The "Mercy" meeting as part of the Disability Studies Colloquium was held at the Tretyakov Gallery on February 16

A Colloquium programme was developed by Nikita Bolshakov, a senior researcher at the ILSIR. Professor Elena Yarskaya-Smirnova, ILSIR head, became a lecturer on the first day of the meeting. 

As one of the participants said: "I have been to the Tretyakov Gallery many times, but I never thought that the museum's collection could be viewed through the optics of disability research".

Elena Iarskaia-Smirnova, Nikita Bolshakov lecture with the audience

Nikita Bolshakov and Maria Galkina, a methodologist for Museum and educational Activities of the Accessibility and Inclusion Department of the museum, conducted an unusual tour with mediation through the halls of the museum. Stopping at the paintings by V.G. Perov "Tea party in Mytishchi near Moscow", "Songbook Seller in Paris", "Arrival of schoolgirl to her blind father", the participants, together with the curators, shared emotions, interpretations of the plot and characters of the characters, knowledge about the history of the creation of works and biography of the famous wanderer. Perov is widely known for his portraits of F.M. Dostoevsky, A.N. Ostrovsky, V.I. Dahl, genre paintings "The Fisherman", "Hunters at a halt". The painter also became famous for his works about the poor, people with disabilities, and more broadly - about the unfair structure of society. What feelings and meanings of mercy are revealed to the modern viewer contemplating the scene of the "Tea Party in Mytishchi"? Why did Perov decide to portray the Parisian blind musician as sighted? This discussion was incredibly lively and deep, and it took place not at an online seminar, nor in an audience with a slide presentation, but in an authentic atmosphere of a museum hall.

The lecturer at the meeting "Mercy" was a head of the laboratory Elena Iarskaia-Smirnova. The meeting began with the introduction of listeners and organizers of the Colloquium program in one of the halls of the main building of the Tretyakov Gallery in Lavrushinsky Lane.

Elena Iarskaia-Smirnova gives a lecture during the first day

Elena Iarskaia-Smirnova discussed a number of issues related to the interpretation of metaphors of a strange body in the history of fine art with the audience here in her mini-lecture. Monster, freak, object of amazement and pity, part of the crowd, the spirit of the nation… How did the images change and in what do we now see the ethics, aesthetics and politics of Otherness – from ancient mythology to Bruegel's methods of political satire, from holiness and sinfulness to entertainment and scientific fact? After the lecture, the participants went to the canvases of I.E. Repin "The Procession in the Kursk province" and M.V. Nesterov "In Russia (The Soul of the people)". The position, poses and gestures of the characters, their facial expressions and interactions with each other and with the viewer, the nature and role of each of them in the overall idea of the pictorial narrative in a critical tone or the celebration of spiritual cohesion – the discussion was interrupted only by the announcement of the closure of the gallery. Much has been left outside the scope of this conversation, which has just begun. The colloquium will continue in March, new impressions and discoveries await the participants.