"Dive Into Your Mother's Eyes"
01.12.2024-28.02.2025
"In this project, I focus on the stories of those who were born in the USSR and assigned female at birth, but whose sexuality or gender expression did not conform to the accepted norms. Unlike non-heterosexual men, they were not directly persecuted, but their lifestyles were still marginalized by society. This led to secrecy and a lack of archived personal testimonies. Moreover, while any discussion of homosexual experiences was removed from public discourse, some of these individuals struggled to find the language to describe their own life experiences."
"This context provides a starting point for collecting the few available testimonies from these women and gender non-conforming individuals. However, the laws passed in Russia over the past two years make this work even more urgent. Now, with "LGBT propaganda" being illegal and the so-called "international LGBT movement" being labeled as extremist, the state seeks to silence the voices of the LGBTIQA+ community. In this climate, it feels more important than ever to pay attention to the experiences of those who lived and loved under state-sanctioned queerphobia before us.
I have been trying to find first-person testimonies and stories collected by members of the community. One of my most valuable discoveries is a collection of interviews conducted by the American writer Sonja Franeta with members of the LGBTIQA+ community in the early 1990s, shortly after the collapse of the USSR, in Siberia, Moscow, and St. Petersburg. Some of these interviews were published in her book Pink Flamingos, while others she generously shared with me.
I have been trying to find first-person testimonies and stories collected by members of the community. One of my most valuable discoveries is a collection of interviews conducted by the American writer Sonja Franeta with members of the LGBTIQA+ community in the early 1990s, shortly after the collapse of the USSR, in Siberia, Moscow, and St. Petersburg. Some of these interviews were published in her book Pink Flamingos, while others she generously shared with me.
I want to use this collection as the basis for an installation, which will include both an audio and a spatial component. The interviews will form the core of the verbatim material, read by those who were born in Russia after the collapse of the USSR, assigned female at birth, and whose life experiences did not fit within heterosexual or cisgender norms. It seems crucial to establish a connection between different generations of queer people who have been victims of oppression. I will select participants from among those who have already left Russia, for their own safety.
These recordings will be part of the installation in a physical space. According to testimonies from community members, as well as research on lesbian experiences in the USSR and post-Soviet Russia (such as the work by Francesca Stella), it can be concluded that the translucent nature of urban space largely shaped the experiences of non-heterosexual women and gender non-conforming people in the late Soviet period and the 1990s. This insight informs the form of the installation: it will represent a kind of map or network of urban space, with semi-transparent objects. The quiet voices of queer people will be audible only at specific points. During the residency, I aim to focus on developing the material and spatial dimensions of the installation."
These recordings will be part of the installation in a physical space. According to testimonies from community members, as well as research on lesbian experiences in the USSR and post-Soviet Russia (such as the work by Francesca Stella), it can be concluded that the translucent nature of urban space largely shaped the experiences of non-heterosexual women and gender non-conforming people in the late Soviet period and the 1990s. This insight informs the form of the installation: it will represent a kind of map or network of urban space, with semi-transparent objects. The quiet voices of queer people will be audible only at specific points. During the residency, I aim to focus on developing the material and spatial dimensions of the installation."
