towards a finale

So, all that is left to do is to decide on the final 'tenth' for the 10-of-the-best series. The minor problem is that these have got a bit out of order on this blog; the bigger problem that I cannot decide between many different places that have not yet made it to the list. There is VdnKH, the All Russian Exhibition Centre, with its massive Soviet-style park of elegant regional pavilions, and their peculiarly Russian transformation into masses of tiny stalls. (All with the added benefit of being in close proximity to the Space Museum, the outrageously dated Hotel Cosmos, and the glories of ice sculptures in the winter.)

Or the fabulous new interior of the Stanislavsky Theatre (shown here, part of a stylish refurbishment of the whole factory). Or any of the new and developing contemporary art centres, also in renovated factories - Winzavod, ArtPlay, Flacon or Fabrika. Or - of course - all the many fab places, especially nightclubs, that I never frequented during my extended stay in Moscow.

At this very last moment, then, all suggestions welcome for 'number 10'.  

.....ways I will never be Russian

1. Bundling up before going out - whilst still inside -  in the whole kit, boots, coat, scarf, gloves, hat, even just to go outside for two minutes. Not stripping off any of these layers, even on the metro which is like an oven, in order to keep as much of your own body heat in as possible.

2. Remembering to take off one's shoes when visiting someone's flat, and working out when to wear slippers or not.

3. Having a fatalistic response to even the most outrageous behaviour (whether everyday or political) 

4. Having the most amazing sense of humour based on a mixture of self-deprecation, poetry, anarchy and - sometimes - just outright weirdness

5. Being able to live somewhere where there is not even the slightest idea of the importance of health and safety (or sustainability or any of those other generally shared public values )

6. Understanding that the role of the state is not to be there to make people's lives better, but to  defend the security of the state, by whatever means. 

.....ways I have become a little more Russian

1. I am (a little) more direct in my speech, and much more aware of how confusingly vague English people are in their talk

2. I have an increased preference for silence over swarmy and mainly meaningless conversation-filling chatter

3. I say Oy when I bump myself, and cannot remember what noise English people use.

4. I walk more like a Russian in the winter, that is to say, incredibly fast, although I cannot yet manage that stiff legged, no knee bending gait. (I am also a bit confused that Muscovites seem to have a much slower summer strolling speed, would like clarification on this).

5. I have become addicted to compote making, brewing up my own tepid berry juice rather than buying it from the shop in a box.  

6. I like the cold. Especially crisp snow and brilliant blue skies. (Actually this is probably quite un-Russian as all the Muscovites I know complain bitterly about the winter).

7. I want a (old fashioned) dacha, which is truly a proper way to live, especially when you spend the week in a city which is endlessly difficult.
8. I am fed up by how much English people fail to realise just how privileged we are to live under the rule of law, and instead complain endlessly about being hard done by.
9. I have always like vodka, but now I like it a lot.
10. I don't trust the banks anymore.

sunday walking

Finally did the walk along the Moskva River embankment, something I have wanted to do all my time in Moscow. Started from the Kotelnicheska Embankment building - one of Stalins 'seven sisters' skyscraper buildings (thanks to staying there with the endlessly generous N + I) - on a lovely sunny Sunday afternoon. Then strolled past the Kremlin to Ostozhenka ( a district nicknamed the Golden Mile and home to both wealthy mansions and some good contemporary architecture).

The only problem, besides the incessant drone of traffic, is actually finding a way to get onto the riverside path itself. There seems to be only one underpass on the whole stretch. And the only alternative is a weird zebra crossing arrangement where you go half-way across one crossing, and then have to wait in the middle, in order to go via another crossing set at right angles to this one, whilst the cars zoom past curving either to your left or your right. Me and a young Russian guy both hovered at this mid-way point, unsure whether we wanted to risk our lives. And - as at other times when I have tried to cross a Moscow road - he followed the safety-in-numbers attitude, by grabbing my arm and hauling me out into the traffic...before the lights had changed. I tried to hang back, gesticulating wildly at the lights, but he took an even firmer grip, yelling 'Together, or I will die', and across we went with cars careering around us and hooting madly. 

