In my performance "Shards of Empire," I walk barefoot on crystal shards, evoking Ai Weiwei's "The Fall of the Han Dynasty Urn." Just as Weiwei's work symbolizes the destruction of imperial symbols, my piece addresses the fragmented legacy of the Soviet empire. The crystal, representing the Soviet Union, shatters into sharp shards, mirroring the unresolved and critically unexamined values that persist in our daily lives.
In my homeland, a full-fledged decommunization and critical revision of Soviet history have never occurred. The remnants of these disintegrated values and discourses lie scattered like dangerous fragments. As a Russian-speaking individual with Russian citizenship and education, even as an immigrant, I find myself navigating these sharp traces of history. I encounter Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars, and former fellow citizens in exile, all walking their own paths amidst these historical and contemporary shards.
Through this performance, I aim to reflect the painful journey of confronting and treading upon the remnants of a fractured empire, highlighting the ongoing impact of these unresolved histories on our present and future.
The documentation of the performance is displayed as installation with projection of performance into a Soviet dish cabinet, the floor around which is covered with crystal shards, and the space is sounded by the crunch of footsteps on the glass.
