RussianMind #12 21 - 4 November

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Cover Photography: Kirill Lagutko

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Editor's Letter

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hilst working on Russian Mind #12, we wanted to experiment and totally skip for once the political, economic and business matters. In this issue there is none of the everlasting discussions such as “Is Russia becoming a member of the WTO?� or “Who is going to win the Presidential elections in 2012 - Putin Vladimir or Vladimir Putin?!�

IRussian nstead we focus on modern art, cinematography

and fashion. Luckily, this autumn is full of cultural events, both in Russian and the UK.

O

IEndn November, London’s West will host the Russian

(p a g e s 2 4 - 2 5 ). In Moscow, there is not only GUM and Film Festival. This year it TSUM. gathers not only the best of nd of course you will be very best! The 5th anniversary in the hot seat with our RM is no joke! Before this event Guide ( p a g e s 2 6 - 2 7 ) . takes place, we have had a f you ask me, why we have conversation with the guru of concentrated this variety of Vitaly Mansky, who presents cultural themes all together, I would say from deep in my “Patria o Muerte� (pages 12- heart: “Art and culture are 15). You won’t believe what a the only rays of light in our thrilling world exists on the day to day routine. It was, it is and will always be the most other side of the camera. qualitative mental pabulum�. rom bad to worse: in Russia there is a radical group called “War�, they express themselves through the non-traditional, to make a point with weird forms of art. On page 22, you can

explain without words, who these guys are. Warning, no children under 12!

A I

F

ctober has brightened Moscow’s city life with the 4th Biennale of Contemporary Art. Titled “Rewriting Worlds�, it features 64 artists and 14 groups of artists from more than 30 countries. The event’s special guest is Semyon Faibisovich, who has after a 12 year break and has or shopping lovers we shared with us his vision of examine a stylish Moscow modern art (pages 20-21). store “Nothing of the Kind�

F

Best Olga Kudriavtseva 5 - Issue 12

by Mark Hollingsworth

Later this month a special

tribunal will hear an appeal in secret for a 26-year-old Russian woman, Ekaterina Zatuliveter, against her deportation. It is an extraordinary case: she has been accused by MI5 of being

while working as a researcher for the prominent Liberal Democrat MP Mike Hancock at the House of Commons. But the evidence against her is virtually non-existent and one member of the tribuinal is himself, a former head of MI5. Is this a case of anti-Russian bias by the Security Service or paranoia, or is she really a spy?

For an alleged secret agent Ekaterina Zatuliveter, known as Katia, does not come from any of the Russian political elites. She was born and raised in Dagestan. Her family " Chechnya. It was a traumatic experience and upbringing. Katia's life was transformed from a comfortable and successful family life to near poverty. But her father, Andrei Zatuliveter, recovered and ran several successful enterprises, company, in the tinderbox Caucasus region of southern Russia.

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In 2005 Katia secured a degree in International Relations at St Petersburg State University and the following year moved to the UK and enrolled at Bradford University to study for a Masters # $ While still a student, she was commissioned by Mike Hancock, the Liberal Democrat MP who has a special interest in Russia, as a ‘foreign intern’ and he paid her ÂŁ2,500 to cover travel and food costs. It is unclear

$ %& contacted me when she was * % +/$ %8

9 ; < internship, so I said when I get a space I'll let you know. She then did a day a week for me, travelling down from Bradford. The money detailed in my expenses was not pocket money, it was to cover the costs of travel and food when she came down to London. She'd often take work away * %$ But Hancock later said that he

= < in 2006 during a conference of the European Security and Defence Assembly, while she was still a student. “She had been earmarked to look after one group of French MPs and all of a sudden she was switched to the Brits�, said Hancock “I thought she was very pleasant and she spoke good English, but as far as I

was concerned that was the end of it. I was surprised when she approached me later. Katia came with references and was the best person for the job�.

H ancock, a member of the Commons Defence Select

C ommittee, appointed

Zatuliveter as his parliamentary researcher in July 2008. She had access to his private emails and helped to run the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Russia at the House of Commons which was chaired by Hancock until mid-2010.

