The creator of the band "Silver Wedding", actress, theater director, poet, singer and songwriter Svetlana Ben told the "Voices" blog about her new album, Berlin, about the joy of speaking and trying to write in Belarusian, about Russian "obsession" and Belarusian " obsession", and also about how court concerts taught her not to be afraid to perform alone.

"We are all in a state of trauma now"

- In the article on DW about your last year's album with Galina Chikis, it is called "post-traumatic" and they say that you immediately agree with it.

Is that so?

- I think that we are all in a state of trauma now.

Such a traumatic time.

It seems that now any art is either within the trauma or post-trauma, yes.

— But do I understand correctly that at least some of these songs were written before 2020?

- Yes, three songs from it were written earlier - "Kurtis", "Don't be sad" and "I hear seagulls".

There was no special concept - we just took those songs that resonated in our hearts, that fit our state of mind.

But when I analyzed it later, I realized that each of these songs was also written in a very traumatic state.

Only it was caused by other events and sadness from the fact that life is such a terrible and difficult thing.

Svetlana Ben and Galina Chikis on stage during the concert

"It is impossible and unnecessary to forget"

- The song "Black cans" perhaps best fits the label of "post-traumatic".

And there is a line: "To survive, I need to forget everything."

Are you really trying to forget at least some of the events of recent years - from your life, from the life of your friends?

- There is such a trap in this song - the refrain really sounds like that, but the answer to it sounds in the last words of the song.

It says that it is unlikely to succeed.

First, it is impossible to forget.

And secondly, I don't think that it should be forgotten.

The horror and trauma that we talk about all the time is that you acquire such an experience that it is impossible to live with.

You should really do hara-kiri like a samurai, or just lie down and die, covered with a white napkin.

But you can't do that.

You have to go on living, for various reasons.

Although this is an experience that is not compatible with life, when a person learns about many terrible things and realizes that he cannot live with it: with what he saw, with what he heard.

It's completely different things when we know theoretically about what happens in the world with others, and when it happens to you, to your loved ones or a step away from you, when it's a very small step to the terrible.

We talked to friends who lived in Kharkiv, and they said that, of course, like every person from Ukraine, they felt the horror of the war since 2014: they heard, read, their friends and relatives were there where military actions took place. .

But they say: "We had a completely different perception of everything until the bombs came to our houses."

A person understands something terrible, he can have as much information about it as he wants, but he really feels it only through personal experience.

- Have you had any communication with those people who, to use a line from a poem in your album, have become part of evil?

At the same time, I suspect that many of them believe that they are on the side of good: both those who participate in repression and those who participate in military aggression.

- I also have a sad experience here, because some of my relatives share pro-government views.

But maybe I was so lucky that I didn't encounter the manifestations of this evil in its pure form, face to face.

"The yard concerts helped to feel how these songs are needed"

— You recorded the album in Berlin and now you live there.

Have you already found a circle of people in this city that allows you to feel "in your own world"?

- Yes, there are many friends in Berlin who were my friends before when we came here for concerts and theater events.

These are people of the creative world, they are very touching, kind, wonderful.

These are people who for me do not belong to any nation, but belong to the creative world.

But I am very pleased that there are many Belarusians here and we can talk about common topics and do something together.

There is a wonderful organization "Together" with which we are friends.

It's good that you can hear the Belarusian language, it's good to be among your own people.

- I heard from people who were at the presentation of your album in Berlin that they asked you to sing some old hits of "Silver Wedding", and you said that they were already too late.

Does this mean that now is not the time for such songs?

- No, I don't think so.

In the repertoire of "Silver Wedding" there were many different songs, including many songs that were written after 2014, also very traumatic, sad, poignant and thoughtful.

It seems to me that many of the songs I sang together with "Silver Wedding" are relevant even now.

Perhaps some songs from that repertoire are needed now even more than some sad depressing art to which I am now prone.

But this is just such a program, made together with Galya, and it would not be very appropriate to sing those songs.

Svetlana Ben and Galina Chikis on stage during the concert

"Silver Wedding" completed its creative journey in 2016, all this time I played in some other projects, but I had some songs "on the table".

