Luchezar Boyadjiev / Eastern Walk in Western Park: soft and hard bodies in times of protest Sofia, West Park, June 21st 2013 A walk-and-talk lecture during the protests in Bulgaria and Turkey (plus Egypt, Russia, Spain, Greece, and Brazil, etc.) while walking backwards towards two sculptures deep in the park. Part of “The Flip Side of History”, a project by Dessislava Dimova for “Zapaden (West) Park ‘2013”, Festival for Art in Public Space. Sofia, June 2013 This walk-and-talk in the park will offer concepts, propositions, arguments and observations concerning the difference in public space between the hard body – a monument or a policeman, on one hand, and the soft body – a human and a protester, on the other. The starting point is that at different times these two types of bodies have decorative and/or political functions. These functions alternate.
I was inspired for this performance by the ongoing political process in Bulgaria, Turkey, Brazil, and Greece and so on… This is the current wave of massive protests everywhere, including those in Russia from 2011-2012. This is also about the massive presence of humans on the streets of so many cities; a kind of presence that takes them outside of the daily routine of walking from A to B. It is presence with other goals, intentions and agenda. My point of view is shaped by an encounter I had in November 1999 in Helsinki, Finland. The Kiasma Museum had organized a cycle of workshops. Geert Lovink, a friend, a theoretician, and an activist of digital culture and related political movements, had organized them. He was at the height of influence with his writings then. I was there for “The Future State of Balkania” workshop. Melentie Pandilovski from Skopje as well as others from the Balkans was there too. We shared an apartment where I met two Italians. They stayed over from the previous workshop. Those workshops took place every 10 days or so as was the “fashion” then. Geert had established this scheme at Documenta X in Kassel (1997) with the Hybrid Workspace where we worked together as well. So, we immediately quarreled with the Italians. We all smoked but only they insisted on not smoking during breakfast or tea. They were the real activists… More importantly, they were professional protest conductors, not
just organizers or participants. A protest conductor (or a crowd animator if you wish, a director of sorts…) is somebody who is walking in front of the gigantic mass of protesters on the streets. Protesting people have some demands; hold up slogans and banners with text; shout and whistle while making clear what they want, who they are and what their objectives are. The crowd animators, whom I got to know, are tasked with directing the mass of people – they are walking backwards towards the police while facing the protesters. They are literally conducting the behavior of the crowd. They are gesticulating and shouting instructions – “the flags higher up over there…”; “that group on the left – louder and faster…”; “you there – get that banners straightened up”…; “concentrate…”! They are equally protesters and professional managers; they are modeling the human group into a massive display of activity and visual efficiency meant to impress the protest into the eye of the media.
If we disregard for a moment that he/she is moving, the figure of the protest director/conductor in public space is like the monument in the center of a city square. The monument is visually and materially present in the center. It is in ideological command of the space. The monument is manipulating individuals’ gazes that are focused on it while “installing” the gazing subjects into politically relevant position.
On the other hand, an ordinary human body moving around such a square is perceiving its space in completely different visual manner – a tourist, a passer-by might approach to “read” the monument. She/he would use peripheral vision while gazing in a centrifugal way. A monument is focusing on itself centripetal visual energies. A passer-by in hers/his living body is walking around such objects while behaving centripetally. It might be the urban space of a city or this park here. Still the visual energies are spreading outwards. These centrifugal and centripetal visual energies might be likened to the linear and the reversed systems of perspective. I will provide examples from protests and from this park. Here is a small sketch for clarity – visual energies emanating, people gazing while walking around the public space of a city… By the way, we have to walk further into the park. After 200-300 meters we will get to two sculptures. We will try to animate them.
While walking I will tell you that another inspiration for thinking about the human body in public space is rather new. It is the “Standing Man”, the work of the Turkish performance artist-protester who became famous for his recent action on Taksim Square in Istanbul (June 2013). After the police cleared the square and brutalized the protesters he stood for 7 hours in the center of the empty square. He just stood there straight up while gradually many others gathered around him - just standing, not doing anything. He was standing there staring into the former Ataturk Cultural Center adorned with two flags and a billboard depicting Ataturk, the father of the Turkish Republic.
