REALITY (PLACE) HOLDER
by Lena Pozdnyakova, Eldar Tagi, & Anonymous
Part 2 will be released on Thursday, February 15th!
In the context of the current territorial expansion and geopolitical crisis related to the invasive politics of Russia in Ukraine, various formal (visual and textual) ideological representations embedded in everyday objects suddenly reveal themselves as profoundly instrumental in affecting public opinion in the country and its zones of influence. In this 2-part podcast, Lena Pozdnyakova, Eldar Tagi, and a Russian historian focus on the junction of “dissipated” manipulation and decisive invasion of private space by political agendas and the effects of this transference of roles.
These episodes attempt to question the role of such small-scale objects and their formal language in framing a moment of crisis – a moment when the war on Ukraine has polarized the society and has drastically influenced the lives of people in many post-soviet countries employing the popularized and state-infused narratives, or, in other words, through prppaganda. With this central theme, the narrative aims to briefly depict the genealogy of this form of influence on the broader public by zooming in on one of the most sentimental objects at hand - a postcard – the very object we use to “get closer” and stay connected despite the difference in time and space.
Lena Pozdnyakova is an artist, curator, and researcher from Almaty, Kazakhstan, currently based in Berlin, Germany. The scope of her work in collaborative projects and research involves questions related to the culture-nature relationship and blurring the boundary between life and art. Since 2016, Lena has been working towards expanding her work to embrace more socially-engaged projects through collaboration, practices of care, intergenerational work, and community involvement. She is currently a doctoral student at Free University in Berlin, in the Institute of Art History, and an associate member of the CRC Intervening Arts.
Eldar Tagi, a multi-instrumentalist and composer originally from Kazakhstan, is now based in Berlin, Germany. His live improvised performances use a range of instruments, including computers, field recordings, analog modular synthesizers, daxophone, guitars, other stringed instruments, found objects, and self-made sound-makers.
Historian from Russia, who preferred to remain anonymous.