The oft-forgotten case of Russia goes right to the heart of the issue. The Soviet regime had banished the Orthodox religion, deemed (rightly) to be allied with the tsars: anyone who has seen the films of Sergei Eisenstein will recall the smoky and monstrously silhouetted apparitions of the popes, enveloping the people in a fog with their censers, followed by the people\u2019s destruction of tsarist and religious symbols. Today the Church is making a comeback, and, with the state\u2019s restitution of assets to various religious institutions in 2010,2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 2 <\/a> - On the role of the Orthodox Church in shaping a post-Soviet national identity, see Alexandre Verkhovski, \u201cReligion et \u2018id\u00e9e nationale\u2019 dans la Russie de Poutine,\u201d Les cahiers Russie<\/em> (Paris: CERI-Sciences-Po, 2006). On the restitution of assets to the Orthodox Church and its consequences, see Denis Babitchenko, \u201cQuand l\u2019\u00c9tat l\u00e2che ses joyaux: La Sainte Russie privatis\u00e9e,\u201d Courrier international<\/em> (March 11, 2010).<\/span> it is set to play both an economic and a structural role in the new Russian identity.<\/p>\n\n\n \u201cIn Germany, one sees people from the dregs of society condemned to death for having danced on the crucifix. Again, punishment creates the crime. Where the crime isn\u2019t punished, who would dream of committing it? A girl who gets it into her head that it is an act of desperation to dance on a crucifix falls into some despair and goes home to dance on a crucifix.\u201d – Montesquieu, a passage in the manuscript excised from the final draft of The Spirit of the <\/em>Laws<\/em>.3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 3 <\/a> - (Our translation).<\/span><\/p> <\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n In his installation titled M.I.R.: New Paths to the Objects\/Polite Guests from the Future,4<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 4 <\/a> - The exhibition\u2019s first subtitle, New Paths to the Objects<\/em>, was used for the version presented at the Kadist Art Foundation in Paris, January 18 to March 30, 2014; the second, Polite Guests from the Future<\/em>, was given to the slightly different version presented at the Kadist Art Foundation in San Francisco, July 9 to August 23, 2014.<\/span> the young Muscovite artist Arseniy Zhilyaev imagines the consequences of this issue by means of a speculative fiction that sketches a sociopolitical portrait of his country in 2020. He does so by creating the galleries of a museum of the future, the M.I.R. (a Russian acronym for \u201cMuseum of Russian History\u201d), devoted to this future\u2019s chief artist: Vladimir Putin. The leader has now become a performance artist embracing the artistic heritage of Oleg Kulik and Pussy Riot and, above all, is a follower of a new religion coalescing all the aspirations of the Russian people. The first gallery, the Red Room, as if establishing the foundation of this future society, is wholly devoted to this religion, which arose from a meteorite strike in Chelyabinsk (in the Urals) to become the official religion. As a metaphor for the power of the Orthodox Church, along with what the artist calls \u201cthe phenomenon of pop religiosity\u201d\u200a\u2014\u200areligious practices as they are formed in the media and on the ]Web5<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 5 <\/a> - From an email exchange between the author and the artist, August 2014.<\/span>\u200a\u2014\u200ait embodies and intermingles conformism and the quest for salvation, naivet\u00e9 and hope, kitsch and truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Produced on two occasions\u200a\u2014\u200afor the exhibition the Kadist Art Foundation hosted in Paris and the one presented by the organization in San Francisco\u200a\u2014\u200athe Red Room is in each case \u201can epigraph and a key to the whole exhibition.\u201d6<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 6 <\/a> - Ibid.<\/span> It is the point of entry for the fiction the artist has invented, the bifurcation between the real and the imaginary. Its subtitle is, in fact, \u201cThe Pillars of the State System: The Formation of Russia in the Prehistoric Period,\u201d7<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 7 <\/a> - Silvia Franceschini, Boris Groys, and Arseniy Zhilyaev, Arseniy Zhilyaev. M.I.R.: New Paths to the Objects, exhibition catalogue (Paris: Kadist Art Foundation, 2014), 8.