Russian Art and Exile. Part of Breaking Free: A Century of Russian Culture
Arts & Ideas
BBC
4.2 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 13 November 2017
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Author Boris Akunin and broadcaster and writer Zinovy Zinik in conversation with Anne McElvoy, recorded with an audience at Pushkin House.
Pushkin House has commissioned a pavilion on Bloomsbury Square in London from the architect and artist Alexander Brodsky, titled '101st km - Further and Everywhere', as part of the Bloomsbury Festival. Anne visits this with Pushkin House Director Clem Cecil.
Boris Akunin is the pen name of Grigory Chkhartishvili, who was born in Georgia in 1956. An essayist, historian, playwright and translator, he is best known as the author of crime and historical fiction featuring the 19th-century detective Erast Fandorin.
Zinovy Zinik is a Russian-born British novelist, essayist and short story writer whose books include The Mushroom Picker. Having lost his Russian citizenship with his emigration from the USSR in 1975, Zinik settled down in Britain in 1976.
Part of Radio 3's Breaking Free: A Century of Russian Culture
Producer: Torquil MacLeod.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right? |
| 0:23.3 | It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music |
| 0:27.0 | when it's out of ice cream. |
| 0:28.8 | Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:32.0 | Hello, I'm Anne McHawoy. |
| 0:34.1 | Thanks for downloading this Arts and Ideas podcast from the BBC's Freethinking Team. |
| 0:39.2 | This is the BBC. |
| 0:43.9 | I've come to Pushkin House, the Russian Cultural Centre in London for this programme. |
| 0:49.3 | It's part of Radio 3 season commemorating the centenary of the Russian Revolution. |
| 0:55.0 | Russia's artistic legacy over the last century is substantial, and many of the writers, |
| 1:01.0 | artists and composers responsible for that have found themselves living and working in exile, |
| 1:07.0 | in Western Europe or the United States in some cases, but also frequently within Russia itself. |
| 1:13.9 | So later on, I'll be talking to two writers who've pursued their careers beyond Russia's borders, |
| 1:20.6 | Zinovi Zinnik and Grigory Schatischvili, who also writes under the name Boris Akunin. |
| 1:26.5 | Right now, though, I'm standing in Bloomsbury Square |
| 1:29.3 | looking at a pavilion designed by the architect Alexander Brodsky. |
| 1:34.3 | It's been erected as part of Pushkin House's programme of events to mark the centenary |
| 1:39.3 | and with me is the executive director of Pushkin House, Clem Cecil. |
| 1:43.3 | Hi Clam. Hi. So we're looking at this |
| 1:45.8 | and Bloomsbury Square, usually a stretch of a beautiful greenery in the centre of London, this |
| 1:51.5 | very striking installation or kind of building in the middle of it. It's on legs, it's kind of |
| 1:58.7 | regular panels. I'm a bit mystified, to be honest. |
... |
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