Interview by Ernesta Šimkutė and Elizaveta Mikhailova
Media activist collective Kafe-Morozhenoe: Nastya Dmitrievskaya, Daria Iuriichuk with the participation of Katerina Shiryaeva
Shown: MMOMA (Moscow Museum of Modern Art). Space For Art. Conflict Check (August 4 — September 26, 2021)
Filming: Avtandil Chachanidze
Editing: Nastya Dmitrievskaya, Daria Iuriichuk
Set design: Katerina Shiryaeva
Make-up: Yasha Zhukova & Alesya Lavrinovich
Publications: Sasha Shestakova. Revolutionary Interruption. Future Studies, 2021
Shown: MMOMA (Moscow Museum of Modern Art). Space For Art. Conflict Check (August 4 — September 26, 2021)
Filming: Avtandil Chachanidze
Editing: Nastya Dmitrievskaya, Daria Iuriichuk
Set design: Katerina Shiryaeva
Make-up: Yasha Zhukova & Alesya Lavrinovich
Publications: Sasha Shestakova. Revolutionary Interruption. Future Studies, 2021
The video essay “Sorry, but I Have to Interrupt You at This Point” looks at the Social Darwinist approach to precarious labour, which remains persistent in multiple contexts, stretching across borders. In “Sorry, but I Have to Interrupt You at This Point,” artists use a local case study – a public discussion about the “Nemoskva” exhibition, which took place in Pushkin Museum on September 4, 2020. In the video, they refer to it as a “collective hallucination,” which allows perceiving the reality, crafted by capitalism and the state as only one of the possible worlds. The arguments used by those who maintain the status quo of the capitalist system seem recognizable within multiple contexts both inside and outside Russia. The artists conduct an archaeological investigation of capitalist metaphors and exploitative language. This language can be easily spotted and recognized in multiple other colonial contexts. Similarly, the language of not “spitting in the well.” (Russian for “biting the hand that feeds you”) seems even too familiar for anyone who has ever engaged in a critique of an institution. The visual metaphors of the exploitative institutional discourse created by “Kafe Morozhenoe” reveal its absurdity and allow for multiple future solidarities based on discontent and disloyalty to art institutions. (Shestakova)
Media activist collective Kafe-Morozhenoe (Nastya Dmitrievskaya, Daria Iuriichuk) and a working group
Radical Reveries, 2021
Self-adhesive film, latex print, matte lamination, 140×732 сm. Courtesy of the artists
Working group: Dmitry Bezuglov, Ilya Budraitskis, Angelina Burliuk, Maria Dmitrieva, Elena Ishchenko, Nikolay Spesivtsev, Ilona Voytkovskaya, Dina Zhuk
Designer: Ulyana Bychenkova
Shown: Garage Museum of Contemporary Art. Assuming Distance: Speculations, Fakes, and Predictions in the Age of the Coronacene (March 26 – August 1, 2021, Moscow), DOMIE, ODKSZTAŁCENIE / ДЭФАРМАЦЫЯ / UNLEARNING (07.10–03.11.2021, Poznań)
Publications: Греза как метод. Немного о сновидческом социально-художественном проектировании. Colta, 26 июля 2021(rus)
Radical Reveries is part of a broader collective’s research focused on the system of resource distribution and the way it influences the functioning of contemporary art in Russia. In particular, Kafe-Morozhenoe is interested in the interlinkages between the politics of redistribution and recognition, as described by philosopher Nancy Fraser. According to Fraser, any fair system has to satisfy two conditions: first, all participants must have sufficient resources to allow them to speak independently and second, institutional models must ensure equal respect and social esteem for everyone. Having selected collective analytical and speculative mapping of the workspace of Russian contemporary art as their method for the project, Nastya and Daria organized a series of discussions (“laboratories”) with creative workers, aiming to draw a collective (and long-needed) map of problematic topics. Another goal of the project, as reflected in its title, was prognostic, or speculative: having outlined the issues, participants allowed themselves to “disturb the very fantasy that happiness can be found in certain places” (Sara Ahmed) and created a kaleidoscope of projective ideas, from political utopias to concrete practical suggestions. Artist Ulyana Bychenkova has depicted the prototypes of these reveries and discontents resulting from the discussions as diagrams that are presented as part of the exhibition and have been issued as a zine. The findings of the “laboratories” will also form the basis of public discussions that will take place during the exhibition. (Savchenko)
Choreographer & performer. Created in collaboration with a director Ada Mukhina and a dramaturg Olga Tarakanova. Based on the play by Gary McNair (tr: Anna Zhovtis).
