“We are collecting crumbs to add Crimean Tatar culture to the world heritage” – ceramist Rustem Skybin

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Kidnapping, illegal excavations, distortion of architectural monuments – more than two hundred Russian crimes against local cultural heritage have been recorded in Crimea. In addition, since the beginning of the occupation of the peninsula and for more than nine years now, Ukrainian researchers have not had access to the local museum collections and archives.

The Crimean Tatar heritage suffers the most from the Russians. Even before 2014, it was poorly researched – there were very few preserved material objects of culture, as well as researchers studying this heritage, even then. Such are the consequences of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944 and the destructive Russian colonial policy for two centuries in a row.

Research and reproduction of the Crimean Tatar culture is a challenge accepted by the ceramist Rustem Skybin. He literally collects and researches items of Crimean Tatar traditional culture, in order to recreate ceramic plates and jars.

Together with the Crimean Institute of Strategic Studies, which is engaged in researching the culture of the peninsula and recording the crimes of the Russian Federation against it, Rustem created a project “Zincir/Chain – links of memory”. From October 6 in The National Museum of Ukrainian Decorative Arts will be able to see both unique artifacts and replicas of traditional Crimean Tatar ceramics by Rustem Skibin.

In the professional community of Crimean heritage researchers, Rustem is called a “living legend” – he has been engaged in this business literally all his life. Until 2014, he worked and lived in Crimea, and after the occupation of the peninsula, he left for the capital, where he still lives. UP. Life visited Rustem’s workshops and asked about his author’s style Quru Isar and new works created for the exhibition.

Rustem Skybin

Rustem Skybin was born in Samarkand, in Uzbekistan, where his maternal relatives were deported. On his father’s side, the artist has Ukrainian roots – his grandfather is from Tokmak, and his grandmother is from the village of Skybyn, in the Cherkasy region.

The boy started studying pottery back in Uzbekistan. Since childhood, his hands have been busy with something, maybe his genes “worked”: his grandfather was a very famous watchmaker in Uzbekistan, his father worked with wood, and his uncle was interested in history.

Every summer, while the family lived in Uzbekistan, they came to Crimea, and in 1996 they finally returned to their native land.

Skibin began studying pottery in Uzbekistan

– When we arrived in Crimea, I immediately went to work at a ceramics production enterprise. He learned almost everything there in four years.

Later, in 2000, he met his teacher Mamut Churlu, from that time he started working with Crimean Tatar ornaments and crafts. At that time, the visual art of the Crimean Tatars was almost not present in the public space. Legends and fairy tales were told, and the products were mostly lost during deportation.

If they managed to take something with them, for example, products made of precious metals, they sold them in Uzbekistan in order to survive. You didn’t even think about useful ceramics when you were given an hour to assemble. First of all, they took bread and the Koran. Our family had a woman’s headscarf, the Koran and grandmother’s rosary.

After returning to Crimea, Rustem went to work at a ceramic enterprise

– How exactly did Mamut Churlu teach you?

– We traveled around the Crimea with expeditions, talked with older people, collectors. The first artifacts were found – ceramic objects. Each had a whole story behind it. And then these stories began to be put together in a puzzle, answering the question – why is it all the way it is, why are we the way we are?

I have long wanted to collect reconstructions of these objects of applied art, systematize them and transfer these objects to one of the museums. And now, with the team, we are finally implementing it within the framework of the “Zincir/Chain – links of memory” project. Our main goal is to add the heritage of Crimean Tatar culture to the world heritage by preserving and developing it.

Skibin created his author’s style

– How exactly do you present the Crimean Tatar culture in this project – what can the audience expect?

– Now we miss Crimea very much, it hurts. Therefore, in this project, I wanted to make sure that we immerse ourselves in the Crimea. From all sides. It is a sound, a smell, a look, and thoughts, and feelings.

My segment of work involves several aspects. The first is the publication of an art book, which I am working on together with the artist Dmytro Dotsenko. In a short time, I have to immerse the artist in a culture that is completely unfamiliar to him. And make a high-quality product – illustrations, which will include a ceramic object and its everyday life – interiors, exteriors, clothes, people, archetypes, ornaments, space and the whole Crimea.

The second segment is an exhibition segment, where artifacts from my collection will be presented. I also made new products based on them. Plus printed illustrations. Each element is accompanied by the voices of the Crimean Tatars.

– Tell us about these products. About their function, history.