This kind of behavior is actually part of my high school party culture back in the 1970s… If you wanted to upset somebody you would just stand up in front of him or her. You do not say or do anything; you just stare fixedly in the eyes while the rest of the party goes on around you. This goes on until the “target” gives up and leaves the party. That way we got rid of unwanted intruders. It was a simple but efficient routine.
There is a question though – is this Turkish artist-protester behaving like a monument or like a person who is pretending to be a monument? The difference between the two is important. I have two examples to help us think about it. First is the famous photograph of the “Woman in red” from the Istanbul protests. As captured on the photograph she is clearly not behaving like a monument. At some point she tried to look the police (the power) in the face. It turned out however that the police do not like to be looked at and observed directly. The police become rather aggressive and the “visual” energies were reversed. The “woman in red” becomes an object of attention – not only for the police who are spraying her with tear-gas but also for the media who are present there in the middle-ground status of a passive/active observer-intermediary. The story is now part of a different space. The documentation is keeping alive the memory of this civic action against ruthless power.
Second is an example from the Sofia protests. It is the work and protesting practice of our colleague and friendthe artist Pravdoliub Ivanov. Within the Bulgarian public space and beyond he became famous just like The Standing Man and The Woman in Red. His witty and sharp political commentaries-slogans are printed on several A4 sheets of paper - just long enough to hold in his stretched out and up hands. The segments are glued together, used and discarded at the end of each day of protests – a new text comes each day. These slogans as well as his smiling face, and the straight up body with stretched out hands holding the slogans high above the heads of the crowd became a “trademark”. They were meant to be seen by the people, the police and the media. He became “the face of the protest”.
The slogan “I am not paid, I hate you for free” (“You” meaning the governing coalition) was reproduced and replicated many times since. It exposed the complex motivation of the protests in a highly efficient way both politically and conceptually. Let’s see then what is the corporeal status of the protester named “Pravdoliub Ivanov”? I think he is behaving like a “soft” monument. Not like a living body but more like a hardened human object. And he must be noticed by the politically empowered visual energies at any cost. These are the media, the police, the ruling power and their agents on the streets. He stands up in the center of the square like a monument with hands up while holding a slogan. He has to be read visually and he has to be distributed like an image. But he himself does not have to move around although he is walking along with the rhythm of the protesting human mass. His problem is that he has to come up with a new slogan each day – a commentary, an appeal, a judgment. He has to invent it, print it out and paste it together to hold it up with his stretched out hands so that each day he is noticed, over and over again. That kind of renewable presence makes him an active agent of the daily action. But as a body, just like a monument, he does not have to move around – it is enough if his friends (Kalin Serapionov, Albena Hranova, etc.) are there to photograph him and post him on Facebook. All the images-slogans form a unique daily chronicle of the protest as presence and message. This street behavior is similar to the works of one of the recently famous avant-garde groups of radical artists from Russia. The Voina Group is currently underground after being jailed briefly more than a year ago. You might recall their most famous action titled “Dick Captured by the FSB” – the Federal Security Agency of Russia, the exKGB. During the night of 14th June 2010 the group painted a giant 65 m long dick on the tarmac of the Liteyny Drawbridge in Saint Petersburg. After practicing for two weeks, the members of the group needed only 30 seconds to paint the phallus while walking very fast before the drawbridge was raised up so that the boats sailing along the Neva River might pass. The artists leave before the police show up. The bridge is raised up to face the façade of the local FSB branch which “enjoys’ the best vantage point on the work...
This is behavior like a monument in public space. It is identical to the practice of Pravdoliub Ivanov with the slogans. This is an activist visual action, which is “giving the finger” to power and authority. It needs to have an adequate “middle finger”, which is sufficiently beautiful, visually and semantically impressive. But above all you
need to be noticed. If there is no eye to capture you the action has no function. The “capturing eye” better be the eye of the power or the eye of the media, the government, and the police and so on. Later on the public eye joins in. Though coming in late, the public eye is no less vital to the debate because it actually secures the efficiency of the action.
