed to avoid arrest and imprisonment so far -- likely because his separatist sentiments are confined to art.
但抵制这些限制提供了另一种重要的艺术策略。西伯利亚艺术家穆拉托夫通过艺术语言来解决集权问题。他从自己的家乡(他称之为“贫穷的城市”)创建了一个分裂的西伯利亚国家，这个国家拥有一个真正国家的许多特征:一件军大衣、一面国旗、一张邮票和一种货币。我曾在警察局接受审讯时看到过穆拉托夫的作品，但到目前为止，他成功地避免了被捕和监禁——可能是因为他的分裂主义情绪仅限于艺术。
Just as the Bolsheviks did 100 years ago, following the October Revolution, today's Russian government is trying to make art serve the state and further the government's ideology. However, only the most incompetent artists willingly serve this cause.
正如100年前布尔什维克在十月革命后所做的那样，今天的俄罗斯政府正试图让艺术为国家服务，并进一步推动政府的意识形态。然而，只有最无能的艺术家才愿意为这一事业服务。
The artistic community at large rarely sees eye to eye with the state. This conflict may not always boil over, but it exists because of a fundamental truth: Artists will always seek to be open to the world, looking to the future and seeing their place in it.
总的来说，艺术界很少与政府意见一致。这种冲突可能不会一直持续下去，但它之所以存在，是因为一个基本的事实:艺术家总是寻求向世界开放，展望未来，看到自己在其中的位置。
