2019 – 2020
PERFORMANCE REGARDING THE VENICE ISSUE
General Staff Building (Hermitage Museum)
General Staff Building (Hermitage Museum)
Saint-Petersburg

Performance


Duration: approximately 20 minutes


Used materials: body, clothes, plastic pipes, plastic, glue, tape, fabric, padding, embroidery, crocs, jibbits, knee pads inflatable wings, balloons, faux leather bags, artificial seaweed, vinyl film, ropes

Sewing by OLA OLA Clothing brand


Assistant performers: artists Alexandra Gart and Nikita Seleznev

The performance was held at the General Staff Building in Palace Square during the 8th Cultural Forum. At the conclusion of the discussion about the 58th Venice Biennale, a creature resembling a revived sculpture ran on to the atrium stage. The caught “golden lion” was taken to Kabakov’s Hall. Next to “The Wagon” installation by Ilia Kabakov, a pedestal surrounded by a plastic swamp “overgrown” with fake Louis Vuitton bags had been already prepared for the lion. 
The elements of installation and the lion costume resemble the elements of Venice with its stagnant water, gold, pollution, tourists, and fake bags being sold on the embankments by poor immigrants. The performance touches on the problem of authenticity and the original, which is relevant to the modern world of fake news. The theme echoes the problems of the Venice Biennale, as well as the issue of the originality of contemporary art in general. The image of a lion was seen as a reference to the biennale and its main prize, the statuette of the festival and the golden lion of San Marco, while at the same time to all the statues of lions symbolizing imperial authority.