When I play my solo concerts alone as a "songwriter-performer" I often sing songs from "Silver Wedding", and they are very appropriate.

Since these are my songs, I have the right to sing them even alone, although it is not as bright and beautiful as with the whole team.

When the yard concerts began, I felt that these songs were needed.

It was such a strong push for me that I stopped worrying about singing them alone.

At that time, it was clear that if a person simply goes to people and talks to them, extends his hand to them and says: "I am with you", then this is much more important than "art in its pure form".

And it doesn't matter if I play with professional musicians, if there is a bright, beautiful projection and light, or if I'm alone with a ukulele on the street - in this case, there is no difference.

I am very grateful to our yard, because then I lost the fear of playing my songs.

I started boldly playing alone, a whole series of concerts took place, and now I play them, as well as in the fall of 2020, from now on.

"Don't let hate into your heart"

— In the same article about your new album, I read the phrase that the view of your lyrical hero is the view of a 10-11-year-old child.

And earlier, some music critics wrote that "Silver Wedding" has a lot of childish views.

Do you agree with this?

- I don't know, it's a difficult question.

Children have such an important feature that they are very interested in everything around them, they look at everything with curiosity.

And it is possible that this quality is the most important in my character.

But in general, the repertoire of "Silver Wedding" or the repertoire that Galya and I play now are songs that, unfortunately, I cannot invite children to.

"Silver Wedding" does not have children's themes at all.

I'm not even talking about profanity, but about the fact that this is the experience of a mature person who got drunk, lost things, says goodbye to one person, meets another, takes part in a fight.

This is all the experience of an adult or at least a teenager.

Therefore, it is difficult for me to say that there is a children's atmosphere in the old songs, or even more so in the current program, but there is definitely a curious child's view.

— During the protests in 2020 and after the protests, Belarusians were sometimes accused of a "childish approach".

They say, the Belarusians have not yet matured, they are not ready for any cruel actions.

What would you say to that?

— Kurt Vonnegut, my favorite writer, said this phrase that in Christ's Sermon on the Mount there are words about loving others as oneself, and if humanity ever comes up with a better idea, then humanity will have two good ideas.

Christ told us to be like children;

maybe he meant that we shouldn't be like cruel adults.

— A line from your poem in the album: "One must be afraid to become a part of evil."

Sometimes not becoming a part of evil is very difficult and dangerous for life.

Vasyl Bykov has stories where you have to sacrifice your life in order not to become a part of evil.

But someone will say that even this may not be enough: if your country is attacked, you have to use violence in response, kill the enemy, because it is a just war.

What would you say to that?

- This is a difficult question, over which all mankind is struggling throughout its existence.

But it seems to me that the most important thing is not to let hatred into your heart.

Because even if we stand on the side of justice, and our heart is full of hatred, we just become a kind of container into which this hatred flows.

In this sense, it does not differ from the hatred of those people who are on the side of violence.

We are then no different from them.

We must protect our loved ones, our land, ourselves, but remember that even if a person is the most cruel, terrible and horrible killer, we hate his actions, but we must not hate the person.

We must believe to the very last drop of our blood and his blood that something bright can awaken in him.

And that's the only way we can break this chain of evil.

A great example for me here is the conversation with Andrus Takindang.

When we met him from "sutak" - it seems he was then in Zhodzin - he told us: "It's so strange, I watched our prisoners, they treat each other so badly, they talk so badly to each other.

They have so much anger.

It seems to me that no one loves them even at home, they have no friends at work, they are generally lonely and unhappy people.

And I felt such support even in prison, now I came out - and you bring me Snickers bars and hot coffee, but no one brings them."

And he said that when he was sitting on these "days", he prayed the most for those who keep him behind bars, and thought about their soul, about the terrible situation everyone who does evil is in.

"There is a kind of "frenziness" in the Russian mentality"

- Has the large-scale war that has been going on for almost a year changed your views on something in culture?

For example, there are accusations against Russian culture that its imperialism bears some of the blame for current events.

Did you see something new now, or did you perceive everything the same way before?

