PERESTROIKA SONGSPIEL:
THE VICTORY OVER THE COUP I 2008 I 26’00”

CHRONICLES OF PERESTROIKA I 2008 I 16’46”

The film ‘Perestroika Songspiel’ deals with a key episode during Perestroika (“restructuring”) in the Soviet Union. The action of the film unfolds on August 21, 1991, after the victory over the restorationist coup. On this day of unprecedented popular uplift it seemed that democracy had won a final victory and that the people would be able to build a new, just society. The film is structured like an ancient tragedy: its dramatis personae are divided into a chorus and a group of five ‘heroes’. How did the heroes in the film see that society? The film is presented together with another work, ‘Chronicles of Perestroika’, which is made up of footage and documentation of different manifestations at the time of Perestroika from 1987 till 1991 in St. Petersburg.

 

CHTO DELAT (RUS/°2003)

The platform Chto Delat (‘What is to be done?’) was founded in 2003 by a group of Russian artists, critics, philosophers and writers with the goal of merging political theory, art, and activism. Since then Chto Delat has been producing works in video, installation, public actions, radio programmes and urban interventions. The group also publishes a newspaper. Their work is currently on view at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven. In 2007, Chto Delat were included in the U-TURN Quadrennial for Contemporary Art in Copenhagen.

The Perestroika project was realised by Olga Egorova (aka Tsaplya), Dmitry Vilensky, Natalia Pershina (aka Gluklya), Nik Oleinikov together with composer Mikhail Krutik.

Perestroika Songspiel: The Victory over the Coup, 2008
Single channel video, colour, sound, 26’00’’
Courtesy the artists