Today, on the sidelines of the VI World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue held in Baku, an agreement was signed between the Russian National Museum of Music and the Azerbaijan State Museum of Musical Culture. The Director General of the Russian National Museum of Music, Mikhail Bryzgalov, who signed the document, told Vestnik Kavkaza about contacts with his Azerbaijani colleagues.
- What are your impressions of the forum?
- I am very glad to be part of the delegation of the Russian Ministry of Culture, which is headed by the Russian Minister of Culture Olga Borisovna Lyubimova. I always take part in various cultural forums in different parts of the world with great pleasure. But I felt some special atmosphere in Baku. Everything is very interesting, starting from the opening, where the President of Azerbaijan said important things that were connected not only with culture, but with the modern world in general. The messages and initiatives of Azerbaijan, announced by Ilham Aliyev, are in many ways close to us.
Today, in Baku, cultural figures from different countries seemed to be talking about their own, but in general, we all spoke about the importance of cultural diplomacy today. It is a separate genre. What can we do as cultural workers? To perform, show an exhibition, a concert... To say through culture and art that culture is always above politics. It is a very important part. When everyone realizes it, it seems to me that all conflicts should end. This is why we meet — to explain this to as many people as possible, to tell them that today the incredible efforts of cultural figures from all over the world should encourage all those involved in politics to listen to this. Anyway, culture will save the world.
- Last October, you signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Director of the International Mugham Center, People's Artist of Azerbaijan Murad Huseynov to popularize the musical traditions and heritage of Azerbaijan and Russia. Have you renewed the agreement with the Museum of Musical Culture of Azerbaijan today?
- It is very important. We are partners and long-term friends. We have a great relationship. I know not only the Director of the museum, but also many of the employees. I haven't been to Baku for several years, and when I entered the museum, we not only shook hands, we hugged. Close people who have not seen each other for a very long time. Much has changed in this museum. It has moved to a new building. Now it is located in the museum center: excellent location, bright room, good exhibition. Today, I have seen a lot of interesting things. We have agreed that it is time to quickly organize exhibitions dedicated to Azerbaijani musicians whose names are known in Russia (Hajibeyov, Rashid Behbudov, Bulbul, Polad Bulbuloglu...) and Russian musicians who influenced the musical culture of Azerbaijan. We will do this soon.
Last year, we celebrated the 125th anniversary of Bulbul. We held a large exhibition in our museum. Before this, we held a huge evening dedicated to mugham and presented several of our exhibitions. Now we met, looked into each other's eyes, and realized that we could do even more.
Agreements have to be updated: life makes constant adjustments, and adjustments need to be made to the documents that correspond to the current spirit of the times. We did all this with pleasure. For us, it was both a formal and a very informal meeting, where we assured each other of our partnership once again. The musical culture of Azerbaijan and the musical culture of Russia have so many points of intersection that we must tell people about it all the time.
