Follow the road

Making a new video.

The work is fully about Zhukovsky, and partially is an attempt to make a work that would free all 6 May prisoners. The case that worries me so much now. I have been helping out with translations for the international campaign, and the absurdity of the accusations and the court process are no less but reminding one what happened during Pussy Riot hearings, and led them to Siberian prisons.

So the recent work is fully about Zhukovsky. It is about a road in the city - Tupolevskoe shosse. I am using digital, google, and video stills from the documentary material. This is my first video of war on Russian government.

It is also totally about the emergence of the new Russian subject - Zhukovsky freedom defender, Zhukovsky activist, caring citizen, green activist. In dedication to my honourable friend Alexey Gaskarov who is imprisoned by the Putin's prosecution because of this fear of Russian people.

I am extremely influenced by Kety Chukhrov's writing on theatre and Schubert. On non-democratic nature of art.

I may be attempting to present the piece in London this autumn with the live sound - when I learn how to play Schubert's sonatas better, and when, of course, all 6-May people would be enjoying freedom. Or else, hopefully somewhere in Russia.

Sviatoslav Richter's performance is very important for this project:

Alexey Gaskarov, 6 May hostage of Putin's government.

My friend, antifascist and activist Alexey Gaskarov was arrested a week and a half ago in Russia, in our home city Zhukovsky. He is arrested in connection with Bolotnaya square case, that is now under international investigation that will "evaluate the events from the point of view of human rights observance, accordance of Russian legal norms to the international standards and with taking into account the existing law-enforcement practices in Russia." The case now counts 28 political prisoners, where most of the prisoners are accused of violent disorder. This 28 include students, professors, activists, young kids, and many people of my generation.
The Bolotnaya square case started a year ago on a 6 May Demonstration, that was a big protest rally opposing the inaugration on Vladimir Putin as a president of Russia. I went there too, together with all Zhukovsky "Save Tsagovky forest campaign" and Alexey Gaskarov. I am really outraged that a witness claims given by a riot police officer, known to lie in court before is taken seriously by Russian court that now locked Alexey for 2 month on remand.

Last year during the Bolotnaya square on the 6 may, Alexey was seriously beaten-up by the police  and I have witnessed injuries he suffered there. Also there are several on-line videos that show riot officers kicking him in the head. (Police there is a bit more ruthless and criminal than on the West.) Despite that horror of violence on Bolotnaya square is behind, there is new moment of violence facing Alexey. Horror of Russian prison. Of course he is not new to it, as he already had his time on trial, and was proved innocent of organising violent disorder two years ago. This case happened in  connection with forest defence campaign in Khimki, Moscow region town. Then he was supported internationally by antifascist movement and many many different indifferent people in Russia. This is what is starting to happen now again, and we try to campaign as much as we can, internationally for the freedom of Alexey and other 6 May hostages. We know there must be a place for justice in Russia. There is no more demand than for the Russian juridical system to prosecute criminals not those who are innocent.

I really hope Alexey is going to be free very soon. He would be where he deserves to be - with his family, with his lovely fiancée, with his comrades, in the city that needs him.  Our grassroots movement of people of Zhukovsky that I totally identify myself with  and support really suffers seeing its active participant being dragged into this horror of Putin's repressions.

For more information on Bolotnaya square international investigation: 6maycommission.org
Miriam Elder's article in the Guardian about Bolotnaya protest 
Follow the case of Gaskarov on (mostly Russian) twitter @gaskarov_info 
I also twitt on Gaskarov's case a lot @electrovolk 
Web: gaskarov.info 

If you want more information or would like to offer help you can either use any of those resources, or contact me.

At the 6 May solidarity picket in London.

Free Alexey Gaskarov!

CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW

ALINA (PURE ART), CYAN, MAGENTA, YELLOW from Tatiana Baskakova on Vimeo.

Lecture about Lenin, video

Lecture about Lenin, EBRD, London from Tatiana Baskakova on Vimeo.

Still really like this print of 2009.

Open Call for current interns gallery workers and volunteers

Friendly group of London gallery ragpickers works on something very interesting...

Deadline 30 April.