She also worked as a research associate at the military thinktank, the UK Defence Forum and wrote an article for the think-tank’s publication ‘Defence Viewpoints’ entitled, ‘Misguided US role in the @ South Ossetia’. It attracted media comment because it criticised the US.

Zatuliveter also worked as a researcher for a British production team producing a BBC TV series on Russia’s relationship with the West in April 2010. The Sunday Times Moscow correspondent, Mark Franchetti, recalls having dinner with her in Moscow: "She failed to make much of an impression. Far from appearing provocative, she seemed ordinary and bland - resembling more a nerdy academic than a sultry KGB honey trap. When I spoke to her in Russian, she insisted on answering in English. She told me she liked living in Britain. She did not take part in the conversation and appeared to be more

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met the individual on the Tube after attending the same event and later cancelled a meeting they arranged via email. But what has not been published is that she reported this approach to the UK authorities and never had the meeting with the alleged SVR agent.

Zatuliveter was detained at

Yarl's Wood detention centre. In an email to BBC Russia, she said: “I was arrested on Thursday at 7am and was told I would be deported. Nobody explained to me why and this is my main concern. I was not told about the arrangement of $ 9 of appealing against the deportation and absolutely sure I will win it (if there is justice)". Her father said: “Katia called me to say that she is appealing against the deportation order. She is in a state of shock as she has no idea why all this is happening to her. She has been working in Britain - not spying. This is all I can say�.

On 13 December 2010, Zatuliveter appeared before the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) and was released on condition that she would stay at her home address and would notify the Home Secretary if she met anyone other than her family and legal team. Some of her bail restrictions on her movements were later lifted so that she could seek employment with Russia’s English language RT news appearance on the channel in

+ $ 9 Russia Today, Ms Zatuliveter complained that Western governments are quick to support the demands of protesters in other countries, but ignore similar demands at home.

Her fate will be decided by

the SIAC appeal hearing which starts on 18 October. Meanwhile, her lawyers have objected to the presence of Sir Stephen Lander, the former director-general of MI5, who will to sit on a panel of judges and rule on whether she should be deported. They argued that Lander faces a the prosecutor in the case is, in effect, MI5 and he knows personally one of the MI5 evidence. But this was rejected and Lander remains a member of the panel.

My investigations reveal that MI5's case against Zatuliveter is extremely weak. There is no doubt that she had an extremely close personal relationship with from the Russian Embassy in London, one of whom was

and she had a brief affair with " not prove that she is a Russian spy. If this is the dubious criteria

# then a lot of Russian women living in London will have to be arrested and deported.

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Person

It is important to work on preserving your national cultural traditions. I’ve often been tempted to borrow motifs from other schools, but I realized that being loyal to one musical tradition results in a much more powerful artistic expression.

Alexander Raskatov

Bells, Dogs, Hearts! by Daria Alyukova

Alexander Raskatov,

the son of a leading journalist, studied composition under Albert Leman at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1990 he was the composer in residence at Stetson University and in 1998 at Lockenhaus. Raskatov was a member of the Union of Soviet Composers; after the collapse of the Soviet Union, he became a member of the Composers' Union of Russia. In the early nineties he moved to Germany, then to France in 2004.

Raskatov’s music, especially his sound development, + Mussorgski and Anton Webern. His vocal works are often based on the texts of Russian poets like Alexander Blok or Joseph Brodsky. His viola concerto 'Path-Put-Chemin-Weg' was commissioned for the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of Yuri Bashmet and Valeri Gergiev and premiered in Le Chatelet in January 2003. Irina Schnittke, Alfred Schnittke’s widow, entrusted him with the reconstruction of Schnittke’s Ninth Symphony

As a student of the Moscow Conservatory, I once had to complete a challenging task that turned out to be a lifechanging experience. I went to a small Russian village, located in the middle of nowhere, to record genuine folk songs for my research. It was an absurd situation, a very unusual experience for a city dweller – in fact, I was