And then, when we got to the river itself, he wanted, of course, to walk with me and practice his english.

new garage

As also mentioned before, one of the reasons for the Gorky Park make-over is investment by Roman Abramovich. This includes a planned conversion of a derelict 1960s modernist restaurant (for his partner Dasha Zhukova) into a new Garage Centre for Contemporary Culture, now that the old one that she created has been closed down. Architects Rem Koolhaas  and local firm Form Bureau have been given the job - with Koolhaas saying at the press conference, “Neglect is quite picturesque and offers insights into the beauty of decay,” pointing out that he planned to keep the original tiles, decoration and other “traces of Russia's recent history.” Amazingly we got to look around the building site, I think just because the security guard was bored. The basic two storey concrete shell and main staircases are tatty but still intact, and it already feels like a perfect art gallery. 


To see the Koolhaas/OMA proposals, click here.
To see the planned temporary pavilion by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, click here. 

mafia picnic

Not only did we have a marvellous picnic, but I finally learnt how to play mafia games. In it, people in the group are either ordinary citizens or mafia (red or black cards) and then there are other roles to complicate things. The final aim is that either all the good citizens die, or that they manage to kill the mafia (although the game is inherently loaded against this outcome). So you play out a series of days and nights (during which citizens have eyes shut, mafia can see and choose who to murder.) During each 'day' everyone discusses who is the mafia, and makes accusations.

Of course this circles the difficulties at the centre of a corrupt society; if someone talks to much, that can make them seem likely to be mafia, as they are trying to point the blame elsewhere - but of course if you say nothing then you are also likely to be mafia, because you are trying to stay invisible. So the game is actually about hilarious, philosophical, joyfully argumentative talking.

Just a reminder (from my previous post on this subject) that you can read the original Mafia Games rules here and a more detailed explanation and brief history on Wikipedia.

gorky again

I have extolled the virtues of Gorky Park before, but I have to mention how good it has become in the summer. A short(ish) walk from Strelka/Red October, the park has also become a 'to be seen' place. So much going on now, besides ice cream and drinks stalls, cafes and restaurants. There were always two ponds and a fountain, but now the fountain performs to music and the lake is full of pedalos - just as the paths are full of bicycles, skaters, dancers, wheelie cars, table tennis tables, and the green bits are loaded with chairs and platforms and pavilions. 

10-of-the-best 5: Bar Strelka

Even in the brief time I have been away, the Moscow art and design scene seems to have blossomed (it being the summer obviously helps). Finally made it to Bar Strelka, for an evening drink on the high-level outside terrace overlooking the river; definitely one of the coolest places to be right now. In fact the whole Red October factory island is buzzing. Read a brilliant piece by the author Gary Shteyngart ("Born in Leningrad, U.S.S.R., in 1972, I have been coming back almost every year since my late twenties to poke fun at my birthplace"). He calls Strelka the centre of 'the Snob universe', Russia's very own glossy for the cultural elite; but also hopes (hopelessly) that places like this can be part of making the country more 'normal' - for "If Russia can become a normal country, then maybe my past can be normalized, too" .




For more cool spots outdoor eating and drink spots, read this from moscow-in-your-pocket.
For more about Bar Strelka, and the Strelka Insitute, see this video.  

ballet again

Y very sweetly took me to the ballet the night before last. Swan Lake at the Stanislavsky theatre. Fab - pretty camp, with glorious over-blown sets and some real pantomime moments (especially, as it should be, the evil sorcerer).  

the summing up begins

Of course the trouble with leaving anywhere is the urgent need to sum up experiences, to finish all things still undone, and to run around attempting to see many places as yet unvisited. This is going to have (a not necessarily wonderful) impact on the remaining pages of this blog.*

Throughout my stay, I have been refusing the lazy stereotypes of Russians in general and Muscovites in particular - that is, that they are gloomy, beaten down by a history of Suffering and yet also an Enigma ('a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside a ... etc., etc'): and that, given time, underneath they are completely wonderful ('when you get to know them'). Russians themselves, of course, also partake in these bland definitions of national identity, both seriously and with a considerable amount of rich, melancholic humour: just as the English resort to images of polite eccentricity, and the French to superiority and chicness.