RAGPICKERS invite current interns, volunteers and casual workers to join them in RAGPICKERS SHOW, a project which is dedicated to the problem of unpaid labour and exploitation in the contemporary art field. The project is intended to blur the difference between the artistic and forensic by exploring the format of a critical quasi-exhibition.

RAGPICKERS SHOW will display ‘artifacts’ - material traces, residues or recorded testimonies - collected by participants that testify to the work undertaken within various art organisations. We invite you to contribute worthless ‘ragged’ objects accompanied by your personal stories of labour relating to the ‘artifacts’ from the following categories (or of a similar kind):

1. Forensic evidence of all kinds of labor, it could be any leftover material gathered from your work at: the office, (de)installation of a gallery show, an event or a private view. You can submit anything from the remains of wall support and traces of paint to empty bottles, unwanted print outs, shredded papers, etc.

2. Audio, visual, photo or written documentation from the day-to-day assistance with the running of the gallery space. RAGPICKERS wish to build up an archive of unpaid working experiences that are unfair, absurd, or abusive, but were originally disguised with the initial promise of ‘valuable insight’ and ‘exciting opportunity’. All the materials in the collective exhibition are planned to be curated in a manner of a typical gallery show, accompanied with explanatory texts or display blurbs indicating practices of ungrateful labour.

The project aims to raise a wider public awareness and draw media attention to the exploitation and discrepancies that lie at the core of the art system. Simultaneously, it will function as a space for the exchange of personal experiences, ideas, and knowledges. Please send us an email indicating what material you would like to show before the 30th of April. We can also help you to record your testimony. If you have any further ideas or questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

ragpickersgroup@gmail.com
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Chto Delat?

In Berlin I had an amazing chance to work on a learning play with Russian artist group Chto Delat?. Met amazing people, and would never ever regret this trip and the participation in the Former West. Thank you all for being a part of this highly educative and thought/action provoking project. Thank you for being a utopian community. Thank you for sharing this experience and knowledge. It was a pleasure/ it was hard work.

Jeremy Lee (Artist in Residence), Berlin 2013

 

Jeremy Lee (Artist in Residence), Berlin 2013

Images by Cristina Pedreira Pérez and Jeremy Lee.
This project is a part of ResidencyShot and is a collaboration with Jeremy Lee.

I should produce some context work for this project sooner than later. Kate Moss, Occupy, macho painters...

Lenin Lecture in EBRD

Lecture about Lenin is a site-specific performance and sculpture work made for presentation in the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, the lobby of its London office. 15 Min speech focused on the difficulty of the representation of the revolutionary and actuality of his image. The key intention of the piece is the production of the space of ideological 'agonism'. Documented as a Lenin lecture commemorative plaque. 

documentation is by Vlada Maria

21 February 2013

Key quote for Leninana series:

"Today we should open the polemical, critical function - fill it out, diffuse it, impose it. I don't particularly know how, but I am certain that it needs to be done. We are seeing all kinds of strange things now. When people talk about certain things, self-censorship is so strong, that not only certain terms such as 'revolution,' 'vanguard' and 'communism' have been erased from memory, but also certain historical names, such as Robespierre and Lenin. The maximum, I believe,  was achieved with the exclusion of Saint-Just from a recent dictionary of French Revolution. I don't really know how reintroduction of these words and these personalities into the minds of out contemporaries could be done, bit I know for sure that it will be beautiful or will not happen at all."

Antonio Negri, Art & Multitude, (Polity Press, 2011) pp. 61-62

Contested Frequences Opening

Contested Frequencies: The Position of a Woman

This group exhibition aims to consider the state of a female voice in global culture. By installing contemporary art works within EBRD architecture, the exhibition will transform the social and transitory space of the first floor lobby into an area for debate – proposing a new collective experience. This non-traditional exhibition venue will invite new audiences to confront and reflect upon works that address the issues of social and cultural relations. It questions the possibilities for new modes of activism, fluctuating gender identities in a new economic landscape, expands the spectrum of feminist discourse, and challenges the political role of art in resisting the present. Contested Frequencies presents the work of four female artists of Eastern European background – Tatiana Baskakova, Taus Makhacheva, Yelena Popova, and Maria Kapajeva. The exhibition reconsiders the relationship between aesthetics, resistance and the visual in a fluctuating and anxious political climate. The selected works examine the impact of a female position in revolutionary action (Tatiana Baskakova), configure new strategies for structural painting (Yelena Popova), mine lingering histories and cultural traditions of post-soviet Dagestan and address the emerging homogenization of space (Taus Makhacheva), and reveal economic transformation of human relationships through a nuanced naiveté of online matchmaking (Maria Kapajeva).

