5.9.13

Stalin as the naughty child




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.


See the full performance:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2bQDxX6bzU


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