Anastasia Khoroshilova
dal 11/9/2007 al 2/11/2007
Segnalato da
11/9/2007
Anastasia Khoroshilova
Galeria Fucares, Madrid
The artist wants to bring together people of various nationalities and various religious confessions that, over time, arrived on the land of the Russian state from various other countries to live together in conditions shaped by history.
Russkie
At the peak of the period of stagnation in Soviet society, Leonid Brezhnev trumpeted
the idea of a historically new community of people - the Soviet people. This
ideological invention allowed for the presence in the structure of "the Soviet
people" of various nations and ethnicities. This early Communist and, from a
contemporary point of view, globalist tendency was designed to put an end to many
problems that Communist ideology found in connection with the so-called "national
question." Special political, social and traditional specifics would not be
repressed but would have only a local, easily managed, limited character. The
extremely various ethnic and traditional folk phenomena found among the more than
100 nationalities of the country were seen as a dry, exterior husk. A husk useful
for display in state parades, on special days for culture, national festivals, etc.
But further development of national traditions would be treated as nationalism and
punished according to the party's strict rules and norms.
Perestroika changed the situation fundamentally. Conflicts brought on by the
difficult economic situation of Russia, the worsening of inequalities and attendant
social unrest, quickly made themselves felt in the sphere of relations between
nationalities. The theory and practice of an "ideology of national superiority" is
today used constantly (and recklessly), including nationalist utterances of a
virtually open fascist kind, by Russian politicians at all levels. Currently,
everything between the Baltic Sea and the Pacific Ocean, from Kalingrad to
Vladivostok, is populated by Russians. This conception, identical with the Brezhnev
conception of a single nation, leads to a mistaken understanding and image of
post-Soviet space.
Nonetheless, I called my biggest project, "Russkie." I want to bring together people
of various nationalities and various religious confessions that, over time, arrived
on the land of the Russian state from various other countries to live together in
conditions shaped by history.
History has already conducted so many trials and experiments with these people that
constant anxiety has become their life and fate. That is why I immediately decided
for myself: even in my arbitrary visual world, I will leave them be as they are. I
do not wish to, nor do I have the right to, meddle with their reality and disturb
them once again. At the conceptual level, they became my conception.
Opening:12 september at 8pm
Fúcares Gallery
Conde de Xiquena, 12 Madrid
Free admission