<\/span> as if, for the artist, religion was the most powerful factor in Russia\u2019s evolution, its founding principle, which it was incumbent on us to examine. The Red Room is the gateway into the exhibition space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The room is painted red (inevitably recalling the communist legacy) and on its walls are sparingly presented a few pieces created by the artist from real documents. For everything in the exhibition plays on the tenuous ambiguity of truth and falsehood. At the centre, a pillar, also painted red, serves as a support for showcasing a small object that turns out to be a meteorite. As we further explore Zhilyaev\u2019s project, we learn that the object, a real meteorite (though found in Chile, not Russia), forms the basis of a new and quite real religion from which Zhilyaev has extrapolated his own. Rather fantastical in its own right, this actual religion becomes a means to invent a delirious future \u2014 and a nearly plausible one at that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This near future is presented in the next two galleries. The Blue Room is devoted to the new activities of the Russian president, who became an artist after his conversion to the new religion. Here too, fiction is grounded in reality. In 2009, Putin made a painting for a charity sale (which was a great success, the painting having sold for 37 million roubles, or almost US$1 million). \u201cHe really applied himself, painting it on his own in less than half an hour. He must have been deeply moved, though he didn\u2019t show it,\u201d8<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 8 <\/a> - Quoted in Courrier international<\/em> (January 22, 2009), www.courrierinternational.com\/article\/2009\/01\/22\/vladimir-poutine-1952-artiste-peintre (our translation).<\/span> said the gallery sales rep. A copy of the painting is in fact on display in the exhibition. As for other works of Putin the artist, these consist of performances and photographs, official or taken from Russian magazines and re-captioned by Zhilyaev. One, for instance, showing Putin on a tiger hunt, is presented in the Blue Room as a wildlife-preservation action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The third and last gallery of the Paris exhibition, the White Room, is articulated around the reorganization of the public space consecrating this new Russian society. Its style, however, harks back to Soviet realism, including a gigantic sculpture representing the \u201cdefenders of Russian independence,\u201d rendered both in the form of a scale model and as a performance periodically presented in the exhibition space by a couple playing giant biorobots\u200a\u2014\u200ain other words, \u201cliving sculptures.\u201d This particularity connects the room with the science fiction narrative, as it refers quite specifically to a sci-fi novel by the title of Les statues vivantes (\u201cthe living statues\u201d\u200a\u2014\u200aincluded in a wall display along with city-planning documents).9<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 9 <\/a> - Max Andr\u00e9 Rayjean, Les statues vivantes (Paris: \u00c9ditions Fleuve noir, 1972).<\/span> In short, the new religion is the starting point for a science-fiction story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Presiding over the middle of the Red Room, then, is a real meteorite (from Chile), representing a small fragment of the one that fell in a lake in the Urals near the town of Chelyabinsk, on February 15, 2013. Initially weighing around 10,000 tons, the Chelyabinsk meteorite was one of the largest objects to drop from the sky, triggering shock waves worthy of a nuclear blast and thus producing considerable damage. So extraordinary was the event that it instigated a cult-like following, \u201cthe Church of Chelyabinsk Meteorite,\u201d whose members declared, after the fact, that they had predicted the date and place of impact. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Indeed, according to the followers of this religion, the meteorite struck not by accident but in order to bring messages to humans, as its surface is covered with writings that reveal fundamental truths, such as the meaning of existence and new tablets of laws to update those of Moses. All this is explained in a video titled Birth of a Star<\/em>, projected on the wall facing the meteorite; dated 2020, it is actually excerpted directly from a show on Russian public TV, in which we see the new religion\u2019s guru, Andrey Breyva (real name, Andrey Breivichko), expound its gospel. Breyva appears on the lakeshore accompanied by his acolytes, as they pray for the meteorite\u2019s safety during