This year the country marks the 245th anniversary of Ingushetia uniting with Russia. Due to this, the republic will present itself in the State Duma and the Federation Council for a month. On June 9th an exhibition of the region’s achievements opened in the State Duma. It consists of four parts: The Presentational – for the opening ceremony and concerts; Russia-Ingushetia: 245 Years – about socio-economic achievements; Brands of Ingushetia – advertising of certain products; and The Gallery – an art exhibition. The pavilions are decorated with the Ingush national colors and mountain landscape pictures of the republic. Pictures and art objects for the art exhibition were delivered from the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Ingushetia. The chief curator of the Museum, Madina Khamkhoyeva, told Vestnik Kavkaza about the presented works and the peculiarities of Ingush art.
- Madina Borisovna, please tell us about the works which you have brought to Moscow.
- The exhibition is presented by the Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Ingushetia. We present works by famous masters of Ingush crafts, such as Yusup Khamchiyev, Adam Galayev, Zyaudin Batayev, and many other artists, as well as paintings by well-known masters and young artists. All this is presented to acquaint people with the culture and history of the Ingush people.
- What are distinctive features of Ingush art?
- Any national culture has folk roots, so we tried to select a set of objects to display our culture, the spirit of our people, the traditions of the people. Here is a national costume, you can see it at the exhibition. There are some scenes from the life of the Ingush people. Here, let us assume, there are items of jewelery of the old masters of the 19th century, you can also draw a parallel and show contemporary artists who continue the tradition of the old masters and also bring something new of their own, individual and unique, so I think you can draw a parallel between the old and the modern that's the history of the people and the spirit, which we can learn by looking at the works.
- How popular are national crafts in the republic? Is there such a situation where old crafts are dying? Or are there people who want to develop them?
- This problem was very acute, but I am very pleased that over the past few years crafts have revived, there are so many artists, even working in the museum, we thought that in fact the carpet craft was already extinct. To date, there are several masters, mistresses, who are engaged in the creation of dried wool carpets. There is the same situation with other crafts. I do not know, maybe the support of the republic's leadership is working, because many people have received grants in recent years, they are receiving support. Today the head of the republic literally knows every master and he is interested in the development and revival of crafts.
- Please, tell us about the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Ingushetia. What exhibitions are presented there?
- Basically, the fate of all Ingush museums was tragic. We were losing a lot for a long time. At present, we have our own republic. It is wonderful. And our museum is mainly derived from stories, now it is mostly contemporary art, but also there are a lot of works that we transferred from the Moscow center ‘’ROSIZO". It's basically the 40s, the 50s and beyond. The museum mainly promotes the art and history of its people, we go on travelling exhibitions, we go to different cities. Let's say for the past year we were in Makhachkala with our museum exhibition. In Kislovodsk in the Yaroshenko we went with our exhibition. We are going abroad, we were in Belgium, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Azerbaijan. In general, we try to promote the history and culture of our people.
- What impressions did Azerbaijan leave? How far are people there interested in the arts?
- Very good impressions. They are interested, because in general arts there are at a high level in all directions. And we have much to learn from them. They were very interested, they were especially impressed by the works of Zyaudin Batayev, she is a glassblower. They were very surprised. They said that the works were carried out at a high level and generally there are not so many such people. It is interesting for people. People are interested in nationalities because, as they say, God created us as nations. We are all different, but we all have something in common.