Curated by Julie Solovyeva


Opening: Thursday 21 February from 17:30-20:30

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD),  Auditorium Foyer
One Exchange Square
London EC2A 2JN
Nearest Tube station: Liverpool Street


View Larger Map 

Admission is free, but prior registration via EBRDevents@ebrd.com is essential. 
Please note that all guests are required to bring a picture ID and may be subject to random bag searches.


Round table discussion "Women in Russian Art: New Prospects for Feminist Practice": Thursday 21 February at 19:00 in the Auditorium.
Organised by EBRD in partnership with Pushkin House. Speakers include Katy Deepwell, Natalia Gluklya, Natalia Kamenetzkaya, and Natalia Budanova. Chaired by Dr. Rosalind P. Blakesley. 

For more information, please visit  Pushkin House website or EBRD website.

This is a link to Facebook event, and please do not hesitate to ask any questions. 

Leniniana: Save the date

For those following this and my work please save 21 February for the special event held in an undisclosed location. More info to follow soon. We are working on an exiting production...

GlogauAIR Guest project: Residency SHOT

If you ask me for the plans... I am very very excited and happy about being a part of this experimental project. It will take place this March 17-23 in Berlin.

Curated by Victoria Burgher and Erifili Missiou.

With: Tatiana Baskakova (Russia) // Victoria Burgher (England) // Terry Dynes (N. Ireland) // Jeremy Lee (China) // Erifili Missiou (Greece) //  Cristina Pedreira (Spain)

Design by Cristina Pedreira
GlogauAir website

Documentation shots from Mile End

The New Man, Sat 19 Jan, Mile End Art Pavilion

Tatiana Baskakova’s performance The New Man is a playful exploration of Soviet monumentality, and a concept of a new Soviet man that was supposed to emerge under communism. In the process of re-thinking Socialist Realism, bodily representation specific to the Soviet propaganda image is decontextualised and re-linked to the individual subject. She also explains that this performance is made specially for contemplation though the dark windows of the Mile End Art Pavilion and it is  inspired by Victor Pelevin’s definition of Sputnik as a “four-tailed spermatozoon of the future that never came true.”

Other performers of our lovely, carefully curated programme are

Cecilia Granara & Beatrice Bonafini

Maghsood Salehi

Nima Esmailpour

Zou Zhao

Lori Ho

TJ Hwang + Nicholai Jensen

Francesco Benenato

 And my lovely sister Anna Baskakova will present a social sculpture/ performance/ ceramic experiment with tea, plus some screenings. For more information please follow the link.

UPDATE:

documentation of the performance:

 

Information on the current show

Untitled (After Socialist Realism), 2012-13, Mile End Art Pavilion

The works presented in this exhibition are made as an experimental extension of the language of Baskakova’s performances dedicated to a former Olympic gymnast and a deputy Alina Kabaeva. Along with feminist critique triggering a dialogue about the relation of sport and politics which points to Russia’s nostalgic turn to the Soviet Union – a state of gymnasts, skaters, and nuclear rockets, this performances were dedicated to the exploration of the constructivist idea of object-comradeship.

Untitled, 2012-13 is an installation that struggles to define its presence between 2D and 3D format. It is a new attempt to produce a historical reinterpretation for Soviet and post-soviet experience, and made to reflect current Russian desire for self-transformation, justice and true political representation. Objects and images are aesthetically composed and loaded with potential to enact their functions in labour and play. 

6 May, 2013 is a piece referring to the Moscow protest rally known to be provoked into violence by police and security service. Here, gravity seems to be one of the key natural forces that needs to be overcome for political transformation. It is not only the sports people turned deputies who can make such tricks.  A triplet scout boy stands on his head on the snow exposed in his near naked vulnerability. Is this a reference to a new generation that will lead future of carnivalesque change that melts the snow  of the new political winter?

