Olia Sosnovskaya
Citing sources
Performance
14/10/22 7 pm
Olia Sosnovskaya (*1988, lives and works in Minsk and Vienna) is an artist, writer and organiser. In her predominantly text-based and performative works, she explores collective choreographies of coming together—such as celebrations, gatherings and protests—in and beyond post-socialist contexts.
In the performance Citing sources (2021), the artist interweaves historical material she encountered while researching socialist celebrations in the National Library of Belarus with her own experiences of the anti-government protests in Belarus in 2020/21. In a polyphonic score, texts, images, documents and gestures, instructions and actions are interlaced with records and accounts of their historical counterparts. In the act of reading (out loud), Sosnovskaya is splicing together ideas and narratives—and with them the construction—of “revolutionary” events in different times. She reflects on how bodies coming together (on the street or in libraries) can form their own infrastructures, both reproducing and challenging ideologies. In the relationship between language, affect and political movements, she examines the promise of social participation in organised forms of togetherness.
Light and video: Maxi Blässing, audio engineering: Jakob Braito. Special thanks to Simon Jenewein & Kilien-Robinson Heiland (naiv studio) and Florian Linhardt.
Production: Centrale Fies_art work space (IT) / Live Works
With the support and choreographic advice of Alix Eynaudi, Elizabeth Ward & Aleksei Borisionok.
Photos: Constanza Melendéz
Performance
Olia Sosnovskaya (*1988, lives and works in Minsk and Vienna) is an artist, writer and organiser. In her predominantly text-based and performative works, she explores collective choreographies of coming together—such as celebrations, gatherings and protests—in and beyond post-socialist contexts.
In the performance Citing sources (2021), the artist interweaves historical material she encountered while researching socialist celebrations in the National Library of Belarus with her own experiences of the anti-government protests in Belarus in 2020/21. In a polyphonic score, texts, images, documents and gestures, instructions and actions are interlaced with records and accounts of their historical counterparts. In the act of reading (out loud), Sosnovskaya is splicing together ideas and narratives—and with them the construction—of “revolutionary” events in different times. She reflects on how bodies coming together (on the street or in libraries) can form their own infrastructures, both reproducing and challenging ideologies. In the relationship between language, affect and political movements, she examines the promise of social participation in organised forms of togetherness.
Light and video: Maxi Blässing, audio engineering: Jakob Braito. Special thanks to Simon Jenewein & Kilien-Robinson Heiland (naiv studio) and Florian Linhardt.
Production: Centrale Fies_art work space (IT) / Live Works
With the support and choreographic advice of Alix Eynaudi, Elizabeth Ward & Aleksei Borisionok.
Photos: Constanza Melendéz
