“Currentzis does not make contact”: the St. Petersburg Union of Artists spoke about the struggle for the workshop

In St. Petersburg, the artist Valery Gridnev is evicted from the workshop in which he has worked for more than 20 years in order to give it to the conductor Teodor Currentzis. Currentzis himself does not make contact with the Union of Artists, Andrey Bazanov, head of the association, told a Rosbalt correspondent.

“We were invited to a meeting in the Committee on Culture, but it was immediately clear that it had already been decided to transfer the workshop to the conductor long ago. Currentzis does not make contact. Now 66-year-old Gridnev, a cardiologist with a disability, will have to hurry to move to the maneuver fund and wait for an analogue. Usually they give 3 months to move, and why no one warned us is not clear, ”Bazanov said.

According to him, the Union of Artists keeps in touch with the property relations committee, where they are looking for a suitable new workshop for Gridnev.

“We expressed our position, everyone signed in defense of the artist, but we don’t know how events will develop further,” said Bazanov.

Valery Gridnev has already been offered two options – at Gorokhovaya, 3 and Bolshaya Morskaya, 40. Neither of them suited him.

“The first location is a four-room attic apartment. But the entrance is from the courtyard, and the stairs are so narrow that you can’t climb up with a canvas. You can’t even take a bag into the elevator – for one person. And I have four open heart surgeries, they put a pacemaker three months ago – it’s hard to agree to such conditions, ”said the artist. “The most important thing is that there is no north window in the apartment.”

He was not in the second room on Bolshaya Morskaya either. With a window to the south, it is very difficult to work on a painting, the artist admits. The fact is that while the sun moves across the sky from left to right, the shadows change, and drawing from nature, for example, is extremely difficult. In the workshops of artists, the windows are usually north. So, in the current studio at No. 28 on Bolshaya Zelenina Street, there are as many as two windows: one is upstairs, the second to the north is ideal conditions for an artist, and optional ones are for practicing music.

“When I received this workshop in 1997, it was in a terrible state: without glass, the upper window was boarded up with an iron shield, the ceiling was leaking. I restored it. And now no one wants to listen to my arguments: at the meeting, the head of the committee on culture said that the issue of the distribution of the workshop was resolved. To my arguments, he said: “Do you want to pity me?” Valery Gridnev recalled.

As a rule, the Union of Artists automatically renews the lease agreement every 10 years, but in 2020 the process dragged on – and, according to Gridnev, the Union of Conductors took advantage of this. It is not clear how events will develop now, and whether there will be an alternative room for the artist.

At the time of publication, it was not possible to contact the St. Petersburg Committee for Culture.