Video Alina (Yellow), 2012 is a piece refused to be presented in III Moscow Young Art Biennale, for its presence of controversial figure of Alina Kabaeva: a new taboo subject for critique in Russia due to her close alliance to top governmental figures. Censoring yellow circle was originally invented as a decomposing Malevich-like refusal of realist image in search of purity. Here it is made to evade and self-censor the reference to the youthful appearance of the former gymnast borrowed from Japanese Olympic documentary.

The Mile End Art Pavilion
Clinton Rd
London E3 4QY

Open 9-19 Jan, 12pm-6pm
Private view: 10 Jan, 6pm-9pm
website and information about other artists

Mile End Art Pavilion, till 19 Jaunary. 12am-6pm.

❤

To put things on their head first. To the 6 May. Russian Style

(Next Show preview ❤❤❤)

Strange impression...Exhibition @ Art Pavilion, 09/01 - 12/02

This is the new upcoming exhibition of nine artists working in London.

Open 9-12 Jan, 12pm-6pm

Performance night & Private view 10 Jan, 6pm-9pm

The Mile End Art Pavilion
Clinton Rd
London E3 4QY

Our Tumblr 

Event on Facebook for further information

I am planning to present a new set of works that attempt to reflect Russia's new and not so new condition of political repression and also silence about it that comes together with some people's aspiration to fight for their freedom and for the new dialogue about the state.

Preparation for the show was totally concerned with the development of the language of my Alina performances (in dedication to Alina Kabaeva), so accordingly this work seeks to extend the discourse of bodily politics and systems of state representation. State where parliamentary woman are former Olympic stars, and where bodies are repressed on the streets and though prison regimen is something I try to show. This space is not very different in some things from other spaces in the West: There is a difficult relation to sport in every country where it had already became a top mass media phenomenon. So this work is not made to maintain the difference, but rather to interrogate common conditions and specific cases. 

But still tis pieces are loaded with political references - that could be easier for Russian (politicized) viewer, but otherwise they are not very important. Object-relationships, and politicized body are the key concerns, but I do try to seek some carnivalesque opening of my subject - and this is exactly what happens with the light box boys and Alina video screen.

White ribbon became a symbol for some of those who walked on the streets of Moscow a year ago to protest electoral fraud and injustice. I do try to extend this to my complicated reading of the parliamentary gymnast figure Alina Kabaeva, and ribbon as a beautiful gymnastic gear... 

This work also tries to open itself closer to the issues presented in Deineka's Socialist Realist paintings. I am dealing with it in relation to the opposition of collective and individual, with new attempts to emphasise collective outside of senseless mass ornament of isolated subjects that were investigated in my Mass ornament series. This is the socialist optimism I want to inherit from artists like Deineka: I think it is something that people of Bolotnaya square, and myself among them really need for the reconciliation of post-soviet ruthless capitalism. I want to re-animate this feelings of socialist collectivity.

15-December

 

The textrual and material properties of this pallet are for appropriation. and more wood to come soon.

This illustration was played-out for the show in Zhukvsky. This is very important now. Gesture and women's piss. I would like to make  a show about it.

Lina's photographs of 2011

 Lina documented some parts of my home in Russia, when I worked there in 2011, before foing back to the UK, for my Art and Politics MA. These images are deeply influential for my thinking of the show "Local Untopias" that i've opened in Zhukovsky at the time. It gives some visual insight into what was going on in my head, and some lines of thinking i am updating now with passion.

 My new flower at the time, "Gaskarov's Freedom"- to celebrate the positive conclusion of Alexei Gaskarov's court case.

I would reuse some of the "boy" copies and selected images from the fridge above.

Special attention to hand gestures.

CUNTemporary night: Queering traditions documentation

ALINA (PURE ART), CYAN, MAGENTA, YELLOW, 2013

 

Very beautiful night it was, a lot to learn from CUNTemporary girls and Giulia Casalini. As usual left Alina's to those who liked them.  In other ways it was a usual version of Alina (Pure art), but with different colour. Being more specific about cuntemporary printing process I am using cyan, magenta and yellow.

 Pinky triangle > Cuntemporary special. 

Enormous pleasure to show along Teresa Buskova and others. Inspirational.