{"id":1073,"date":"2019-05-23T18:09:23","date_gmt":"2019-05-23T16:09:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/semolinika.anticteatre.com\/cia-semolenika-tomic\/lenin-is-mine\/"},"modified":"2019-05-27T16:34:30","modified_gmt":"2019-05-27T14:34:30","slug":"lenin-is-mine","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/semolinika.anticteatre.com\/en\/cia-semolinika-tomic\/lenin-is-mine\/","title":{"rendered":"Lenin is Mine"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTable Of Contents\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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  1. Intro<\/a>
  2. Concept<\/a>
  3. Project<\/a>
  4. Investigation<\/a>
  5. Creation<\/a>
  6. Credits<\/a>
  7. Gallery<\/a>
  8. Video<\/a><\/ol>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\n\n

    Intro<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Communism is not dead.
    \nIn East European countries nowadays, even to quote this ideology is politically incorrect. In Western European countries, most communist parties have reformed themselves, some have changed their names, and the majority have accepted the rules of free trade and the capitalist system’s game. After the fall of the East, some predicted the fall of the West as the liberal Democracy will not be able to resist (without Communism) the temptation to become a new kind of fascism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What has happened in the last 15 years since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the Balkan’s ethnic war and the entrance of a wild and fast capitalism? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    “LENIN IS MINE” is an opportunity for the Semolina Tomic Company to collaborate with artistic, cultural and social centres, and theatres, with artists, urban and suburban citizens of the communist and post communist culture and others of the western culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This generates a reflection through the presence of different voices and visions. It creates
    \na time zone that recognizes and accepts diversity as a value for artistic and creative expressions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The scenography is not passive; it is being continuously reconstructed during the performance. The interactive stage metamorphoses, objects that make up the scenography transform themselves into different spaces or atmospheres. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I use the latest digital technologies and machinery with light, modular structures. This way I work both the physical (physical stage structures) and the virtual (audiovisual stage structures that are projected on to handmade screens). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The enemy of communism is the rich. The enemy of capitalism is the poor.
    \nRonald Reagan, ex-President of the United States of America (1981-1989)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Concept<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    IIn 1989 the Eastern Block wall falls and in 1990 we start noticing the beginning conflicts of the Balkans and the entrance of a wild and fast capitalism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What has happened in the last 15 years with the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the death of communism and the Balkan s ethnic war? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The almost unavoidable continuation of my work, after the creation of BODY SAFER (er), is inspired in the roots of my most anxious questions about life, people and their contradictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The basis of \u201a\u00c4\u00faLENIN IS MINE\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 is the possibility to collaborate within the creative structures -such as theatres, social and cultural centres- of the countries of Central\/Eastern Europe and Russia, and also with the artists of post communist culture and others coming from western culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Being able to work and collaborate within these structures, in the form of residencies, teaching several workshops and doing research visits to these countries, is highly important in order to bring this creation to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The intention of this collaborative work is to develop a space for thought, which will allow the presence of different voices and visions related to these textures and their visual imagery; to identity and reflect their physical expression. A temporary zone that recognises and accepts diversity as a value for artistic and creative expression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The first time I stopped to think and to seriously ask myself \u201a\u00c4\u00faWHAT IS REALLY HAPPENING? I was 13 years old and I had just met two Hungarian boys at a friend s house. I was born in Osijek, North of Croatia, only a 100 kilometres from the Hungarian border. These two kids where in a state of shock because they had just escaped their country running, while the Russian block soldiers where shooting at them. They ran and ran without looking back. One of their friends had been killed so they just ran, without looking back. They just wanted to get to Paris (France).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I started to understand how things worked when I realised that the communism of the Russian Block controlled up to the smallest detail people s lives and that options for people with a free spirit simply did not exist. This really scared me, even though in the socialist system where I was born and raised -ex Yugoslavia- the situation of living was hugely different. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Nowadays most parts of Russian and Eastern Countries are privatised, fortunes plundered and speculation, Mafias, prostitution, corruption, and nationalism rule\u201a The first millions are earned, ex KGB agents turn into state presidents, Mafia\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s godfathers turn into influent businessmen, buying positions in parliament, in the police force and in the army, and their children get sent to Oxford. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Most people s lives don t make any SENSE any more because everything has changed. Parents and grandparents the generation that knew the communist system and its rules- raise their children -the generation of the 90`s- with their old rules; children that are born and grow knowing only the wild capitalist system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This investigation\u2019s work made me realise that I felt the drive to create and base myself on my own reflections about the subject, a subject that has always moved me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    And this was the beginning of my research on LENIN IS MINE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Project<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Communism is dead.
    \nNowadays, in Eastern European countries, even to quote this ideology is politically incorrect and in the Western European countries, communist parties have reformed themselves, some have changed name, and the majority have accepted the rules of free trade and the capitalist system\u2019s game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Some have come to the conclusion that communism, especially Stalin\u2019s, was worse than Nazism (Stalin killed millions of people, beating Hitler\u2019s atrocities).
