where we are not
Understanding
is a hobbyhorse of mine. I am pretty sure you have at least once seen a pair of
disputing persons, speaking the same mother tongue, each of them unable to grasp
what the other says. In contrast, two professionals in the same field may feel
quite comfortable with understanding each other, even if they only know a few
popular words in the other partner's language.
Language
is a reflection of life, of the realities that people have to live with, day after
day. I spent two years in Europe and my experience convinced me that understanding
others is next to impossible, if one has no idea of how those people live. So
how could an artist, born and staying in Krasnoyarsk, imagine the conditions that
artists from other countries live and work in?
For
decades, we in Russia lived with a belief that the West (Europe, North America
etc.) is a kind of paradise where one may and can do things that
would be impossible for the most people in this country. It is not my goal here
to discuss whether and to what extent the belief was right and wrong, but it certainly
has been an important part of our mentality.
Last
year, I came across with an article by Carol Katchen, an American artist, published
in August/September issue of the International Artist Magazine. The article was
titled laugh all the way to the bank! and discussed, among others, the
question of whether artists have to starve or not at the start of their career.
I asked myself:
"What? Is the starvation of artists a subject in the world's wealthiest society?"
So, I translated the article into Russian and showed it to a number of artists
I knew, and also asked them to answer a few questions. The questions were not
directly derived from the article, but rather questioned their understanding of
artists from Western countries. The questions and the answers given by the majority
of respondents are presented in the following table. This is not, of course, an
objective study as such, but the replies do give an indication of what many artists
here believe.
| questions | answers
, motivations |
| 1. Do you think
that artists in Europe/North America live better than you do? | Half
- no, Half - yes. |
| 2.
Why do you think so? | no: there are negative examples
everywhere; all over the world the problems are the same - the industrious earn,
the lazy don't.
yes: there are positive examples everywhere; the economy
is better there, the prices for paintings are higher. |
| 3.
Do you believe that you could succeed as artist in any European or North-American
country? | yes. |
| 4.
Have you ever been/worked as artist in industrial countries? | no. |
| 5. From where do you obtain information about
the life of artists abroad? | - From people
- From magazines |
What I have first to say is that isolation still remains an important trait of
an artist's life in Siberia. Regardless of whether political freedom is real,
the great majority of artists just cannot afford the things that they are eager
to have. For example, travel.
Therefore,
the main source of information is what others tell and retell. Personal experience
plays a minor role in obtaining knowledge of foreign artists. Practically, only
a couple of the respondents have traveled abroad, not to work, just to accompany
exhibitions. The trips took place, by the way, before the crisis of 1998. Nowadays
that would be more than problematic.
Many
Siberian artists do not believe that western artists have a better life. "Life"
is a complicated phenomenon, you know... Many of them are unsure on this question,
but a substantial proportion say firmly: "Yes, they live better than we do."
Those
who say "No" argue that it is likely that artists all over the world encounter
very similar problems. After all, there are negative examples, e.g. "an artist
I knew who moved to Germany now has to work as a postman," remarked one of the
respondents.
Those
who say "Yes" insist that the whole economic situation in the West is better,
the prices for paintings are higher, there are also positive cases. For example:
Russians who work now in the US can come to Krasnoyarsk, but a local artist cannot
afford to go to the US. And the great majority say optimistically: "Yes, we would
have a successful artistic career in the West." From the point of view of professionalism
of their art, I would share the optimism. Here however, there is still a great
uncertainty with regard to the marketing and promotion problem.
To
conclude, as far as I can see, the answers are rather controversial, meaning they
create a lot of debate, and the controversy has its roots in poor information,
coupled with a lack of personal experience of life anywhere else. If we do not
know exactly what life elsewhere is like, we can only dream and hope for a better
life. "It is good there, where we are not," says the Russian proverb. Is it really?
Vladimir Gavrikov
gavrikov@online.ru
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