The contemporary art of Pyotr Bezrukov is paired with a French song by Julien Clerc, Ce N’Est Rien (It is nothing). Some of the paintings are of Paris, so, the use of a French song naturally came to mind.
Tuesday, 4 December 2007
Quand Je T’aime (When I Love You). Demis Roussos
The title of the song seems to fit the mood of the paintings, so I retained it as the title of the video. A French song by Demis Roussos is matched with the art of the Tartar neo-Impressionist painter Nurkhatim Bikulov. Mr Bikulov has been active for over forty years as an artist, and these paintings span the entire period. The first painting dates from 1973, and the last from 2002, and they document the lasting love of Mr Bikulov for his wife (and it shows their love for their grandchildren in the last image).
The Tartar people have been part of Russia since the sixteenth century. They are brave and courageous, and their men are famed for their toughness and determination. Tartars have always fought well for Russia (a Tartar general is the head of the MVD), and their contribution to Greater Russia cannot be denied. They are a integral and necessary part of our Russian heritage. The Tartars are both Muslims and loyal Russian citizens (only a few unrepresentative Muslims are Islamocist bandits!). All glory to our Tartar compatriots!
Blagoslovi Dushe Moya Gospoda (Vespers). Rakhmaninov
This is from the classic opus 37 setting of the Vsenoshnoye Vedeniye (All-night Vigil) by Sergei Rakhmaninov. The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir sings it under the direction of Paul Hillier, and the soloist is Iris Oja. It is accompanied by contemporary Russian religious art. This setting is one of my particular favourites, and can move me to tears by its beauty.
Untitled work by Leonid Baranov (2)
A jolly little picture full of naive charm and energy, I would say. Life does go on, even under the hardest circumstances, and people still laugh and sing. In its way, this is a metaphor for the rebirth of the Russian people and state over the last seven years. THIS is the real Russia, not the suspect reports you hear in the Western media. Smile… it won’t hurt you!
Vasili Nesterenko. A Portrait of Aleksei, Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia
A Portrait of Aleksei, Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia (Vasili Nesterenko, 2000)
Vasili Nesterenko was one of the artists who worked on the reconstruction of the Khram Spasitelya (Cathedral of Christ the Saviour) in Moscow. The church was rebuilt on the exact spot where it existed before the Reds dynamited it in 1934. The rebuilding of this grand temple is a metaphor for the resurrection of Russia. Although the healing is not yet complete, it is well under way, and one of the signs of it was the fact that President Putin gave his personal aeroplane for the transportation of the Reigning Icon of the Mother of God on a world tour to celebrate the recent reconciliation between the branches of the Russian Orthodox community. He said that although he rules Russia, the Mother of God reigns over the homeland. Who can disagree with such simply-stated truth?
The current primate of the Patriarchate of Moscow and all Russia is His Holiness Aleksei Rediger. He is not a “pope” in the Western sense, he is the sign of the unity of the Holy Synod, the bishops, clergy, and laity. We do not consider him infallible. He can do nothing without the approval of the Synod, and all of the bishops (even of the smallest dioceses) are his equal in authority, although not in honour (unlike some diaspora hierarchs I could name, but shall not).
Vladyki Aleksei was born in Estonia in 1929 in a very religious family (his father became a priest later in life). Although his last name is German (not uncommon in Russia, by the way!), he only learned German in adulthood. Go figure! Ordained a priest in 1950, he served parishes in Estonia (then part of the USSR). Vladyki Aleksei was consecrated a bishop in 1961, serving in both Tallinn and Leningrad, eventually reaching the rank of Metropolitan. In 1990, Vladyki Aleksei was elected Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia by the Holy Synod.
His tenure has been marked by the painful period following the collapse of the USSR (truly, a second smuta!) and the renaissance of Russia under President Putin. Vladyki is a forward-looking hierarch who keeps himself free of excessive government entanglement and he encourages all the pastors of the church to use modern means to reach the Russian people. Mind you, this does not mean that he has attacked the traditional worship or theology of the church (as, sadly, some in the diaspora have done), it means that he advocates that the church realise that it lives in the 21st century, and it should act accordingly. For example, there are priests in the Urals who have set up a rock band with the blessing of the church. Need I mention the fruitful collaboration of Hieromonk Roman and the popular singer Zhanna Bichevskaya? The church in Russia is facing our contemporary age and its problems with the traditional faith undivided, yet it uses the latest methods to spread this message. We should do likewise, and end all experimentation with the liturgy and end all theological dabbling with heterodox currents (as some in a certain seminary are doing).
Vladyki Aleksei is particularly close to one of greatest living elders in Orthodoxy, Mother Varvara of Pyukhtitsa. He insisted that she become an abbess, and laid the panagia around her neck and placed the staff in her hand. She is a great influence on Vladyki, and is living proof that Orthodoxy does not discriminate against women in any way. Mother Varvara and Vladyki Aleksei also have a deep human friendship besides their spiritual relationship. Our hierarchs are not cardboard cut-outs, they are human beings with the same joys and sorrows as we have. We are not Romans with a deified pope.
May God bless Vladyki Aleksei and grant him many years! May his vision of church unity come to be, and may God confound those fighting against it.