– This is a pitcher for washing. This is not just an object – it is a whole ritual of the Crimean Tatars, Muslims. It is small, convenient in volume. You can put it on the grill – heat the water if it’s winter. It has a wide opening so that water can be poured more conveniently. And a very thin spout so that you don’t lose water when using it, because water in Crimea is very valuable.

One of the latest discoveries for me is a badie – a pot for a cradle. Only one photo that I took 15 years ago has survived. When the baby defecates, it all flows into the tub, inside of which there is an inverted hole. The void serves as a breakwater that prevents the liquid from entering the resonance and spilling out of the vessel.

Jug for washing

– How difficult is it to reconstruct such items, dishes?

– It is difficult when only fragments of some things remain. But from these elements, we understand how the details were fixed, how the thing was used.

– How much time does it take to make one product?

– You have to learn all your life, but I can do it with my hands in two minutes. That is, these conditional two minutes are worth years of research.

Skibin reproduces ceramic plates and jugs

– An interesting nuance that always has a very fine line – what is the difference between a master and a craftsman?

– In fact, I have been returning to this issue for 5-6 years. And my answer changes. I studied in such a modern institution, where they told us – you are artists! And I started working as a craftsman. And something did not work for me as an artist. For five or six years, I simply produced a product. You get up at the potter’s wheel in the morning and work until the evening – this is a craft.

A craftsman is someone who works with a ready-made concept, solution. And the artist produces this concept. The craftsman uses in his work the possessions of two or three generations, or even more. And the artist can do it himself, offer it. And if it is supported, continued for two or three generations, then it will become a tradition.

– Do you have any omens or rituals of your own before work?

– I do not believe in omens or dreams. Completely. There are no rituals. The main thing is prayer. As a rule, I start the day with a walk with my dog, then coffee and a cigarette. I arrive at the studio – another coffee, another cigarette by the stove.

The most favorite moment in my work is when you unload the oven, because you don’t know the exact result of what will come out. This is the feeling of a real birthday and presents.

“The most favorite moment at work is when you unload the furnace”

– You are already a master and work in the author’s style of Quru Isar / Kuru Isar, which means “dry partition” in Crimean Tatar. What is its special feature?

– While studying Crimean Tatar ornamentation, I began to apply it to ceramics. This is how my style appeared – Kuru Isar. From Crimean Tatar, kuru means dry, and isar means a fence. This is an engraving technique where the line is the boundary between two colors of glaze or enamel. And Isars are just irrigation canals in the Crimea, which helped drain away moisture.

The principle is not to mix, but to separate the space. The style has already become known, registered.

– Do you have students?

– Yes, many people work in this style in Crimea and beyond. I am glad that a product that is specifically Crimean Tatar has appeared in Crimea. And the domestic tourist market is already filled with Crimean Tatar culture.

Skibin studies Roman Tatar ornamentation

– Do you know what is currently happening in Crimea with art, in particular, Crimean Tatar art?

– I know, and it is very difficult to comment censoriously. Russia is engaged in cultural looting there. The whole “machine” is working there to ensure that we don’t exist – Ukrainians don’t exist, Crimean Tatars don’t exist. Having once deported the entire Crimean Tatar people, they banned even the nation. Crimean Tatars were not recorded in the passport as a nation for some time.

What products??!! These are not Crimean Tatars. These are ancient Greek, Mongolian, maybe someone else’s. Or leveled – it’s a waste, it’s a village. And they impose their own. If you accept, you become them.

In Crimea, classes taught in the Crimean Tatar language are closed. We do not see development or a state program to support Crimean Tatar art, the Crimean Tatar flag is banned. It was the same in the 30s. In all occupied territories, we see complete destruction in different ways. Either physical or transforming you into a Russian who does not remember his own.

Skibin’s works will soon be shown at the exhibition

– You said that you formulated your own formula of self-identity. what is she

– It consists of five elements. If one of the elements disappears, then we lose ourselves. The first is the attitude to the outside world – this is space: sea, mountains, land. The second is the relationship to the inner world in the context of religion and philosophy. The third is the physical body (medicine, physical education, hygiene). The fourth is language, folklore. And the fifth is visual art: architecture, ornamentation, decor.

Rustem is called a “living legend”

The project “Zincir/Chain – links of memory” is implemented with the support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation, in partnership with the National Museum of Ukrainian Decorative Arts, Kyiv State Academy of Decorative and Applied Arts named after Mykhailo Boychuk, State Enterprise “Krymskyi Dim” and NGO “El-Chebyer”. .

Iryna Golizdraespecially for UP.Kultur

Read also: “We are racing against time”: about the cultural code of the Crimean Tatars

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