Duration
2.12.24, 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Language
English, Russian, Icelandic
Admission
7€ | including a reduced-price admission to the exhibition
Info
Accompanying the exhibition “Velvet Terrorism: Pussy Riot’s Russia”, a film screening takes place in the Auditorium of Haus der Kunst, featuring the German premiere of Soviet Barbara, the Story of Ragnar Kjartansson in Moscow. The film follows Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson as he prepares to create an ambitious “living sculpture” for an exhibition in Moscow in the winter of 2021, offering a unique insight of his first encounter with Maria Alyokhina of Pussy Riot and eventually, the genesis of the exhibition “Velvet Terrorism: Pussy Riot’s Russia”.
In 1992, just a week after the Soviet Union's fall, the American soap opera Santa Barbara became a cultural window into the West for Russians. Thirty years later, shortly before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson opened a major exhibition at GES-2, a new Moscow arts center in a former Kremlin power plant. His main attraction, a living sculpture called Santa Barbara, explored the cultural dialogue between rival superpowers in the last days of the Cold War. As political tensions escalated and global scrutiny intensified, hopes for cultural openness diminished following the invasion, drastically affecting the lives of thousands, including Maria Alyokhina. With Kjartansson's support, she eventually fled to Reykjavik.
Director: Gaukur Úlfarsson
Screenplay: Gaukur Úlfarsson, Guðni Tómasson
Length: 90 minutes
The film screening has english subtitles.