But, because of recent history, people from outside this country seem to persist in caricaturing Russians, blurring the normal diversity of most ordinary people with either their government or with only tiny sub-cultures - the oligarchs, siloviki ('heavies') and mafia. Meanwhile, plenty of other sub-cultures, like the hipsters or gopniki, don't even get noticed elsewhere.

That doesn't mean there aren't real differences, but these, to me, are most interesting in how they play out in the everyday - in our various body languages and habits, and in attitudes and assumptions about how to survive and make sense of the world(s) we live in. That is what I have been trying - and failing - to unravel.

 But if I had to make one lazy stereotype about Russians, it would not be about glumness or stoicness, but rather what I can only call a kind of unconstrained mischievousness... encompassing melodramatic yet self-deprecating humour,  story-telling, unselfconscious silliness and  a certain contrariousness.** Unlike the rest of western Europe and America, though, which does not differentiate between public and private identities, this is mainly kept for family and friends (except perhaps by contemporary artists). Think Norwegian or Icelander, mixed with some Irish. Or am I talking nonsense?***


* I am also aiming to add more to as many of my 'mini-series' as possible, including 10-of-the-best, the art of parking and city bingo.  So, busy busy busy....
** There is also something mischievous embedded deep into politics, which there becomes both surreal and manipulative. See 'Putin Pranking himself'
*** Although the blog Mission to Moscow no longer functions, atethepaint's 50 facts about Russians is still there (as are the many comments). One 'fact' is about the Russian proverb Наглость - второе счастье; one translation is 'impudence - the second happiness' - which is something like what I am suggesting.  There is also a fab YouTube video from the We love Russia series, - you can see the complete set here  - for  some great brilliant, hilarious examples of exactly this crazy mischievousness. 

city bingo 6: adverts for kredit

These are also ubiquitous - stickers on fences, on aforesaid posters, on metro carriage windows; offering credit, repairs and various necessary certificates. 

finally.....

Finally got to the State Tretyakov Gallery - again courtesy of V - and can't believe it's taken so long to get around to it. Unlike its partner building on Krymsky Val, which involves transversing acres of the smiling peasants and heroic workers of socialist realist painting, the other older Tretyakov is a perfect size.  There is a small collection of gorgeously and unexpectedly realistic icons, but the central interest of Pavel Tretyakov (as a collector around the 1850s) was Russian realism: the catalogue quotes him as writing "... just give me a murky puddle, but let there be truth in it, and poetry."

And there are plenty of poetic 'murky puddles' here including portraits of suffering serfs and their everyday lives amid the glories and difficulties of the russian landscape. There are also artistic journeys both in unison with the rest of Europe (18th century portraiture and some late 19th century impressionism) and away from it (a 19th century politically critical realism which has some very theatrical moments, and a version of Art Nouveau which is completely absorbed by the dramas of fairytale). A great afternoon out on yet another wet and sleety day.

The painting shown is called Silence, by Mikhail Vasilyevich Nesterov (1903), which I photographed mainly because it eeriely reminded me of Peter Doig.

fish-n-chips (almost)

What is it about living abroad that makes me culturally regress around my eating habits? I often crave fish and chips here (not a dish I eat that often in London - although there is a terrific one near where I live). So got very excited when I found a Nordsee on Pokrovka on my lunchtime walk today, one of an international german-originated chain which "ist die größte europäische auf Fisch und Meeresfrüchte spezialisierte Restaurantkette („Quick Service“ und „Casual Dining“) mit eigenen Restaurants" according to their website.


