The residents of a nursing home in Moscow live in a closed world where they have no one to convey their memories to. Russian artists work with their stories to reflect upon the 60s era in the USSR.
Artists create a map of common narrative bringing together the shining dots that are memories of nursing home №29 residents. The Voice becomes a unique mediator guiding the viewer through time and space into the closed world of someone else's memory. It tells us not only about personal memories, but about the memory of an entire generation. Each story is one of a kind, memories mix together, take on new forms and engage with each other.
"Through Time", Vasilisa Lebedeva
This project is a collage of vivid memories where the green layers of glass symbolize the distortion of time and its veil that builds obstacles in our consciousness on our way to finding correlations and bringing back the past.
From the interview of Nadezhda Karpovna
When we came to Nepal, they couldn't speak a word of Russian, but they knew of Lenin and were saying "Lenin, Lenin, Lenin!" in Russian. They knew of Lenin. There we were building two endowment factories: agricultural tool factory — king Mahendra came to see it — and a sugar factory for processing cane, beets and everything that had sugar in it. They loved us because we were the lowest caste. We could do anything. This and that — we were allowed everything.
Through Time (21th Century) by Vasilisa LebedevaFund of cultural projects “Thursday”
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was one of the guests. Once I came up to him, I was pushed away so I said: "Why are you pushing me? We were awarded the Order of the Red Star for him”. Yuri Alekseyevich turned around, looked at me and put me next to himself.
(Svetlana Sinitsyna)
"Cribble-Crabble-Boom", Maria Chertkova
The moment when things turn into phenomena.
Cribble-Crabble-Boom (21th Century) by Maria ChertkovaFund of cultural projects “Thursday”
* Sky sees stars
cribble crabble boomFund of cultural projects “Thursday”
Space Dreams
On April 12, 1961 Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin became the first human being to travel into space. That flight was a major milestone for Soviet people. Gagarin was a national hero, his pictures were printed all over Soviet newspapers. Even his smile turned into an important symbol. Space exploration resulted in the increase of national pride and also became a source of inspiration for many artists.
Architects created interior designs for spaceships and referred to the forms of spacecrafts in the designs of living spaces and household items such as vacuum cleaners, lamps and vases. Space was one of the most popular themes in arts and poetry.
"In the Memory Maze", Marine Bartosh
The spiral movement from the fragmentary facts of monochrome texts to colour images, personal and voluminous memories, feelings and associations through the illusion of mirrors to the very center embodied in a small shell that unwinds the spiral in the opposite direction. Collaborator: Pavel Suchkov
From the interview of Andrey Bezverkhiy
Well, anyway, I have worked, I have been friends with fifty six composers. Pahmutova, Matusovsky, the poet, Dolmatovsky, Shaferan, Lisyansky, Shvedov — all of the elite has passed by me. I was talking with all of them and they visited me in Moscow. Me and Tamarochka. We have all been great friends. And I have worked with them from 1962 up to 2000. Then they slowly, you know, started going away and eventually were gone. They were wonderful people! With wonderful decency and consideration. No demonstration of superiority. And now… The relationships are completely different. People are different.
In the Memory Maze (21th Century) by Marina BartoshFund of cultural projects “Thursday”
When I was 14 years old, we lived in the Far East. My mom and dad were wishing me a happy birthday and asked «What shall we buy for you?». And I said «Mom, buy me a kilo of halva». My mother was surprised, she said that people asked for shoes, a bag or something else and I was going for halva. I do not imply that I was hungry, no, but halva was a delicacy for us.
(Bela Popova)
"Maybe, More Tea?", Amir Mamin
An important part of a tea party is sharing personal memories and life stories. There are four tea pairs with a hero's story inside each cup.
From the interview of Svetlana Sinitsyna
Among other things in the 60s there was an outdoor pool "Moscow" and we were given free monthly membership by our company, so we had the opportunity to go swimming in the pool during the winter. At this pool I met my future husband, I married him in 1964 and my surname changed to Sinitsyna.
Maybe, More Tea? (21th Century) by Amir MaminFund of cultural projects “Thursday”
In our free time we used to have dances at the factory. There were elderly people, of course, but mostly there were young people. We used to have dances in the dining room and would go there on Saturdays in our free time. Of course, they was nothing like these "shaky" dances. It was a waltz, a waltz boston, the Krakowiak, tango. There are no dances like these anymore, except probably in the movies.
