"Love is a decision": Natalia Virtuozova on the main idea of the IET
One of the most touching moments in the programme of the
International Ethnographic Triennial (IET) in Zaraysk was the speech by Natalia
Virtuozova, Director General of the National Centre RUSSIA and Commissioner of
the project. She read a reflective text about love, which begins not with the
expectation of reciprocity, but with the willingness to take a step towards
another person:
"Love begins not where we are loved, but where we
decide to love. We ourselves, ourselves, without any guarantees, without
reciprocity, without a future. That is when it begins. Do you understand? Where
a person stops demanding and starts giving. And that is torment. Real torment,
the same as repentance. Love lives wherever a person allows even a single ray
of light to enter. People, oh, people, they do not know at all what love is. We
dream of being loved, protected, pitied, carried in someone’s arms, while we
ourselves are coldness, we ourselves are fear. We guard our hearts like a miser
guards money. I will not give it away, what if it is broken? But do you know
what is terrible? As long as a person guards their heart, love will not be born
in it. It comes only to those who have decided to step out unarmed, unarmed and
exposed to the blow. Love is not a feeling. Feelings are born and die. Love is
a decision. Quiet and simple," Natalia Virtuozova said.
According to her, it is attention to the human being, their
fate, memory and culture that lies at the heart of the IET. After all, the
desire to understand another person begins with a sincere interest in them.
On 18 June, the National Centre RUSSIA announced the launch
of the International Ethnographic Triennial. It is a large-scale project at the
intersection of contemporary art, anthropology and ethnography. In the coming
years, the project participants will work together, conduct research and create
artistic projects devoted to the cultural diversity of the modern world. The
result will be the International Ethnographic Triennial at the National Centre
RUSSIA in 2030.
Event photobank
During the performance, five women of different ages and cultures braided field grasses.
The contest "Dreams of the Future", organised by the National Centre RUSSIA, proved that it is not only philosophers and science fiction writers who know how to design tomorrow.
The National Centre RUSSIA is a place that shows the country’s multicultural nature.
