Nadia
Tsulukidze sees herself as a performance artist even though throughout her
career she has been a violin player, experimented with video art- had
collaboration Khinkali juice. Her most recent performance is named Me and Stalin that was the focus of her
talk, held couple of weeks ago in Tbilisi, in the format of the Street Academy
(series of lectures organized by the Artarea, online Television about culture).
The talk focused on the research and the thought
process that preceded the performance. As unfortunate as it may seem that the
audience did not get to experience the performance, it was still a valuable
lesson for the future artists to see the depth of the study and the vitality of
critical analysis from the artist’s side.
The performance as Nadia described it starts
with the funeral of Stalin hinting at the inspiration for the work. It was
after the artist found out her grandmother, despite being an anti-communist,
had cried on Stalin's funeral and then Nadia herself feeling tears while
watching a documentary about Stalin's death, it occurred to her that this sentiment had to be investigated. What comes across as acutely felt nostalgia for the red
and carefree past is actually a deep, scrupulous investigation of the regime. It is only when the artist starts talking and
telling the story of her family, of exiled relatives one realises maybe the
tears were shed for the millions of people who actually believed and facilitated
the regime to exist, maybe these tears are of disappointment rather than of
loss.
The solo spectacle is a result of the 2-year research. As Nadia
describes it is more of the search for her identity rather than of the
dictator, the performance starts with her declaring she is to play herself. The initial interest with the subject was provoked by the concept of being
born in USSR, a country and ideology that does not exist anymore, something so
specific, quite incomparable and alien to the rest of the world. Nevertheless,
the focus of the performance was the intimate relationship of 'Me and Stalin'-of
an individual and of the public figure, a dictator, the one that had already been
long dead when the artist was born- the influence and the 'mythological fear' of a historical figure by an ordinary individual. Such attitude points to the deep strings and links these
people leave even when long gone.
The talk was accompanied by the images conducted throughout the
research of the systems that Stalin employed for controlling the population. Some of the striking ones were the prison tattoos. The composition of
the most unites the communist, Christian and criminal ideologies under singular
images. This offers only one conclusion: every social structure is based on an
ideology. Stalin aware of the vitality and the potential of the group believing
in the same ideals controlled it carefully that the lawful thieves were always
apolitical with the KGB acting as the diplomatic corpus between them and the
government- the mastermind plan of Stalin for controlling such a vast Empire.
Communism in itself can be seen as the religion and Tsulukidze drawing
parallels with Christianity, sees Stalin as the prototype of the Christ. The religious
society changed its deities, with Lenin as the God, the ideological father and
Stalin as the Christ. Christianity and religion in general is based on the
authority of an individual and the sacrifice of a private body. The prime
Christian idea of a paradise- as the motive for all the good deeds and obedience
of the rules was translated in Communism promising the greater and prosperous
future.
The performance has a nature of a fight- the artist is fighting against
the dictator- in avid desire to define power and establish one’s dominance. In
the power relations and the competition over supremacy as artist describes it,
she is fighting against the leader.
At some point Tsulukidze caressing the bust of Stalin recreates the
iconography of the Virgin Mary and the Child Christ. True to the Christian iconography, in the
posed image ‘baby Stalin’ does not look like a child as often baby Jesus looks
much wiser than an ordinary infant. Apart from religious connotations,
Tsulukidze subverts the mother-child relationship in itself. By nurturing the
leader, she demonstrates her dominance over the baby Stalin, who being
transformed into a child adopts the implied vulnerability. Being a mother
becomes associated with being a tyrant- in absolute control over body and
therefore life, the flip side of being a mother- the life-giver, nurturing and
affectionate similarly in control and capable of taking the life away. Nadia
settles the fight with the leader by becoming his mother. And she has every
right to claim her parenthood over the revived concept of the ruthless leader.
The other day she bore her Stalin to the younger generation of Georgia, for
whom the lecture was educational.
Her research of Stalin took a surprising turn when touching the figure
of Djaba Iosseliani- a very particular person in the newest history of Georgia,
who the artist sees as the prototype of Stalin and lastly, President
Saakashvili. The latter can be seen as being in a direct dialogue with Stalin.
One of the very first reforms of Saakashvili was the destruction of criminal
authorities. Zero tolerance towards these people and the institute of
authorities got some of the famous names such as Bondo Shalikiani and the likes
in prison. However, as the most recent events have exposed, the result of these
reforms was that government officials adopted the criminal mentality and
behaved in a same way as the criminal authorities.
As cleverly noted by Tsulukidze, art cannot exist outside a discourse
and art cannot exist outside politics and be apolitical- that in itself is a
political stance, which unfortunately a lot of Georgian artists struggle to
come to terms with.
Statement by Nadia Tsulukidze: http://www.boris.be/Producties/Me%20and%20Stalin.html
No comments:
Post a Comment