More like IKEA than an english fish-n-chips shop but still who cares? Fish! And Chips!

back to Moscow...

Who can choose?

back to London...

protesting (1)

Got momentarily excited by this poster, suggesting that some political protest was at last happening in Moscow, until I realised that it was just a design student project. In fact, some of the liveliest campaigning groups in Moscow seem to be around architectural heritage and its destruction (no Occupy movement here yet).

The group Archnadzor  has brought together some of the different preservationist groups and do a lot of campaigning including some direct action - still a risky business in Russia. You can see some old photos at Moskva Koterey Net (The Moscow that is No More) of what has already been demolished to make way for the post-Soviet/Capitalist Realist boom; and read more at MAPS (MoscowArchitectural Preservation Society) - the only site with an English language version.

watching Down Terrace

Went To Ben Wheatley's film Down Terrace last night, which is being show as part of the New British Films Festival here. Offered as a crime thriller, it is actually very very funny, with the action mainly set in claustrophobic close-up in a Brighton crime family's seedy terraced house. Besides some odd questions - (Why have you filmed in such a shabby house? Why are no policemen shown? Why doesn't the plot make sense? Are all British families like this?) which Wheatley answered with droll good humour - the film's disfunctional characters, chaotic family relationships and miscellaneous murders seemed to resonate just as happily with a Russian audience as they did with me. 

my all time hero

In my continuing saga of missing fantastic artists who are visiting Moscow, I failed to notice that William Kentridge was giving a performance at Garage yesterday. But never mind, because the exhibition - Five Themes - which is a traveling show from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art*, presents a truly breath-taking and brilliant selection of his work to date; covering sketches, animations, made objects, films, 3D projections and multi-screen installations, all showing his obsessive versatility, fantastical imagination and - often clownish - humour.  He should be as famous as, I don't know, artists like Gerhard Richter and Jake/Dinos Chapman  (or maybe he is and I was just foolish to only discover him accidentally a few years ago).

And somehow his work seems particularly relevant right here, right now. Both because it sits outside much western contemporary art, being not conceptual, intellectual and self-referential but graphic, metaphorical and narrative-based (that is, much more like contemporary Russian art) and because it has a way of incorporating politics that is very engaged and explicit without being didactic - something other (rather more inward and personal) artists here could learn from.

So - a must see if you happen to be in Moscow before 4th December 2011.

* To be properly accurate, from the San Francisco Museum, together with the Norton Museum of Art.  Show curated by Mark Rosenthal.

not mentioning the election

Whilst the Putin/Mededev roadshow wends its merry - and predictable - way, I have been thinking some more about how powerful the idea of escape is here; not just escape away (abroad, or into wealth) but also inward, away from the 'centre', away from rules and regulations; and away from (controlled and controlling) public/politcal debate. In continuity with the old Soviet tradition of kitchen talks, of politics discussed around household tables - and of samizdat of course -  some of the creative people I have talked to here seem to find the greatest freedom in private actions. I  met an architect who runs a radical studio (at least I think that is what he does). He laughed at me when I asked if I could see his group's work on the web - we prefer to keep things underground, he said.

Had to resist stealing this RT YouTube clip of Putin singing from my friend Miriam's blog, so will just give the link to her post instead. And to get some of the - slightly weird - resonance with the Cameron/Clegg duo in the UK, also see this clip of Mededev dancing. Easy to see which one is Clegg.

border guards day

So, each sector of the army has its own celebratory day every year - well the Day of the Border Guards was this week (starting quite politely in this photo) but has extended over the weekend into a city full of young men in states of considerable drunkenness, offering many types of manly displays, excessive humour, more drinking and lots of laying about in a stupor.  If you want to see how things go, check out these photos.

And I don't know why it reminded me, but the Aeroexpress train has been running a brilliant ad recently, from a website called - subtly - get-hard.ru.