This three-part spectacle explores the possibility of communication between humans and non-human agents — bees, birds, and plants. The performance included vocal and performative elements, such as audience interaction with large puppets. Costumes were created for ten performers, with all fabrics hand-dyed. Additionally, together with composer Roman Zhaurav, musical instruments were developed. The puppets were handmade, representing 'spirits of the hive,' transparent with large sculptural heads and slender limbs that create a strange plasticity.
composer - roman zhaurav, photo - sergey zakharov. shown on the Archstoyanie festival in Nikola-Lenivets
Attunements
2023-24
“Gorky. SLON” is a repertoire play about Maxim Gorky’s trip to the Solovki Islands (SLON). This performance is an attempt at an open conversation about the repressions in Russia in 2023. The text is based solely on historical material. After a trip to the Solovetsky camp in 1929, Gorky wrote an essay about the clean barracks, well-fed prisoners, and the necessity of labor camps. The entire system of Gulag camps was later built upon the experience of the Solovetsky camp. For me, this performance is about a person who, immersed entirely in a culture of violence, not only justifies this violence but also considers it a necessary sacrifice. The set design features a rocky island, based on a tactical model used by the military. Throughout the performance, actors actively interact with the set; there is a movable mechanism that alters part of the landscape — mountains turn into plains and vice versa. At the end of the performance, the actors arrange human heads on the set, visually transforming it into bodies covered with blankets. This scene echoes a photograph from the infirmary of the Solovetsky camp.
director - Asya Litvinova, photo - Alexey Smirnov. staged in the GULAG History State Museum in moscow
The performance by Olga Tsvetkova is based on her personal experience of living through the death of a close person. For Olga, the image of the body was significant, representing something heavy and uncomfortable.
My costume included several references — clothing worn by homeless people lying on the street, which is often oversized and completely conceals the person, and the image of a bird with one heavy wing. The costume alters the performer's body, restricts movement, and creates a strange plasticity reminiscent of an "injured bird."
author and performer - Olga Tsvetkova, composer - Iannis Xenakis, drums - Peter Glavatskih, photo - Yekaterina Malygina. shown on Antigel festival - Geneva Switzerland (2024), Ground Solyanka gallery - Mosсow (2024), Alexandrinsky Theater New Stage - St. Petersburg (2023), Peredelkino art center - Mosсow (2023) and other platforms
This dance performance was based on the texts of N. Leskov and explores the roots, the past, and the starting point.
The entire set is constructed with the use of various types of salt. The costume was covered in wool, which we crafted with seams made from disassembled wigs. It was important to establish a connection with the steppe landscape through the use of materials and to create a performer image that reflects the personality of a specific individual. Inside the set, I worked with projections of steppe landscapes onto a wall made of salt bricks.
choreographer - Valya Lutsenko, composer - Vladimir Gorlinsky, photo - Anna Todich
The project focuses on the traditional Russian phenomenon of skomorokhi. Each performer was assigned a specific element, such as iron, which served as the basis for the costume design and overall imagery. The costumes themselves feature numerous sculptural details that possess unique acoustic properties, including a metallic mask, a shield made from antique trays, ceramic bones, wings crafted from hardening plastic (‘worbla’), a net made of wire and fabric, and a wooden board with branches. In this project, I am interested in the transformation of the body into a sculpture and a frozen object that we examine closely.
director & producer - me, co-director - Alexey Prokofiev, composer - Mikhail Marushkin, choreographer - Olga Tsvetkova, photo - Polina Gisich. staged in Stanislavsky Electrotheatre
The performance, based on Maggie Nelson's text Bluets, is about the experience of illness and gradual recovery, supported by the hidden ordinary beauty that constantly surrounds us. For the performance, numerous sound objects were created, including six plaster sculptures in the form of body parts with columns installed inside. Another example of a sound object created is a musical instrument made up of ten aquariums, which gradually filled with water during the performance from a large canister located above the audience. The process of water filling was being controlled by using of a special control panel with taps. Additionally, each aquarium was connected to a piezoelectric microphone.
director - Danya Lepeshin, scenography, drawings and costumes by me. the participants of the project: Anya Pronina, Kirill Kukushkin, Teya Spector, Alina Darvai, Mika Sogoyan, and Nina Messerer
This film is the result of a laboratory that we created with friends. It was a collective project in which we, inspired by German Expressionism, collaboratively developed the script, searched for locations, and organized the filming process.
2021
zu ye fa - FAMIREMI
2019
The video is a mysterious story about kids playing hide-and-seek in the forest. The costumes were made with a plastic wrap and cotton textiles manually by me.
