The Day of Simple Things: Post-Communist Rituals in Russian Federation, Interactive performance, Intervention, presented for
Deuxieme Colloque Annuel de RQES, Espaces et Territoires dans le Monde Russe et Slave, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, 2012
I never knew what it is to have the country of origin. My personal mythology didn’t coincide neither with soviet nor with democratic story. A gloomy mixture of soviet cartoons, grand-mother’s fairy-tales, history of Slavic tribes, German pornography about Russian court culture, Crime and Punishment read at the age of 14, vodka sold in plastic bottles, Latin-American soap operas watched ritualistically every evening, huge dinner parties of my parents with folklore songs and dances on the table, my dearly loved jeans my brother brought me from Germany in 1989, classes of political economy with professors who were bribed for a good grade, emigration of my best friends and apocalyptic destructive patriotism of the others formed a strange sense of non-belonging.
Drawing on multiple texts as well as her personal experience Tatiana Koroleva examines the complex issues of transitory cultural politics in post-soviet Russia. The presentation focuses on reconstruction of Eastern-European mythology during the Perestroika period and its modification into a new system of cultural practices in Russian Federation.