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\ 2007. 9 ] ^" " A Dog's Heart - received its world premiere at the Dutch National Opera (Amsterdam). It rapidly gained international acclaim and was premiered with huge success in the UK in November 2010 (ENO, London); it is scheduled to have its La Scala and Met premieres in 2013. His most recent musical piece entitled 'A White Nights Dream' was premiered at the Royal Festival Hall (London, UK; cond. Vladimir Jurowski) in September 2011.

in isolation for 2-3 weeks, and my everyday routine was very different from what I was used to – obviously, there’re no supermarkets in Steppe! Going there was an obligation, but now I remember those days as one of the most inspiring musical experiences of my entire life.

Person

Russian music is traditionally vocal – a capella. Musical instruments were forbidden in orthodox churches, with the exception of bells. Listening to Russian opera, you can notice that Russian composers often draw inspiration from church bells – you can hear them in Glinka’s “Ivan Susanin�,

Borodin’s “Prince Igor� or Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov�. 9 < fantastic source of inspiration. I wrote quite a few pieces for it. One of them – “Consolation� for piano – implies that the pianist has to sing at the end. “Consolation� features one pattern that gets more and more

complex, and then it is deconstructed; the piece ends with a solution, when a human voice in fact reconstructs the broken melody. If asked whether every musical piece has a solution, I would say – in general a solution means that music manages to touch a listener’s heart. As Oscar Wilde famously

wrote, ‘art is totally useless’. The function of art is incredibly important, but useless in practical matters. Music has been a servant for a long time – to church, to conservatory. Step by step, it is getting free.

I love Amsterdam, and it is my second native city after Moscow. I’ve always got a great reception from the local audience. In the summer 2007, Pierre Audi, the artistic director of the Netherlands Opera, suggested that I write an opera. Pierre is not only an outstanding producer, but also a charming person and very receptive to beauty.

He felt it was exactly the right moment for me to write an opera. I quickly decided on “A Dog’s Heart�, I don’t really know why – it was intuitive. We worked on the libretto with Georgiy Edelman and Cesare Mazzonis. Later I came up with the idea that the part of the dog should be sung in two voices – one unpleasant

and squeaky, belonging to a hungry stray dog, which is also enhanced by a megaphone. Elena Vassilieva, the soprano, rhythm with timpani. This technique creates a that is reminiscent of Buddhist monks’ singing. The other voice is pleasant and represents

happy memories of the character, Ivo Posti sings this part beautifully. “A Dog’s Heart� is a 2-in-1 opera: it is satiric and grotesque, but also philosophical and lyrical. It’s like a kaleidoscope – a slight turn, and you get a different picture.

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Twilight Portrait Drama Director: Angelina Nikonova Marina, a darkly fascinating protagonist, confuses yet intrigues with her non-linear behaviour, moving through the Moscow night as her ambiguous intentions are slowly revealed. She has everything a modern day Muscovite wants, yet she is trapped in a world where she exerts no power. Drifting from situations, physical nightmare with mental repercussions, becoming a former shadow of herself. This is not only a portrait of Marina, but an interpretation of modern day Russia itself.

Details

Viva! Bolshoi Theatre! The Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, one of the most legendary in the world, reopens its doors on the 28th October, after the six years of the reconstruction work. The audiences will be able to assess the huge potential of Russia’s top theatre following extensive renovation and reconstruction efforts.

*The Bolshoi Theatre was designed by architect Joseph Bove and shows performances of ballet and opera. The Bolshoi Ballet and the Bolshoi Opera are amongst the oldest and greatest ballet and opera companies in the world. The theatre is the parent company of The Bolshoi

Ballet Academy, a worldleading school for ballet. * The building of the Bolshoi is unique – the theatre has been rebuilt several times, in different places. It was burnt down during Napoleon’s invasion in 1812. As a result, it took almost 50 years (1776-1825) until the Bolshoi theatre structure. However, in 1853 the theatre burnt down again. Only the stone walls were left, before it was restored again and instead of the statue of Apollo, we now have the famous bronze chariot.

reached its zenith at the end of 19th century. One of the best known Russian opera singers Fyodor Shalyapin became famous thanks to the Bolshoi's stage. In addition, the famous Russian composer Sergei Rahmaninov also contributed to the theatre’s history.

