How in the USA they make figurines for TEFI - the main prize of Russian television

This year Taffy will be awarded for the 25 time. Whatever happened in a quarter of a century with the main award of Russian television: the scandals shook the ceremony, the organizers changed, the television companies boycotted the celebrations, moved the place and changed dates. One thing remained unchanged - the statuette that was invented and is still being cast in the USA.

In the American workshop where TEFI is born, the correspondent visited Rtvi Harry Knyagnitsky.

Gypsy punk from the group Gogol Bordello sounds in a completely Gogol estate in the state of New York. Only the local landowner is a character completely out of Gogol. The artist and sculptor Jeff Blumis creates his dead souls, but if you look closely, it turns out that his sculptures of stone and metal live to the fullest. Adam and Eve can not free themselves from the captivity of the stub, into which their love has turned, and the demon-like wanderer is scouring the site in hopes of finding a home.

“I just do the work because I want to do the work, and then I think about where it will go. This work is called “A Man Reaching for the Stars.” This sculpture of mine is called “Transformation of a Pomegranate into a Woman.” This work was made from cow bones. We found all these bones from local farmers, and this is how the work turned out. And here he is - “Tefik”. Ernst Neizvestny is known for this work,” says Jeff Blumis.

Ernst Unknown died three years ago in New York. The great sculptor was a friend and teacher of Jeff Blumis. He kept the work of the Unknown during the life of the master. And Orpheus, more precisely, its adapted, reduced version for the winners of the TEFI contest, he cast in dozens of copies every year. Blumis is now completing another order for the Academy of Russian Television.

“This is the form with which it all begins, it is taken from the original. The half is first painted with wax, the layer of wax is built up. Same thing on the other half. Then these two halves are put together. The next stage: we completely cover it with ceramics. Ceramics seem to completely envelop all this work: both outside and inside. Then - wax burning. The mold goes into the kiln with this ceramic around the wax, and in the kiln the wax is melted and poured out of the ceramic vessel,” Blumis says.

If the wax “Orpheus” still resemble themselves, then after imprisonment in ceramic cocoons they look like mummies. In the foundry they are buried in a ditch, and in the boiler, heated to two thousand degrees, lay some kind of metal blanks. Jeff explains that this is not scrap metal, but bronze ingots.

“Art is always born out of garbage. From various garbage, from everything, from our lives and from the events that happen to us. And the artist wants to somehow express this, somehow talk about it,” notes the artist.

In Orpheus, Ernst Neizvestny expressed everything he had boiled after the exhibition in the Manezh. 2 December 1962 of the year Nikita Khrushchev attended the exposition dedicated to the 30 anniversary of the Moscow branch of the Union of Artists. He gave a dressing Soviet abstractionists, already well known in the West.

“I don’t understand, comrades. Here, he says, is a sculpture. Unknown. This is the sculpture. Sorry, I talked to them. When I had seen enough of this, I asked: “Comrades, gentlemen, are you real men?” Aren't you homosexuals? Do you like the West? Please!” said Khrushchev, the first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee.

A front-line soldier Unknown in 1945 was seriously injured, was considered dead and was even posthumously awarded the Order of the Red Star. Then he was not going to any West.

“Orpheus was created exactly that night after the Manege, after this famous story. He returned home, he was terribly upset. He said that he returned home, mixed clay, plaster, mixed the mixture and sculpted “Orpheus” in one night. I think this was his response to these events,” says Blumis.

In 1976, the Unknown still left the USSR. Recreated his "Orpheus" in the United States. In the estate of Blumis is stored a copy just from the first American party.

“Vladimir Vladimirovich Pozner saw it and decided that it would be a wonderful prize. And Ernst remade it especially for the Academy of Russian Television,” shares sculptor Blumis.

After smelting, the Orpheus are so hot that it is dangerous to touch them. We must wait at least a day, and then Orpheus will be freed from ceramic captivity. Then the figures will go through several more stages of processing, and they will be sent to Moscow, where they will be handed over to the stars of Russian television.

Ironically, TEFI in modern Russia is presented to people with a controversial reputation for dubious achievements. They hand over the statuette, which is produced in the camp of the main geopolitical enemy.

In their programs, TV presenter Dmitry Kiselev has repeatedly spoken negatively about the United States, but squeezes the cherished statuette with pride in his hands.

“We have a very exciting job. It would be impossible to do it without a huge team that helps us, and without a huge information school, which, of course, came out of the Vremya program,” noted Kiselev.

Two weeks after the Manezh scandal, USSR Central Television provided a report on the meeting of party leadership with artists. It was written in the same spirit of hatred: “There is a small group of artists looking at our reality from the perspective of an outside observer. They paint our life with gloomy colors, pervert it, take it away from the truth of life. Sculptor Ernst Neizvestny was trying to defend his factory of freaks in front of the crowd. ”

“He fought precisely in these conditions, where this freedom did not exist. He just needed to express himself, to affirm the fact that he could talk on any topic, be it the Crucifixion, the Centaur, or whatever came into his head. He has the right to talk about it, to talk about it, regardless of any installations from above, or aesthetic installations, or in general, what is fashionable now,” says Jeff Blumis.

This idea of ​​freedom of speech is the "Orpheus", created after the Khrushchev spacing. It’s not by chance that in the sculpture “The Tree of Life”, where the master collected all his works on a minimal scale, Unknown placed “Orpheus” in the very center.

Read also on ForumDaily:

A crushing blow to the United States: Putin’s daughters will lose their inheritance, and the ruble will collapse

Seven Hollywood Stars with Ukrainian Roots

US Department of Justice refuses to publish full report on 'Russian case'

'Clear the good name': Russian oligarch Deripaska explained why he sued the United States

Four bad habits of Americans, who notice all Russians

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.