Another kind of behavior is practiced by the hugely famous Russian group with the attractive name of Pussy Riot. As you know part of the group is now in prison (June 2013). The name of the group might be interpreted in so many ways… Here some amazing images from Australia from a rally in support of the group during their trial in 2012. The framing of the shot and the chalked down slogan leaves little to the imagination… In this case the empowered media eye played a not-intended ironical role.
The most visually efficient work of Pussy Riot is not the one they were jailed for. That work became a media reality beyond any control. Its specific presence as much as the physical action performed in the cathedral caused them being put on trial. But what you see here happened 1-2 months before the action in the cathedral. This is the performance on the Red Square in Moscow on January 20th 2012 titled “Putin Zassal” and translated as “Pitun has Pissed Himself”. The location is a round raised stone platform. This is where in the late middle ages in Imperial Russia they executed in public rebels and criminals. The full make up of the band went up on the platform in the center of the Red Square opposite the Kremlin. They were with real instruments, loudspeakers and with video/audio recording gadgets documenting their action as a diligent “eye”. The effect from the realization and distribution of the action was much larger from visual and semantic point of view. This is because while they are singing and addressing Putin (the power, the authority) directly with their song, they are standing tall on this tribune… Every male knows that it is better to piss from high up and it is easier to piss on stuff from high up… This is clearly intended to humiliate the opponent. Besides one is much better observed this way – the silhouette of the girls in the group is clear cut against the sky and the Kremlin. This is not only spectacular visually; it has the extreme symbolic value of revolt. Furthermore the message is reinforced by their behavior which is meant for the eye of the camera; by the lyrics of their Punk song and by what they are relating to the viewers. All is united into a complex mechanism with aggressive activist
message. It is functioning on the level of politics as well as visual arts as an integral action of immense power. Pussy Riot is attracting the gaze of the viewing eye in a way which is different from a monument. They are not only noticed. They are directly challenging and provoking power. They are the ones noticing power; they are watching power in the eyes. Pravdoliub in Sofia and the phallus on the bridge are presenting themselves to the eye of power. They wait to be seen. Pussy Riot is noticed too but they are looking back at power; they are addressing the regime directly. This alone caused the overly aggressive reaction of the regime’s agents and Putin himself. How dare they talk to and look at the regime as an equal? …and even humiliate Putin from high up? The gaze at power is: reversed, insolent, condescending, denouncing, and public. It is extremely provocative. There is a lot of theory written about the visual regimes in public space. It covers various times and societies. It investigates who is allowed to look at who, to see what and how, as well as to materialize the products of looking. Pussy Riot violated a very powerful taboo – to look power directly in the eye, to address power directly with a message of protest and humiliation. Their ways are direct and yet metaphorical because they are using the visual channel and the mass media. However, the taboo they broke is especially powerful in totalitarian societies. The Putin regime has reinvigorated that taboo. Pussy Riot is no longer a monument to be looked at although the location is defined as a monument within the Red Square. Let alone the site of their action in the cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow a month later. Their presence is visual and performative. On the site(s) of memory they become like a living, breathing, dancing and singing/shouting monument. Maybe they are a bit like those actors on public sites acting like sculptures for the benefit of the tourists – impersonating the Statue of Liberty or other recognizable object. They exist on the edge between life and “stone”. But Pussy Riot is not simply a living sculpture – they are a protest phenomenon with incredible efficiency and media presence. Presumably no monument could ever come to life unless sanctioned by the authorities. A living monument that is so offensive transforms radically the situation in public space in so many ways.