(Alexandra Kuznetsova)
Khrushchyovka
In the middle of the last century housing was a burning issue for the Soviet Union: lots of people were living in barracks, dormitories and communal apartments. Several families could be living in one apartment and would have to wait in line to use a bathroom and cook on schedule.
Mass construction of apartment buildings had to solve that problem. Those buildings were meant to be in use temporarily, so they were small and inconvenient: ceilings were low, kitchens were tiny and soundproofing was poor. However, a temporary solution turned into a permanent one — hundred thousand people live in these apartments to this day.
People call apartments like these “khrushchyovka” because their construction was initiated by Nikita Khrushchev.
"Typical Housing, Typical Life", Veronika Kalacheva
A proper Soviet man shares common values like striving forward to new achievements and becoming better, faster and stronger. Any inconsistencies with the norm are condemned. Everything has to be the same: a TV in the corner, a rattling sideboard with dishes, a carpet, a floorlamp, a portrait of Sergei Yesenin on the wall and skies on the balcony. My project is about typical housing and the lives of people in it. Does typical housing mean having a typical life? Can we bring something individual into this stiff system?
Typical Housing, Typical Life (21th Century) by Veronika KalachevaFund of cultural projects “Thursday”
I was renting a room in Moscow. Tomochka and me got our own room only in the 1962. And we bought chairs as our first purchase! That was the first, the very first purchase, chairs.
(Andrey Bezverhiy)
From the interview of Raisa Dyadkina
I love collecting books. I took out a loan. It was a Bulgarian bookcase. Very beautiful. Such a good polishing. First of all, I took books on credit. There was a “Soviet Encyclopedia" library for children. Yes, then I took out a loan and got Jack London. Then I have started collecting, I’ve had Gogol, Romain Rolland, I have got Chekhov for a subscription. They gave me Gogol when I accidentally came in, They “threw it away” as we used to say before. Here, this is my pride. Books are the love of mine.
Typical Housing, Typical Life (21th Century) by Veronika KalachevaFund of cultural projects “Thursday”
He knew that I was sleeping in the room — my windows faced the garden, they were always open because of the heat in the summer and he would always sneak inside in the morning. So in the morning he would sneak in, crawl through the garden, put flowers next to me and write a card saying "I love you". I collected those postcards.
(Lyudmila Naumenko)
Carpets
A carpet was a necessary item for any Soviet apartment regardless of its owners wealth. Carpets would not only decorate the floor, but also cover several walls of the apartment. Decorating the walls with carpets was an alternative to buying wallpaper which was almost impossible to find back then.
Carpets were also used to cover holes and stains on the walls, moreover, they would soundproof a room since the walls of the Soviet apartments often were too thin. Bizarre patterns of Soviet carpets resemble a portal into the fantasy world and have become one of the most vivid memories for lots of children brought up in the USSR.
However, handmade carpets imported from Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan were not available to everyone. The lucky owners of such carpets hung them on the walls to emphasize the luxurity of their apartment decor.
"Memory Carpet", Natalia Koniukova
In the Soviet times a carpet was a symbol of comfort and prosperity and people would attach photographs of loved ones and memorable souvenirs to it. I wanted to recreate the carpet like a portal of memories and show the transformation of emotions carried through life. This idea was prompted by the memory of repairing an apartment in a house built in the 1960s. Under the old wallpaper we found a wall with a stenciled ornament and the layers of wallpaper, that were so difficult to peel off. They were the layers of time.
Memory Carpet (21th Century) by Natalia KoniukovaFund of cultural projects “Thursday”
In 1960 I bought a dress suit. It was made out of silk, a foreign one. It had a four-blade skirt and a jacket, was a very beautiful jacket with buttons. It had big flowers on it. I have been wearing it for a long time, and once when I was leaving the dacha, I put it in my bag. And I burned the rest of the things in the fire, I threw everything into the fire. Do you understand, I burned everything. (Tatyana Shestakova)
From the interview of Anatoliy Karpov
When I was still living there, they bought me a moped. Well, that first moped, you may not understand, it was such a big one, later they started making it with small wheels, but back then it had big wheels, it was very reliable. We rode it with the whole family. It was blue, beautiful, with headlights to flash in the night.
"When I Remembered New Year's Eve", Yevgeny Malyshev
An elderly woman recalls a beautiful New Year's Eve in times of her youth.
