In just two weeks, in Europe and the United States, the deprogramming of Russian artists and companies on the New York, London, German, Italian, French or Polish stages has raised the threat of a cultural isolation. Unheard of for Moscow, even at the height of the Cold War.
Anna Netrebko, criticized for her supposed complacency towards President Vladimir Putin, left the Metropolitan Opera in New York on March 3, where she was to perform in the spring and next season. The conductor Valery Gergiev, close to the Kremlin, was sacked on March 1 from the direction of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. Latest victim: conductor Pavel Sorokin was dismissed from the Royal Opera House in London on Monday. In Paris, the Philharmonie will cancel the arrival of artists who have had positions favorable to Vladimir Poutine.
Even if the consequences of these exclusions are difficult to assess for the moment, they are reminiscent of the international movements against apartheid in South Africa and Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (Boycott, divestment, sanctions – BDS). In these two cases, artists were targeted or called upon to take a stand against these States.
For Jane Duncan of the University of Johannesburg who works on cultural boycott as an “agent of political change”, campaigns aimed at isolating a country from the international cultural and sporting community can be “very effective thanks to their enormous psychological impact“.
Especially since the “Russia has been proud of its intellectual, artistic and sporting achievements for centuries. It became part of his identity, his soft-power in globalization“, analyzes the researcher who even thinks that a “cultural boycott could boost the protest that has arisen in Russia against the invasion of Ukraine“decided by the Russian President.
But for Frédéric Lodéon, French cellist, student of the famous Russian cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovitch, “Putin absolutely doesn’t care what Russian artists are going through in Europe, it’s not their boycott that will change his aggressiveness“.
Emilia Kabakov is a multidisciplinary Ukrainian artist who has worked in New York with her husband for decades. At 76, she knows very well that “Russian artists have difficulties” in Russia but that it does not date from the conflict in Ukraine. “Why are some here?in New York, she asks.Because they can’t live there (…) They want a normal existence, without restrictions“.
So where to place the cultural boycott cursor? Should all Russian artists be targeted indiscriminately or only those close to the Kremlin? “There is no boycott of Russian culture. And Russian musicians continue to be played of course“, in France, replied the Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot a few days ago. But while adding: “There is a line that is very clear, we do not want to see representatives of Russian institutions or artists who clearly supported Vladimir Putin“.
Sometimes the boycott goes further and hits Russian works. opera Boris Gudonov (1869) by Modest Mussorgsky was canceled in early March by the Polish National Opera, according to the specialized press, and the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra canceled two works by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky which were to be performed at the end of February.
Saying he was under pressure to take a stand on Ukraine, Russian conductor Tugan Sokhiev announced on Sunday that he had left his post as musical director of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow and the Orchester national du Capitole de Toulouse. In a statement, he claimed to have “never supported and (be) always against any conflict in any form“and insisted”as a musician” on his “desire for peace“.
This leader of Ossetian origin (ethnicity of the Russian Caucasus) considered one of the greatest of the young generation, added that he could not “bear witnessing how (his) colleagues, artists, actors, singers, dancers, directors are threatened, treated disrespectfully and victims of cancel culture”.