The event starts with Olga Zhitlina’s online play Week of Silence and continues with discussion. 

November 21, 5-8 pm.

HIAP Talks presents a discussion with St Petersburg-based curator Anna Bitkina and artist Olga Zhitlina. Bitkina and Zhitlina share their views and experiences of the unprecedented demonstrations, the case of Pussy Riot, and the growing infringements on freedom of speech and public debate witnessed in Russia this year. With a particular focus on Zhitlina’s work, they discuss the impact the political events and conditions have had on contemporary artists’ practices and what are their modes of resistance.

“Political tension is growing. The Russian Police and the Federal Security Service build up a control net over the country that can catch anyone who wears a balaclava mask or holds up a protest slogan. Another controlling body creating additional tension is the orthodox church in Russia”, states curator Anna Bitkina.

The talk follows the online play Week of Silence by Zhitlina and takes place in the еxhibition Revolution in the Net at Cable Gallery. The exhibition deals with social and political conditions in contemporary Russia and focuses on the latest political events connected to the presidential election in Spring 2012. It is curated by Anna Bitkina and includes works by Russian artists Olga Zhitlina, Factory of Found Clothes (FFC) represented by Natalya Pershina Yakimanskaya(Gluklya) and the artist collective Gentle Women (Nezhnue Babu, Evgenia Lapteva andAlexandra Artamonova).

Olga Zhitlina’s play Week of Silence

Zhitlina’s online play Week of Silence will be performed immediately prior to the talk. It deals with young Russian women’s experience of gender and global politics. The play consists of chat dialogues between different couples. The issues they are discussing vary from pregnancy and Russian legislation to geopolitics. Actors type the text in real time.

Actors: Katia Sytnik, Kirill Adibekov.

Time: 5 – 6 pm

The event is part of the series of discussions and debates HIAP Talks: Public Matters.