the salvaging operation. They say that without their presence, the meteorite would sustain irreparable harm. Also presented are projects for building a futurist cathedral to house and venerate the meteorite once it is extracted from the lake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fascinated by the video document\u2019s ambiguity, Zhilyaev chose to display it unaltered but for the addition of English and French subtitles, while emphasizing\u200a\u2014\u200awithout denigrating\u200a\u2014\u200athe outrageous interpretation of reality proposed by the religion\u2019s followers. In his view, this kind of reporting is in line with the history of Russian culture: a desire to instil hope through a denial of reality; state propaganda of the Soviet era being merely a particular instance in an ongoing tradition. In the video, the guru states that \u201cno esoteric school has the slightest doubt that the spiritual renaissance will occur in Russia.\u201d Inviting himself to usurp the main role in this great enterprise, he nonetheless points out the Russian people\u2019s abiding need for \u201cspiritual renaissance,\u201d manifest throughout the media today. This is where Zhilyaev explains his concept of \u201cpop religiosity,\u201d a phenomenon that he notices everywhere around him: \u201cI\u2019m interested in the phenomenon of pop religiosity\/spirituality that fills the Internet and everyday life, especially in Russia. It is a very naive, but also a very honest, desire for the truth.\u201d11<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 11 <\/a> - Email exchange with the artist, August 2014.<\/span> This is why his artistic stance is both critical and compassionate: all one can do is decry the fantasies of the meteorite religion while also recognizing that it reflects a real and sincere hope for a better life. As a truth-bearing lie, it embodies a state of mind governed by the marriage of truth and falsehood, an issue the artist explores throughout his installation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Zhilyaev\u2019s proposed fiction, the new religion contaminates both the Russian state, by way of its president, a fervent convert, and the Orthodox Church, which it supplants. In reality, the Orthodox Church plays a predominant role, as it is the most widely practised religion in Russia. Its leaders aligned themselves with Putin during the last elections; as the Moscow correspondent for Le Monde<\/em> wrote in 2012, \u201cJust before the presidential elections in March, Patriarch Kirill spoke of Vladimir Putin as a \u2018divine miracle,\u2019 while declaring his support for the Popular Front, a new pro-Putin party, and urging parishioners to vote for the \u2018national [NOTe count=12]leader.\u2019\u201d[\/NOTE] 12 <\/a> - Marie J\u00e9go, \u201cLa fusion est totale entre le Kremlin et le Patriarcat,\u201d Le Monde <\/em>(August 21, 2012) (our translation).<\/span> The Orthodox Church is staunchly opposed to the new religion, as evinced by the popes interviewed in the aforementioned video, who vehemently decry it as a fraud. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And yet, the Orthodox Church plays a similar role for Russian citizens, who are disoriented after the fall of the Soviet regime, which brought centuries of geopolitical domination to an end. As Alexandre Verkhovski explains in his study of the subject, \u201cAfter the dismantling of the USSR, Russia had not developed a clear vision of its new identity. President Putin admitted as much himself. Citizens still have difficulty integrating the idea that Russia is a state rather than an empire… This lack of clarity regarding \u2018national identity\u2019 allows groups outskirts of power\u200a\u2014\u200aespecially religious organizations\u200a\u2014\u200ato advance their own proposals.\u201d12<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 13 <\/a> - Verkhovski, \u201cReligion,\u201d 3<\/span> That is why Zhilyaev brings together the Orthodox Church and the new meteorite religion and places them on an equal footing in some of his works, particularly the three pieces added to the version of the exhibition presented in San Francisco. This version, slightly different from the one in Paris, emphasized the \u201cRussian Cosmic Federation,\u201d the Russian government\u2019s new name, chosen to affirm its role in the conquest of space, both past and to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A flag raised outside the exhibition sets the tone from the very beginning. On a graduated blue background meant to imitate the sky, a falling star suggests the meteorite\u2019s arrival on Earth, while in the upper left is a symbol composed of a six-pointed star, a moon, and a Christ figure; Zhilyaev \u201cborrowed\u201d the symbol from the meteorite religion, which used it on its webpage on a Russian social network.13<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 14 <\/a> - That page is in fact a great example of pop religiosity: https:\/\/vk.com\/club55010077 (in Russian).