Sound design: Alica Kibin
Set design: Sofa Skidan
Costume design: Anastasia Kizilova
Light design: Elena Perelman
Performers: Alexandra Dolgova, Alice Kibin, Anastasia Kovalchuk, Ada Mukhina/Ekaterina Abramova, Kolya Neukolln, Olga Tarakanova.
Premiered - June 4, 2019, at the Meyerhold Theatre Center (Moscow, Russia).
The winner of the Black Box Residency 2018/2019 at the Meyerhold theatre center. Chosen for the off-program "Mask Plus 2020" (Russian National Theatre Award "Golden Mask").
Sound design: Alica Kibin
Set design: Sofa Skidan
Costume design: Anastasia Kizilova
Light design: Elena Perelman
Performers: Alexandra Dolgova, Alice Kibin, Anastasia Kovalchuk, Ada Mukhina/Ekaterina Abramova, Kolya Neukolln, Olga Tarakanova.
Premiered - June 4, 2019, at the Meyerhold Theatre Center (Moscow, Russia).
The winner of the Black Box Residency 2018/2019 at the Meyerhold theatre center. Chosen for the off-program "Mask Plus 2020" (Russian National Theatre Award "Golden Mask").
Male sexist texts performed by female bodies. Locker Room Talk is a utopian performative conference that explores the self-titled documentary collection of male sexist monologues and conversations recorded by Scottish playwright Gary McNair.
Created by the female* team, the performance stages bodily resistance to the humiliating discourse and functions as a site for affective knowledge production. Instead of performing the piece we quoted and described the most striking parts of these conversations and deconstruct the situations that these men refer to. Genres of presentations, each based on one chapter of a playing range from "instruction paper" to "success story" and "verbatim rap". Locker Room Talk culminates in a "training episode", which, through Forum Theatre, invites willing audience members to challenge the use of sexist language and sexist communication strategies on stage.
Created by the female* team, the performance stages bodily resistance to the humiliating discourse and functions as a site for affective knowledge production. Instead of performing the piece we quoted and described the most striking parts of these conversations and deconstruct the situations that these men refer to. Genres of presentations, each based on one chapter of a playing range from "instruction paper" to "success story" and "verbatim rap". Locker Room Talk culminates in a "training episode", which, through Forum Theatre, invites willing audience members to challenge the use of sexist language and sexist communication strategies on stage.
Devised in collaboration with Ada Mukhina, Olga Tarakanova, Alena Papina
Sound design: Leonid Imennyh
Media design: Katya Pislari
Set design: Aleksandra Alekseeva
Light design: Sergey Vasiliev
Performers: Alena Papina, Olga Tarakanova, Daria Iuriichuk, Ksenia Anikeeva, Asya Belaya, Natalya Zaitseva, Nu Simakina.
Premiere — October 1, 2019, At The Meyerhold Theatre Center (Moscow, Russia).
Selected For The Russian Case 2020 Of The Golden Mask, National Theatre Award
Publications: Caries Of Capitalism: A Statement (eng)
Sound design: Leonid Imennyh
Media design: Katya Pislari
Set design: Aleksandra Alekseeva
Light design: Sergey Vasiliev
Performers: Alena Papina, Olga Tarakanova, Daria Iuriichuk, Ksenia Anikeeva, Asya Belaya, Natalya Zaitseva, Nu Simakina.
Premiere — October 1, 2019, At The Meyerhold Theatre Center (Moscow, Russia).
Selected For The Russian Case 2020 Of The Golden Mask, National Theatre Award
Publications: Caries Of Capitalism: A Statement (eng)
A politically engaged participatory performance about precarity, money, and labour in the theatre industry.
Caries (cavity) of Capitalism was born as a joke about the similar pronunciation of the words 'caries' and 'precarious' in a lunchtime conversation in search of commons during a week-long BlackBox Residency at the Meyerhold Theatre Centre in Moscow, unpaid and providing no food and accommodation.
