Our response then, as now, is that when an artist chooses to use the reputation they built through their art to support a policy that results in a war that kills, maims, and displaces millions of people, through this political act the artist inextricably links their art to politics, and their art itself then supports war and aggression. On Friday, June 2nd, Arts Against Aggression organized a protest to greet the performance at Emerson College’s Cutler Majestic Theatre by two other supporters of Mr. Putin’s war, Vladimir Spivakov and Hibla Gerzmava. The installation “Putin—Conductor of War” played a prominent part in our protest. This time, our Putin was much closer to the original’s height and build, though ours displayed far superior manners and sense of humor. Like Mr. Matsuev, Mr. Spivakov and Ms. Gerzmava signed the infamous letter in support of the policies of the President of Russian Federation related to Crimea and Ukraine (an English translation of the letter, along with the names of all the signatories can be found at http://russianartists4war.com/letter/). Like Mr. Matsuev, neither has ever expressed any regrets for allowing their names, and thus their artistic reputations, to be put to work promoting a war of aggression. In fact, in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Mr. Spivakov explicitly stated that he does not regret signing the letter. Friday’s installation aimed to provide a rough outline of the consequences to date of the war these artists support. The installation consisted of six mannequins, representing the victims of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Four mannequins held signs summarizing the statistics on the number of dead, wounded, and displaced by the war, in the context of some of the painful images of the war. Some of these images are fairly well-known, such as the images of the debris of flight MH17 that was brought out of the sky by a Russian BUK missile, killing all 298 on board. Other images are far less known though no less devastating. Remaining two mannequins held portraits of the artists who with their signatures consigned themselves to the status of war boosters—Mr. Spivakov (#404) and Ms. Gerzmava (#98).Skeletons picket music hall in #Boston where Putin-supporting pianist Matsuev will perform tomorrowhttps://t.co/X9mOuqdpPA pic.twitter.com/6Ds5uQFqWB
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) October 28, 2016




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