<\/span> Russia\u2019s official religions meet the new meteorite religion. And then, in the Red Room, Zhilyaev presents an embroidered icon of Christ, which he purchased in an Orthodox shop. The artist added a red orb, initially a rising sun, that he transformed following his inspiration from the February 15 meteorite. In the background is a modernist building inspired by the Chelyabinsk sports complex. Lastly, the same sign has been embroidered on an Orthodox wedding veil. The artist thus effects a syncretism that metaphorically stands for the current spiritual situation in Russia. By combining the Orthodox and Meteorite Churches, he shows the extent to which religion is ubiquitous in Russia. After nearly a century\u2019s prohibition, it resurfaces everywhere and in the most unexpected forms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the Red Room, the first room in his museum of the future, which he devotes to religion, Zhilyaev used metaphor and gentle irony to broach a hyper-sensitive topic that touches as much on a residual nationalism as on personal aspiration. He confronts the real by presenting it as science fiction, just as Montesquieu chose fiction and exoticism in his Persian Letters to come to grips with religion in his own time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Translated from the French by Ron Ross<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/83-DO4-IMG1-IM_Morisset_Kadist_Zhilyaev_SFlarge_02_CMYK_esse_web.jpg\")
Vue d\u2019exposition, M.I.R.: Polite guests from the future<\/em>, Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco, 2014.
Photo : Phillip Maisel, permission de l\u2019artiste & Kadist Art Foundation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/83-DO4-IMG2-IM_Morisset_Kadist_Zhilyaev_SFlarge_07_CMYK_esse_web.jpg\")
The sacred body of the angel of Prehistory<\/em>, 4 500 00 Av. J.-C., exhibition detail, M.I.R.: Polite Guests From The Future, Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco, 2014.
Photo : Phillip Maisel, courtesy of the artist & Kadist Art Foundation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nA<\/strong> SCI-FI<\/strong> RELIGION<\/strong> <\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/83-DO4-IMG4-IM_Morisset_KAF-Arseniy-Zhilyaev-04_CMYK_esse_web.jpg\")
M.I.R .: Contemporary Art and national culture, exhibition view, M.I.R.: New paths to the objects<\/em>, Kadist Art Foundation, Paris, 2014.
Photo : Aur\u00e9lien Mole, courtesy of the artist & Kadist Art Foundation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/83-DO4-IMG3-IM_Morisset_Kadist_Zhilyaev_SFlarge_16_CMYK_esse_web.jpg\")
Gifts to the people\u2019s commissar of culture<\/em>, Aleksandra Grey, 2013-2020, exhibition detail, M.I.R.: polite guests from the future, Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco, 2014.
Photo : Phillip Maisel, courtesy of the artist & Kadist Art Foundation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/83-DO4-IMG5-IM_Morisset_Kadist_Zhilyaev_SFlarge_14_CMYK_esse_web1.jpg\")
Pattern on the frozen window<\/em>, 2009, exhibition detail, M.I.R.: New paths to the objects<\/em>, Kadist Art Foundation, 2014.
Photo : Aur\u00e9lien Mole, courtesy of the artist & Kadist Art Foundation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\u201cBecoming a Meteorite\u201d10<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 10 <\/a> - Max Andr\u00e9 Rayjean, Les statues vivantes<\/em> (Paris: \u00c9ditions Fleuve noir, 1972).<\/span> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/83-DO5-IMG6-IM_Morisset_Kadist_Zhilyaev_SFlarge_21_CMYK_esse_web.jpg\")
Photo : Aur\u00e9lien Mole, courtesy of the artist & Kadist Art Foundation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nNew Religion and Orthodoxy<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/IM_Morisset_Kadist_Zhilyaev_SFlarge_05_CMYK-scaled.jpg\")
Jesus Chelyabinsky<\/em>, 2014, D\u00e9tail de l\u2019exposition | Detail of the exhibition, M.I.R.: Polite Guests from the Future, Kadist art foundation, san francisco, 2014.
Photo : Phillip Maisel, permission de | courtesy of the artist & Kadist Art Foundation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n