VULNERABLE SINGING

together with Anna Shefer (Butenko)
Contemporary Russian Traditional Singing Performance2015

Collaborative project ‘Vulnerable singing’ by Ilmira Bolotyan and Anna Shefer (Butenko) is based on setting the archaic song form — one of the oldest and most uncontrolled practices of self-expression — against the closed environment of the secret naval base Olavsvern, the total control in itself.  

As Ilmira Bolotyan was performing the Slavic traditional songs at the decommissioned Cold war sub base, her performance functioned as a ‘living statue’. Beyond that the songs featuring Anna Shefer (Butenko) were playing. Apart from opposing the ‘masculine’ discourse of the naval base, the artists invite to reconsider the definition of contemporary art. They bring ‘traditional feminine ‘craft’ (singing)’ back to the contemporary art, abolishing the hierarchic division between ‘high’ and ‘low’ cultural forms.