Charniaŭskaja on the "Bykhaŭ Madonna": Most talents are underground or in emigration. So, choose from what they give

“I just read a post about the sculptor who created this. Some kind woman told the world that he is a very good person. (My memory suggested: "doesn't drink — doesn't smoke.") That he created this work for free, out of love for his hometown, and only for the materials was money allocated from the budget. That he tried very hard…

She chastises the mockers, this kind soul.

You know, maybe that's exactly how it is.

All my life I've seen such good Belarusians. I say this without irony. They, for example, give standing ovations to any disgraceful performance, any talentless concert. Well, how can they not, people played, they tried. So, it must be a standing ovation.

And the idea that spectators and listeners should only stand when something exceptional is created, to honor that exceptional thing, — that doesn't even cross their minds. (Once upon a time, by the way, audiences knew this. But they successfully forgot.)

They go to bad exhibitions and praise bad paintings not necessarily because they don't understand the authors' lack of talent. No. They simply proceed from the idea that in the absence of fish, even a crayfish is a fish. Especially now, when most talents are underground, without the opportunity to publish and exhibit. Or in emigration.

So, choose from what they give, and they give this. Well then, we will, therefore, choose from what is allowed.

Well, yes, now is just such a time, the quintessence. But even before, everything was more or less the same. We got used to being content with "people tried hard," with "the person is good, worked for free." We blurred, foolishly blurred the concepts of talented and untalented. We lost taste and, by the way, not only aesthetic. Because in some respects, ethics and aesthetics converge.

And this complacency with the untalented is a serious symptom not only in art, but also in life.

People are mocking this "monster," and they are right to do so, but I have no strength for it, because I have always hated it — this "bright approach" with "rays of kindness" itself. There is nothing behind it but the destruction of the human world. Because culture, I'll tell you a secret, is nothing other than the human in humanity.

And the sculptor, perhaps, is indeed a good and decent person. But a good person is not a profession," wrote Yulia Charniaŭskaja.

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