"Friends, don’t ever give up!"
Kirill Serebrennikov is a Russian stage and film director, and theatre designer. Since 2012, he has been the artistic director of the Gogol Center in Moscow. He is the author of numerous productions at the Moscow Arts Theatre, and has staged operas at the Saint-Petersburg Mariinski theatre, Bolshoi theatre in Moscow, Helikon-Opera in Moscow, Berlin Komische Oper, Stuttgart Opera, Zurich Opera House, among others. He has also staged ballets at the Bolshoi theatre in Moscow, and has vast experience with film and television. In 2011, he founded the experimental project “Platforma,” which he directed until 2014.
In August 2017, the leading Russian director was accused of conspiring to embezzle state funds allocated for Platforma. After spending almost 20 months under house arrest in his apartment, he had to go through an excruciating Kafkaesque trial, facing up to 6 years in prison. On June 26, Kiril received a three-year suspended sentence and a heavy fine. He also has to reimburse the state for most of the costs for Platforma over the 4 years of its existence. His management team was sentenced to fines and employment bans.
Kiril’s video contribution to Voices (towards other institutions) was recorded prior to the Court’s ruling. Below you can find some extracts from the video. To watch the full contribution, visit pavilionrus.com
“At the very beginning I made a motivational video with isolation guidelines. I had lots of experience because of the house arrest. There were several points and now I have to admit it was more of a way to cheer people up. What I wanted to say was: Friends, don’t ever give up!”
“Actually, nature hasn’t stopped: trees are still growing, rain’s falling, weather changes, first the sun, then the clouds, birds’re singing. It’s still the same, maybe even better, as they say nature is healed. If nature hasn’t stopped, then what has? Our hustling, trying to conquer nature, our rapacious ways caused by the bloated ego of humanity. We think we can conquer the world.”
“But we artists belong to the chaos, we must fill the uncertainty with music, perceive it, and eventually embrace the pause…learn to love it in ourselves, find an accurate expression or a feeling in our own nature, in music, or in other art forms, which are all music after all. Our challenges are different. We must feel, listen, understand. And fall silent, after all. It’s time to be quiet, stop hustling around.”
“We should stop hustling, listen to the pause, blend with it, so that less muck, noise and scum gets beyond our wonderful lockdown.”