We aimed not only to share our personal experience and concerns but to raise the general awareness of precarity and to mobilize the community. So we invited four more precarious theatre workers to join our team. During the rehearsal month of (modestly) paid work, they designed their projects addressing precarity and exploitation. On stage, they present their ideas to the public and compete for a quarter of the money earned from tickets, while Alena, Daria, and Olga provide information on precarity and reflect on whether Caries of Capitalism could be considered less exploitative than 'BlackBox Residency', or if the performance is just another project that disguises bad working conditions as subversive art.
Caries (cavity) of Capitalism was born as a joke about the similar pronunciation of the words 'caries' and 'precarious' in a lunchtime conversation in search of commons during a week-long BlackBox Residency at the Meyerhold Theatre Centre in Moscow, unpaid and providing no food and accommodation.
We aimed not only to share our personal experience and concerns but to raise the general awareness of precarity and to mobilize the community. So we invited four more precarious theatre workers to join our team. During the rehearsal month of (modestly) paid work, they designed their projects addressing precarity and exploitation. On stage, they present their ideas to the public and compete for a quarter of the money earned from tickets, while Alena, Daria, and Olga provide information on precarity and reflect on whether Caries of Capitalism could be considered less exploitative than 'BlackBox Residency', or if the performance is just another project that disguises bad working conditions as subversive art.
Co-author, co-creator, performer. Created in collaboration with zh-v-yu dance group.
Shown: SDVIG Studio for the Performing Arts (Saint Petersburg, November 7, 2018), Multimedia Art Museum (Moscow, January 28, 2019), "What if they came to Moscow" showcase, CC ZIL (Moscow, March 23, 2019), Shelter (Helsinki, 7 June 2019), Hellerau (Dresden, January January 24-25, 2020), Kleine Humbolt Gallery (Berlin, February 1, 2020).
Shown: SDVIG Studio for the Performing Arts (Saint Petersburg, November 7, 2018), Multimedia Art Museum (Moscow, January 28, 2019), "What if they came to Moscow" showcase, CC ZIL (Moscow, March 23, 2019), Shelter (Helsinki, 7 June 2019), Hellerau (Dresden, January January 24-25, 2020), Kleine Humbolt Gallery (Berlin, February 1, 2020).
Welcome to our garden! Peep, listen, sniff! Stare, inhale, absorb! Enjoy! Here women and flowers spray the vital forces of nature. Do not get off the tracks! In our collection of flora and fauna women are presented side by side with other objects of wildlife.
The Garden is a collection of exotic plants, searching for power in vulnerability. It is a research of affect and hybridity ironically built around the concept of objectification.
By monotonous hips-shaking, performers generate energy and charge the space and objects, mutate and allow other forms of life to express themselves. In search of images nobody has ever seen before, the creatures that have never existed, the Garden transforms into the pure experience of where the body ends and starts.
The Garden is a collection of exotic plants, searching for power in vulnerability. It is a research of affect and hybridity ironically built around the concept of objectification.
By monotonous hips-shaking, performers generate energy and charge the space and objects, mutate and allow other forms of life to express themselves. In search of images nobody has ever seen before, the creatures that have never existed, the Garden transforms into the pure experience of where the body ends and starts.
Choreographer & performer. Performed in collaboration with the zh-v-yu dance group
Shown: SDVIG Studio for the Performing Arts (Saint Petersburg, 7.04.2018) and CCZIL (Moscow, 16.12.2017, 16.06.2018)
Based on my academic research "Fabrics of cinematics Screen Surfaces in Contemporary Visual Culture" (2018) awarded in 2017 as Best Student Research Award (HSE)
Shown: SDVIG Studio for the Performing Arts (Saint Petersburg, 7.04.2018) and CCZIL (Moscow, 16.12.2017, 16.06.2018)
Based on my academic research "Fabrics of cinematics Screen Surfaces in Contemporary Visual Culture" (2018) awarded in 2017 as Best Student Research Award (HSE)
Landscape For The Dead Dog is a cybernetic paysage reconfiguring the relations between the human and the non-human. Through this contact, sensuality extends beyond the human body. Landscape is a melt of surfaces which choreography rebuilds the material world in a new reality. Perception of these materials in many forms relocates dance to the viewer's imagination.
daria.yurychuk@gmail.com