When I Remembered New Year's Eve (21th Century) by Yevgeny MalyshevFund of cultural projects “Thursday”
I remember the New Year's Eve in the company of the writer Vasily Shukshin in 1955. Well, he was an ordinary young man, a little taller than me. He was modestly sitting in a corner under the Christmas tree and that was all. He was not yet a famous Shukshin, he was just Vasily.
(Svetlana Sinitsyna)
From the interview of Anatoliy Karpov
We have always put up a Christmas tree. When my brother came back from the army, he got a job in the village shop and helped us with buying a Christmas tree. We have always tried to have the tree for the New Year. There were good lanterns, such hanging ones that were made out of fabric, and we also sculpted our own toys. We dressed up and prepared treats.
New Year Tree Toys
Decorating a Christmas tree has been a tradition activity in Russia since the 19th century. In the 20th century it was banned as a bourgeois custom after the arrival of Soviet power.
However, later they decided to return to this tradition and adopt it for celebrating New Year but it was necessary for the decorations to glorify the achievements of the Soviet people. And so began the production of Soviet New Year tree toys.
"We Value Our Past", Anastasia Grin
Memory is a unique human resource. The threads of memories are intertwined into a single canvas that depicts a picture of an entire era in the face of a little girl. Her childhood but already conscious memories dissolve the everyday life. They implant individuality into history through art.
We Value Our Past (21th Century) by Anastasia GrinFund of cultural projects “Thursday”
I was born in Tambov region and has been living there in a village, in a backwoods village. In the 6th grade I had to go to another village to get to school, and I got lazy and was not going there. I helped at home, attended the club, I would take books and read them.
(Anatoliy Karpov)
From the interview of Tatiana Shestakova
We were sleeping on the stove, we had light set there. We used to read there and do our homework. Well, what can you do, it was cold, you had to have firewood and go to the forest for them, and who would go there? Mom used to go alone. We helped… Well, it is the way it is, it was hard living like this.
Epilogue. Curator Ksenia Bashmakova
Contemporary artworks are forming the image of the 60s which has more volume than documentary evidence and feels more vibrant than archive photographs. The Voice took us on a journey to meet the love of a lifetime in the Moskva Swimming Pool, to take a photo with Yuriy Gagarin, to buy new bookcase and to spend first salary on gifts for the whole family. Excerpts from the interviews resonate with the artworks and make them complete enlivening our perception with vividness of direct speech. You may never get to know the heroes of this project, but now you share memories of a common past.
ART MEMORY engFund of cultural projects “Thursday”
Russian video is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n81c153J-J4&feature=youtu.be
ART-MEMORY
Authors:
Daria Dmitrieva
Valeria Zemskova
Curator:
Ksenia Bashmakova
Artists:
Irina Babkina
Marine Bartosh
Maria Chertkova
Dina Chetvertnaya
Anna Dmitri
Kate Finkelstein
Anastasia Grin
Veronika Kalacheva
Natalia Koniukova
Julia Kushnarenko
Vasilisa Lebedeva
Nadezhda Lisina
Yevgeny Malyshev
Amir Mamin
Shamil Shaaev
Elena Skripkina
Heroes:
Alla Viktorovna Loskutova
Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Naumenko
Alexandra Ivanovna Shumeyko
Anatoly Mikhaylovich Karpov
Raisa Ivanovna Dyadkina
Tatiana Ilyinichna Shestakova
Svetlana Dmitrievna Sinitsina
Nina Viktorovna Guryanova
Ekaterina Ivanovna Batkova
Andrey Andreyevich Bezverkhy
Alexandra Semenovna Kuznetsova
Bella Ivanovna Popova
Natalya Karpovna Struchkova
Tatiana Alekseevna Klenova
Fund "Thursday" Team:
Anna Semenova
Anastasia Kovalchuk
Nadezhda Ponomarenko
Alice Loza
Special thanks:
Anna Astashevskaya
Julia Kushnarenko
Employees and volunteers of the "Sofia" Foundation
Employees of Recreation Center for Labor Veterans No. 29
Volunteers for the Thursday Foundation:
Maria Aksenova
Anastasia Afirkina
Elena Goncharenko
Angelina Dorofeeva
Sophia Zotova
Anastasia Potekhina
Fund of cultural projects “Thursday”
You are all set!
Your first Culture Weekly will arrive this week.