*The Soviet period was no less fascinating. Despite the communist struggle with "bourgeois art", neither opera nor ballet was banned, although many works were censored. During the 1920's, there were many new plays in the theatre's repertoire. * $

" However, in the 1930's in the Bolshoi Theatre Stalin prohibited everything back in 1777. The theatre foreign and demanded

that only Soviet opera was performed there. That's why over many years, the Bolshoi only worked with Soviet composers. However, in the 1950s the ban was lifted and the theatre could $ $ artists. *In current times the Bolshoi Theatre offers the well-known works : Beethoven; Puccini; Shostakovich; Tchaikovsky; & * and new composers who bring a different brightness and expression.

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Gorgeous, shocking, outrageous� – all these terms fully characterise the new Russian radical art group “Voina� (Eng.War), which recently became a sign of modern revolutionary art in Russia. It can probably be compared with the world famous street artists like Anselm Kiefer, David Cerny, Titi Freak and the London radical art movement the Stuckists. However their contentious installations and performances can

from conceptualism to digital performances. The art group was invented in 2007 by a bunch of self-proclaimed free-thinkers, led by Oleg Vorotnikov and has of hundreds of fans all around Russia, amongst them are musicians, philosophers, diverse groups and even some politicians. The group acts unpredictably, mostly by shocking and believes in pointing out that society’s moral values are continuing to crumble. Their most famous and scandalous performances involve bringing 3,000 cockroaches into court proceedings; drawing a skull and crossbones on the Russian White House with the aid of lasers; kissing and hugging _ throwing live cats at McDonald’s cashiers and openly support gay’s rights. The group’s installation of a 65-metre high penis, drawn on the drawbridge, “erected� right in front of the FSB’s headquarters in St. Petersburg, won the Innovation State Prize in contemporary art! However, the audacious performances of “Voina� have already infuriated the Russian authorities, so much so, that members of the art group are constantly being arrested by the police. The ideologist of the group, Alexei Plutser-Sarno even

had to leave the country, after being prosecuted by the government and accused of organising a criminal group. He is believed to live in Israel at that moment and will never come back to Russia, where he was sentenced to 20 years in absentia. “Voina – is the cutting edge art movement, but says modern Russian novelist and poet Dmitry Volchek. Despite being accused of hooliganism, they are not hooligans, harsh censorship of art in Russia�. Positioning themselves as strongly opposed to the regime in their country, “Voina� crafts its performance pieces with the aim of eliciting the interest and fury of the people; the media and the government. It brought “Voina� rebels fame, as well as many Russian and international awards for innovation. However, its performances sometimes attract the wrong kind of attention and they are also perceived, at times to be extravagant, at other times rough and uncivilised. “Voina� seeks to erode traditional moral values, promoting a strong sense of freedom of speech and action. It aims to subvert myths that art should be submissive and people oppressed. “People around us are so unsophisticated that they can’t see through such nonsense and the inequality they are living in�, says Natalia Sokol, one of the art group’s leaders. “Voina� always veers away from glamour and never conforms to the mainstream, because its ethos is idea of “bringing up a new generation of brave citizens�.

by A. Pastor Kubrak

ART

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Ivan the Terrible (part 1 &2) Screening 26 October 8 {

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& 99 $ * 9< { / 9 < $ { ~ € _ <  < ‚ $ 9 ‚ < < ƒ „ $ Tickets: †‡ƒˆ / € ‰8/ †Š „ Address: / € Š * &‹ Œ# 8 ^{8 Contacts: "^" ‡^‘ ‡‡" $

Sport

Sport

Kazan Tennis Academy

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