    \nLenin died in 1924, and the following history that came after his death, turning communism into terror thanks to all the \u201ccommunist\u201d presidents, is very far from the Marxist ideology that he held. His image was used as \u201cthe\u201d symbol of communism, and when communism fell, it turned into a negative symbol, an evil \u201ctotem\u201d and an image of suffering in these countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    With the changes in the Eastern European political systems, after being an integral part of people\u2019s daily lives, the statues in even the smallest of villages completely disappeared, with the intention of erasing history. For example, in Hungary, they gathered all the country\u2019s statues and created a \u201cMuseum of Terror\u201d in Andrasi Boulevard in Budapest. In other places the statues were sold to rich countries like Norway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Therefore we find ourselves faced with a historical paradox, or even more so, a sort of collective ignorance as far as the facts concerned with the communist system and the basic differences between the original ideological purposes and the way it was applied in Stalin\u2019s government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We actually forget that Lenin\u2019s objectives, his communist ideology, in its essential basis were positive, humanitarian and constructive, integrated and integrative by other political systems like democracy, which now a days reigns and is considered \u201ccorrect\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Russian Revolution in 1917, gave a revolt to Russian culture\u2019s society, as well as a new vision of the world amidst all the humanity of the 20th Century, compared to the 1789\u2019s French Revolution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The sense of freedom and creativity that took place in the following 15 years (until the arrival of Stalin\u2019s regime), gave origin to the most fruitful vanguard in theatre arts, architecture, cinema and poetry. For example: constructivism in the architecture of Melnikov, Vesnin, Lessitsky or in Malevich\u2019s supremacist studios, Meyerhold\u2019s theatrical experiments, the scenes from Popova, Maiakovski\u2019s poetry, Dziga Vertov\u2019s and Rotchenko\u2019s cinema to mention only a few examples.
    \nArtistic disciplines fused, creating new forms of expression and interacting with the whole of Europe\u2019s scene of the time, the Bauhaus School, Stijl School in Holland, Italian\u2019s futurism or the experimentation in painting in France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Historically, we know the dramatic consequences of the Russian revolution that left a lot of orphans, people without homes, generating criminality, displacing villages, creating forced labour camps and prisons (gulags), expropriating properties from the feudal bourgeoisie and creating new and strict social rules like bureaucracy and the co-operatives (solkoz, kolkoz).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    For this reason, Lenin, or better said, his iconography or \u201ciconoclast\u201d, is proposed again in the frame of a critical project about a prospective vision with different points of view. A reflective image, reflected over and over again in the time and space of Eastern European culture as well as in the collective imagery of Western culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    My intention is not a political or moral one as far as aesthetics go; in its etymological sense, the depth of the surface, the facade of a statue, whose face represents and transcends a historical period, a period very important to humanity and which is disappearing completely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We try to confront preconceived concepts of this ideological language, giving force to the vital human energy among its pains and dreams, wishes and disasters. We can\u2019t deny people\u2019s will to live, the creativity in proposing new world visions and the fact that political forces take advantage of these feelings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Lenin, just like any other historical figure, embodies humanity\u2019s
    \ncontradictions, confusions and doubts. Lenin is an interface of the past, present and future times, he is a \u201cmedium\u201d where we can analyse and reinterpret the world; a poetical and romantic vision, playing all the multiple sides of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In \u201cLenin is Mine\u201d I want to use all these contradictions. I want to work with Lenin\u2019s emblematic figure making it mine in my own way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I will try to synthesise, around this icon, all the questions and all the answers of my vision of today\u2019s world.
    \nI would like to talk about subtleties, nearly invisible and at the same time strongly noticeable daily situations, for example waking up and making breakfast (but what breakfast?)\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I would also like to talk about culture and education, the ways and methods of realisation in a communist system and compare them to today\u2019s system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Investigation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Encounters and fusion with artists, citizens and farmers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The idea is to collaborate with spaces, artists and people from other cultures during the investigation and creation period. This is the basis of my new project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This stimulating fusion from various experiences, extracted from life or from artistic careers, make this explosion of creativity reflected in the dynamics of the play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    With this objective, actors, directors, set designers, technical crews, people from the world of cinema, photographers, musicians, anonymous people that will be interviewed and translators will be involved. All of them will face their own artistic experiences and will work together in this experimental work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Workshops<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In 2005 and 2006 we organised numerous workshops and research visits in Croatia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Poland, Serbia, Letonia and Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    These workshops consisted of a collaborative work between the artistic team of the theatre company and other artists from different disciplines from each of the visited countries, in this way we can start developing together the base ideas for the project. Each one of these encounters has generated material for the final creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    These collaborations gave me the possibility to mix different contrasts, characters, nationalities and influences. These proposals are very suggestive and rich, stimulating and feeding all the creative process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    For example, during the workshop in Croatia we could still feel the presence of the war in the memory of society, due to the political and economic situation of the Balkans. We could also see that the exchange of experiences between Croat and Serbian actors (that had never imagined themselves working together) created a very special environment because they had to overcome their racial prejudices and share the theatrical experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Interviews with urban citizens and farmers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This research was also based on audiovisual format interviews that will be used as material during the show.
    \nThese interviews will touch all the social and cultural aspects of these populations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The tales of their experiences, realities and the confrontation with the past and the present, feed and support the live actions that will happen on stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    For example, food is one of the communist system base problems.
    \nInterviews were made to farmers who produced and sold their products to the co-operatives (Solkoz) that have now completely vanished. Nowadays, they have to pay the Mafia so that they have a right to sell. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the cities, during communism, the state stores had very few products. There were big queues to buy with tickets. Nowadays the queues in front of the food shops have disappeared but the people haven\u2019t got any money to buy in these same establishments which are now full of the newest products. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Archive Material: Film, TV, posters, photography, iconography<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The research also includes archive material from the communist era, such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n