On April 10, the theater director posted on her Facebook page the news of the death of her friend, the artist Andrei Akuzin. he He hung himself In pre-trial detention center-3 in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Akuzin was arrested on April 2 over a certain comment on social media; “Media Zone” booksThat according to one of the Telegram bots that analyzes user public comments, the artist was interested in a movement banned in Russia. Very little is known about Acousin. He was 53 and had been drawing since at least the 1990s, but rarely exhibited them or showed them online. Meduza asked Frolova about the artist’s life, work and opinions.
– How did you meet?
“It was a wonderful time when anything was possible. In 1998, the KnAM Theater, which I directed, organized for the first time an international festival of contemporary art specifically for [французского театрального критика] Jean-Pierre Thibaud. At that time he was Liberation’s correspondent in Moscow, and our booklet fell into his hands, and he saw the names of playwrights who had not been shown in Moscow: Jean-Paul Sartre. She asked the townspeople to help, filling the festival with art – who could do what. Several artists responded, including Andre, who brought a painting of Louis Armstrong.
Since then we became friends. We worked in the theater at night until six in the morning. He came and knocked. Andrei was like a child. He was happy with everything and said: “Let’s create some kind of movement.” Help hold exhibitions. When he started working as an office designer, he printed promotional materials for us for free or at negotiated discounts. Then for some time he got a job at the Drama Theater as a production designer, but not for long, he did not like it there. So he left the theater and [в июле 2021 года] He founded his own design bureau “Haku”.
— Did Andrei study drawing somewhere?
– No, he taught himself, and there was beauty and magic in that. He painted in oils. He loved butter and jazz. But he did not consider himself an artist. If he liked the work, he would hang it on the wall, but he never gave the paintings as gifts, like other artists, and he certainly did not sell them. In fact, I’ve given up on this. I just wanted to live my little life like a grass.
Didn’t see anything [из искусства]. I visited St. Petersburg last year for the first time. Peter made such an impression on him – he kept sending me voicemails and photographs. Can you imagine what he would say about France? But he didn’t know any artists, he just painted. This was inherited by his son – at the age of three and four he could draw amazingly.
I always think about why I am doing theater in this confinement in the woods. There was a passion for beauty. There wasn’t as much variety as there is here. You had to make things yourself in order to breathe. I think he has the same story.
Unfortunately, I have very few photos of his work. I didn’t even think I needed to photograph everything. This is Andrey, Andryukha. He’s shouting something again. He says it is impossible to live.
-The report I shared showcases his work “A Little Bit of Zen”. What was his history with Zen Buddhism?
— Yes, yes, we also organized this exhibition. He was interested in Buddhism, and we all were. We have learned to meditate in order to put our thoughts in order and not act on the first impulse. Andre just needs this. But he quickly abandoned it, not wanting to waste time contemplating, but wanting to do something. I couldn’t bring myself to sit up and breathe. “We need to meditate,” I said. He replied: “Yes, yes, we must.” “You are capable, but I am not.”
– Did he participate in any exhibitions other than those you organized in the late nineties?
– I don’t think so. He was writing to me. Nothing has appeared in galleries or online. I think he realized that painting wouldn’t make him money. If you consider yourself an artist, it means that you are trying on some kind of fate. They don’t know you, you have to create hype and hype. We, the people of the Far East, have given up on this matter. For Moscow, he and I were nobody.
“But he kept writing.”
– Of course, it was like air. You do something anyway, and it gives you a little meaning. In this horror, in this daily life that kills. Another thing is that when you are depressed, drawing is very difficult. He’s been drinking lately, but I can’t throw a stone at him. He was a thin-skinned man.
— How did Andrei’s political views change?
– In the 2000s, Andrei watched our political shows and said: “What are you talking about, Tanya, we live well. So I started working in the office.” But gradually his eyes opened. In 2011, we went out together for the first time [протестный] gathering, and was taken to the police.
Since then, he was very interested in politics, read Eduard Limonov, and began to drift somewhere to the right. We didn’t talk about painting, always about music or politics. Then he got mad and shouted that everyone should be hanged on poles. But as time passed, he became disillusioned with politics and became busy with his young life. He said that Russia, as they say, is like that, you cannot raise it.
I said: “Let’s get out of there quickly, no matter where, let’s do something.” He replied: “No, Tanyush, where I was born, and there I want to die. Scatter my ashes on the Amur River.” He was a forest man, he loved the taiga, he could not live without it. He was burned – they will probably fulfill his wish.
The day before he was arrested, he wished me a happy birthday. He said he dreamed that the KnAM Theater was taking him out of Russia in a suitcase. I told him I’d been feeling anxious the past few days, and it wasn’t clear why. He replied that he too – “It’s really painful.” It was as if we felt that he would be gone in a few days.
It was taken on the morning of April 2. I don’t know how they came: they demolished the door or he opened it for them himself. Someone wrote me from an unknown number: “Very bad news, Andrei Akuzin has been kidnapped.” Then another wrote: “Andrei hanged himself in a remand center.” That’s it.
[После ареста] His contact was still online on Telegram. I didn’t write to him.
It seemed to me that they were watching it – just like us, our stage. He thought he had a case. I think he had no doubt that if they took him away, he would do it [покончит с собой]Because he knew very well what was going on in the prisons. I think [в СИЗО] He was persuaded [заключить контракт] on . He hated this war, and when he swore drunk, he could say nothing for almost 17 years. He was such a cool, rebellious person, like…
He was interviewed Anton Khitrov