- I'm reading a lot about it now, I'm interested in these thoughts.

Perhaps the fact is that I was greatly influenced by that part of Russian culture, which was dissident, in which there was just a little of this imperial view and in which there was a lot of non-conformist view of the world - informal, bold, free.

Our national culture has always been interesting to me, it was very important to me.

Rather, I am glad that many people now have an incentive to pay more attention to their native culture against the background of the questions that are being asked now.

But I did not become hostile to Russian culture.

I have many creative friends from the Russian environment, and I would perceive it as a betrayal on their part if I were to say other words now.

I respect and appreciate all these people.

They also strongly supported the Belarusian protest at the time, and now they have a bright, strong anti-war position.

It would be painful and completely vile to say that I somehow dislike Russian culture.

- I will give an example: Yehor Letov is a person whose work was anti-systemic from the beginning.

Most of his lyrics and songs are difficult to perceive as something imperial.

But even such a person was one of the founders of the National-Bolshevist Party, which in the 1990s actually promoted Russian fascism.

Then it was oppositional and supposedly marginal.

Now it has been taken over by people in power.

But even people like Letov were tempted by the idea of ​​"greatness, power".

Do you notice signs in this sense that were not so clearly seen before?

- Earlier, before this war, it was clear that this was some kind of madness on the part of Yehor Letov.

And at that time I was not at all interested in his work.

I am very glad that later he radically changed his views and went completely in some third direction.

The truth is that there have always been many radical and terrible manifestations.

There is a kind of "frenziness" in the Russian mentality, almost demonic.

By the way, "obsession" in the Belarusian language does not exactly correspond to "obsession".

An "obsessed" person is obsessed with something, he sees nothing but that, and the equivalents in the Russian language are more about the fact that you are not entirely responsible for what you do, about when you are "carried".

It's just something that never appealed to me.

"Stop the violence by all possible means"

— In one of your interviews, you said that perhaps the most important thing that art does is to teach a person to sympathize, to feel another person, to teach empathy.

But sometimes even human empathy is directed in a bad direction.

They tell you about the "killed children of Donbas" and at the same time explain that it is necessary to exterminate all those who are allegedly involved in this.

Do art and culture have some answer to make it harder for human empathy to be used for hate?

- It seems to me that any human manifestation - and empathy, and a tendency to hatred, and all other human qualities - is a very attractive thing for all means of propaganda.

And all of our traits — credulity, distrust, the desire to analyze everything, and the reluctance to analyze everything — are skillfully used by propaganda for its own purposes.

I can't boast here that I myself have a wonderful independent way of thinking.

I am also very manipulative.

It is very difficult to completely avoid it.

That's why I try not to be politically engaged in any direction, to look at every situation from different angles.

But even for people like me, there are many traps in propaganda and any manipulation.

I think that many artists have a humanistic view of reality, if we sympathize with each person from any side.

It will be difficult for us to get involved in any war if we cultivate an analytical, free and humanistic outlook.

But I am afraid that when I think at all about such delicate and complicated matters, I express very banal and superficial thoughts.

I apologize if this is the case and if I offend or disappoint someone.

I always try to listen to different sides in disputes, because the universe is so complex that there is no black and white, nor even gray - there are a billion shades of each color.

But when violence is committed, the main thing that every person should do is to stop it.

Stop by any means possible.

"It's a great pleasure for me to speak Belarusian"

- Can we expect from you - maybe not in the near future, but sometime - an album of Belarusian songs?

And do you write songs in Belarusian?

- I dream about it very much.

This is a separate topic for reflection, for conversation.

Because I am very pleased, it is a great pleasure for me to speak Belarusian.

I read a lot of literature and try to talk in every situation, if I have such an opportunity, I long for it very much.

However, when it comes to poems, it is very difficult for me and I do not succeed.

I had a long period when I just forced myself to write in Belarusian - it was terrible.

It wasn't pretty, it wasn't ironic, it wasn't interesting.

But I really want to make it work, so I try to read and talk as much as possible.

Svetlana Ben and Galina Chikis on stage during the concert