admin – Page 15

2010/04/082020/03/11

Shop of the Utopian Clothes

PROJECT STATEMENT

This shop was created in order to remind people (be they men, women, girls or boys) that they are free, that there is true love on earth, and that they are not obligated to follow what others say, neither their parents nor the boss at work, but rather, they can find ways to solve all problems, ways to exist in this world. Their internal world (including all weaknesses, fears, and illusions) is a treasure, despite the brutal reality of everyday life which often argues against this tenderness. In the store, there are very dear things (this means that are hard to part with), and likewise, there are very cheap things. This is in accordance with a desire to make the store truly democratic. Because a dear thing can be given to any person as a reward for what he achieved, or plans to achieve, in life. The things in the store try to converse with the observer about his or her desires, longings, unquenchable hopes and dreams. These things differ from ordinary objects in that they have already conversed with people (other people wore them, and the artist pondered over them.) They are wiser than ordinary things and, it follows, much closer to the human heart. It could be said, that the FNO Shop sells things “inside out,” because unlike ordinary clothing that hides the sensitivities of its wearer as an apparatus of the collective mindset, this clothing actually reveals it. By showing a glimpse of the wearer’s soul, it manifests a relationship to the world as to an ideal lover who understands and accepts you as you are, or even as more than you are. The FNO Shop is functioning as a teaching program, a cognate-analog to the European “workshop,” that includes art therapies that the creators of FFC developed over the course of many years in its practice. In connection with this program, the store does not have ordinary salespeople; by way of contrast, there are more of therapists who are trying to reach together with a customer the level of communication that can help you to solve the problem and get charismatic in a finding your own ways for existing in the society.

The Clothes Workshop (proposal, work in progress so far)

The workshop provides tools for the participants to explore and express their inner reality.

Tabitha Kane

Continue reading “Shop of the Utopian Clothes”

2010/04/082020/03/11

Sadistic Aunt

Clothes from Lena’s aunt.
Once in our project came Lena. She came from a small town. As there it is very expensive to rent an apartment in St-Petersburg she was living at her aunt’s home. Aunt seems to be a very nice person from the beginning, but later started to be sadistic and tiresome. Lena complained about her aunt to us. We thought of a solution; how to help her?  And we created the idea of asking her to bring aunt’s album with photographs and her dresses from the past. Then we created a decision to print photographs to textile and include them to the clothes from aunt’s wardrobe. When the work was done Lena showed her aunt the objects that we created with the help of the situation. Aunt’s mind was moved; she did not expect such an extraordinary thing and was pressed by starting a kind of psychoanalyze of herself in order to understand what happened with her.  After that Lena got a kind of resistance to aunt (also for understanding her better) and managing the situation. We were proud and happy that it helped her.

2010/04/082020/03/11

Polly’s Jacket

Polly’s Jacket.

Polly had a child when she was seventeen. The child’s father, a nonconformist artist, straightforwardly warned Polly that he wouldn’t have anything to do with her or her child. You can imagine what she had to go through after giving birth, especially since her mother isn’t exactly mentally well. The letter on the jacket is addressed to an imaginary ideal lover who would rescue her from all her woes and bring happiness to her child.

2010/04/082020/03/11

Light Breath

2010/04/082020/03/11

ZOO

Dresses for the project “The Zoo”

Jacket and dress are symbolizing two hypertrophied male and female principles as a mirror image of the victory of wild capitalism in contemporary Russia . We are compo rising the binary oppositions between rich and poor classes with male and female alienation. We think that politic influence on the people s understanding of relations and our target is to show that working in this micro politic level is also very important .

2010/03/142020/03/24

“SCARLET SAILS FOREVER ! “ /2010

This drawing was made after we have gotten an invitation to exhibit the group chto delat in the legendary ICA /London . After a several years of the official refusal and the persecution of the group in Russia it was important moment of the international recognition .
Scarlet sails is a symbol of the highest target /a sublime dream . We can see the last convulsions of the black costumes ,peddled in the red sea . Black costumes symbolizing the implementers of the society . White dress in the hill it is a victory of course ).It is relating with the our FFC film Scarlet Sales which based on the story of the soviet writer Alexander Green about the immovable believe to the miracle and a dignified dream ,written in 1916-1922.

2010/01/272022/09/19

Utopian Unemployment Union 2010

Russia, 2009.
14 minutes

Utopian Trade Union for the Unemployed No. 2

Declaration

We think that art should help people.

If you’ve been fired from your job and you’re in despair,

The ballerinas of the Vaganova Academy are willing to give you a helping hand,

And even a foot, and they’ll even give you their hearts.

The monstrous alienation that exists among people will be overcome.

There can be no doubt about this.

The way we move our bodies, like how we feel, can be transformed.

When you’re suspended between spaces,

When you’re stuck between stable structures,

Then your condition is revolutionary!

Reinvent yourself!

2010/01/202020/03/11

OPENNING OF GLUKLYA & TSAPLYA EXHIBITION 15 JANUARY 2010 ST.PETERSBURG

2010/01/102020/04/20

ZOO 2008

Zoo

Zoo is the film largely focused on the concept of female solidarity.

According to our survey in collaboration with sociologists from Undependent institute of sociological research and Smolnii university /st-Petersburg ,female friendship poorely compares with male brotherhood.

Why is this happening? Answering this question can take a lifetime.

The research preceded the film. We created the situation of temporary club called «Laments about men». We have written our scenario based on listening to a number of stories. One of the women represents a wide-spread symptom of a «manlike woman», a female, whose conscience is constructed by patriarchal dominating attitudes. She is successful in her career, but pathologically unhappy in her lovelife. The other heroine represents conservative female position. She is all pity and she is unusually passive in her actions. Both women are wrong. They are the victims of the system and will continue being unfree untill they realize their symptom and strart acting.

2009/12/222020/03/11

Utopian Unemployment Union N2

Utopian Unemployment Union

In one of the rooms or transitory spaces (staircase, hallway) of the Winter Palace takes place a dance of migrant workers and ballet dancers .(Vaganovskoe uchilishe). It is a performance with a structure: first the ballet dancers teach the migrants how to dance, then the opposite. We install their national women’s dresses. In the first part the dresses are “seated” around in the chairs. In the second part these dresses are hanging from the ceiling. There is a figure of a moderator who directs the dance, like a conductor. This figure looks without gender, as an androgyn. Continue reading “Utopian Unemployment Union N2”