Katya Ev
(ekaterina vasilyeva)

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"Axe de Révolution serves as a powerful example of an abstract performance [...] a pure semantic entity, that originated in the specific context and only gains its emotional intensity and meaning in relation to it. After extreme tightening of the internal politics, and return of state violence in 2011, 2014 became the point of no return in the contemporary Russian history. In the heat of war in Ukraine, it became clear that the country has taken the direction of repressive state, the beginning of return to the USSR’s politics of propaganda, state lies, blindness, isolation and nationalism. At this moment in history, two women, carrying a heavy iron beam through the streets of the Russian capital reference at once several layers of political, historical and cultural reality: a famous episode of Vladimir Lenin’s biography — carrying a beam together with the workers on the 1st May, 1920; the routine of construction works in contemporary Moscow landscape; the power relations structured by the city planning. In the climate of hysteria and paranoia that took over the mainstream media reality, the performance was perceived by many as a political protest action. It touched the nerve, provoked fear of another revolt, another anti-state action. A number of journalists, including the ones from state television, normally ignorant to contemporary art, arrived to cover the procession [...]". Katya Krupennikova, cat. The End of the World, Centro Pecci, Prato (It), 2016​​, p. 352-353