We have another example from Turkey for an action and a photograph that transformed the situation in similar ways. The woman in the image is leading the people on the barricades in Istanbul. She is attacking power but also the mass, global, collective visual memory by referencing the famous painting by Eugene Delacroix “Liberty Leading the People” from 1830. It is the most emblematic painting ever depicting the actions of a revolutionary mass in public space. A bit later in Sofia during the protest day of July 14th 2013 there was a similar action. The difference is that the Bulgarian Liberty lady had her breasts out in the open just like in the original painting. They had identical effects though the culturally motivated difference with the Woman in Red is a bit striking. I have three more examples before we reach our destination. A couple of days ago we tried to experiment with my colleague Iara Boubnova. We took and posted this photograph on Facebook. That was in front of the popular
Bar Raketa in Sofia. We were just hanging out - talking, drinking, some were smoking. I noticed that Iara’s dress with the black and white horizontal stripes looks similar to the anti-parking polls on the sidewalk. The animate and inanimate objects in the photograph have identical visual patterns. I took two photos while Iara was standing right next to the poll. The Facebook “like” reaction was immediate, massive and very enthusiastic. In the context of the daily protests in Sofia and based on the visual composition of the photograph people probably thought that we are recreating the action of the Standing Man in Sofia… I think they responded to the positioning of the living body in public space rather than to similarity in the patterns. In the unfolding situation on the streets of Sofia the valid way to read the body was as a political message. It seems that in certain situations of public life each corporeal gesture in public space might be read as a gesture of either a soft or a hard body in relation to the other bodies, and above all – in relation to power.
We are close to the final of this walk-and-talk… I will show you this photograph so we may go back to the monument aspect. Come closer, please! It is from early 2012 and there are two Russian policemen in the photograph. They are taking notes, writing up a report, or maybe preparing an arrest. Maybe they are writing up a warrant or something like that. One is smiling a bit; there is a pack of Rothman’s cigarettes in his hand… Actually, they are writing a report on a demonstration. These were the nano-demonstrations, or microdemonstrations that were very popular in some Russian cities. These were demonstrations of playful children’s’ toys in public space with inventive and politically poignant slogans.
At the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012, at first in Barnaul and then in other Russian cities many such demonstrations took place. Anonymous people would arrange groups of up to a hundred small LEGO-like toys – various creatures, comic’s heroes, animals. Here you see a plush bunny, for instance. The toys are holding up
proportionately sized slogans. The toys are obviously demonstrating… Soon enough a crowd of people is formed. The police are not far behind… They see a demonstration going on; they file reports, etc. And then even these demonstrations were banned… Provided it is not clear who exactly is demonstrating the authorities must have had hard time justifying the ban. They figured that whoever is demonstrating – a human or a toy, they have not applied for an official permission to organize such an event. So, the demonstrations should be banned in any event. You can see here one of the best slogans, which were mostly full of humor and sharp wit. By the way, the current wave of demonstrations all over the world is always marked by high performative levels and witty/funny slogans. This slogan reads: “All power on the plane and off it goes to Apocalypse!”
Now we get to where I want you to take part in a performance. To raise your enthusiasm I will play a video clip. Look here, these are The Bangles and they perform their 1986 hit “Walk like an Egyptian”. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x43oe_bangles-walk-like-an-egyptian_music
Now, I will ask you to split into a male and a female group. Let’s try to imitate the poses of these two sculptures. Boys, please, go to the male sculpture and strike the pose. Girls, please, strike your poses in front of the female sculpture. Now… Let all of us try to imitate the sculptures’ poses and walk slowly as a group towards each other while keeping the body position of the sculptures… This is not so hard. It might even be funny to animate these objects. We will to try and transform their “hard bodies” into our “soft bodies”.
They are fantastically eclectic. I think they were made in the 1950s. Look at these overly optimistic faces; they look like Heroes of Socialist Labor. Their clothing is not folk costumes but is it urban either. It is composite clothing for villagers. It is neither formal nor for work. The woman’s upper body is stylized as in a painting by Vladimir Dimitrov – the Master from the 1930s. Look at her pipe-like sleeves and the stylish ornamentation on the dress. The poses are stable. They are like classical antique sculptures with the rhyming of supporting and supported elements, of the various joints of the body – the shoulders, the pelvis, and the knees. So, now please, boys there, girls – here. We need to have two groups…
Wait, I have to arrange you… These poses are manifesting a kind of “I will show you now!” attitude. These are the kind of poses when the body is stepping out into the public sphere. These are poses of extrovert pride, not introvert thinking. There is a clear purpose in these poses. That is what you need to imitate – like this – STANDOUT! …like this, as if you are going out on the square, on the “maidan” in order to dance the “horo” or to make a point in public… We have to meet in the middle…
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