Here we are. Kudrinskaya Tower, sixteenth floor, Moscow, huge, as far as the eye can see. Our small delegation for Art for Europe has landed at 23:00 local time at Sheremetievo airport. Today is 20 February 2022. Our programme is full : one week to meet as many people as possible, private gallery owners, communication officers from museums and the French Embassy to present the Art for Europe project.
Monday, the 21st, Tuesday, the 22nd, Wednesday, the 23rd, it’s nice and cold. We visit museums and galleries. People smile.
On the morning of the 24th, the city was suddenly strangely quiet. I turn on the television : at four o’clock in the morning, the Russian army entered Ukraine. The official channels are talking about a “special operation” that will only last a few days.
At the same time, the Western media – accessible by satellite – are announcing in a loop an imminent catastrophe, the Third World War is not far away, it is already here.
Strangely, by the afternoon, the city is back to normal. There is nothing in the atmosphere to indicate concern. The streets are alive, the cafes and restaurants are full, you have to book a table at Ugolëk or Beluga.
We live in a divided world: everyday life as if nothing had changed, the barely worried friendliness of our interlocutors on the one hand, and the relentless discourse of the first Russian television channel and the apocalyptic version of the Western media on the other.
So we carry on, as the airlines cancel one flight after another. We visit the MMOMA, the Lumiere Gallery, the Art4 Gallery, the French Institute of Moscow. Young, enthusiastic artists watch with gravity as the world shrinks before their eyes.