“Torture is a“ unfashionable ”theme”: How the project “Cargo 300” is arranged
June 26 last year, on the Day of Support for Victims of Torture, artist and activist Catherine Nenasheva on her Facebook page told how she had been tortured in the DPR territory a month before — and the reaction to the fast was very different, from support to rejection and outright cruelty. Almost immediately the project "Cargo 300" was born, from the formats of closed and street performances that grew to a large-scale immersive action. On March 31, the research performance goes to St. Petersburg, and the next Moscow shows are expected. We talked with the creators and conceptualizers of the project Sasha Old Age, Catherine Nenasheva, Polina Andreevna and Olesya Gudkova about the experience of violence, the unifying force of traumatic experiences and freedom in joint work.
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Violence experience
Catherine Nenasheva: Last May, I went to Donetsk, to Gorlovka — from there, part of my family. It was precisely that family trip, but it is obvious that the local special services were thinking a little about something else. In general, my comrade and I were detained for identification, and after that they were taken to some cellars, handcuffed and put bags on my head, and were beaten. All night long, they tried to beat us out of our testimony that we were allegedly preparing some kind of action on the territory of the DPR. For me, this was the first experience of violence as such, psychological and physical. The words “torture” were not in my dictionary before, but then my friend and I began to realize what had happened, we considered the beatings and understood that it was quite appropriate in this situation.
And then I started a real post-traumatic stress disorder, in the first month after the violence the psyche behaved quite difficult. There was a persecution and derealization, a great fear of the future. I began to read a lot about how people get PTSD. In particular, I came across an idea that we later put into the play: a person who commits violence can also be in post-traumatic stress for various reasons. Therefore, it is important not to demonize people who commit violence, but to somehow talk to them. At the same time, I made, what is called, a coming-out, told about this experience. And faced with a big wave of depreciation - this, unfortunately, is a standard practice for a part of society. When people talk about violent experiences, this is often devalued. Of course, at that time it strengthened my post-traumatic syndrome.
Sasha Old age: I myself have been abused in the acute psychiatric wards. I had two involuntary hospitalizations, and this is a separate topic: the way in which everything is organized there is nothing more than institutional violence. Of course, you know that at least they won't kill you. But the feeling of limited free will and lack of control over the body, confidence that you can be undressed at any time, touch as much as you like and treat you as carelessly as you like at all is also a traumatic experience. Especially if we take into account that people are brought to acute departments when they are in the worst condition, it is easy to understand that the whole atmosphere does not contribute to recovery.
I was very frightened by the story of Kati. Nothing like this has ever happened to my close ones, and Katya at that time was already my friend. I remember the day when I learned what had happened, I remember the feeling that I could not help or even know where she was - I did not have the opportunity to contact her. It was very scary. PTSD can tangibly affect people close to those who are experiencing it, and I also felt anxious. I did not understand what it was connected with, I did not know the details of the detention, and no one knew.
I was just unpleasant to be and exist in the city. A silly childish thought was spinning in my head that I continued to go to the cafe and drink coffee, and somewhere there tortured my girlfriend. How then to live and pretend that nothing is happening? When it moved a bit, I wanted, first, to somehow help Katya.
Katrin: I realized that real stories of people who survived institutional violence and on which it left a big mark can save me. It was important for me to find out how people experienced this, how their sense of themselves and their bodies changed. Unfortunately, I did not find such living stories in art or media, so I began to collect them myself, I contacted several public organizations, I went to people in other cities - in Yaroslavl, for example. I also wanted to show portraits of people who survived such an experience, so that viewers of the exhibition and subscribers in social networks outside of the art party would no longer be afraid of this topic. Many after the start of this conversation moved away from the relationship with me. “Cargo 300” is a story that people are left with injuries and need to learn to live on and to others, who were not directly affected by torture or institutional violence. It is foolish to reject it, how to reject, for example, former prisoners and people with mental disorders - they are all close by. The more systemic violence occurs, the more such invisible people are with us.
Olesya Gudkova: For me, the most frightening topic of violence is that it almost always happens behind closed doors, no one sees it, except for those who commit it and on whom it is committed. And the second frightening thing is the public reaction, showing that people do not want to hear such stories and believe in them, do not want to be told and shown "inconvenient information". Get at least Katya story. I remember when last year she shared her experience on social networks, in the comments people, along with the words of support, wrote that it was worth checking it with a lie detector, that it was fantastic, that it was not enough bruises and she was a painter in general, a terrible woman and e **** Putin's scale.
I do not know what made me more depressing - the story of Kati or the reaction of people. Perhaps this is my main impulse to participate in the project: the desire to tell stories that almost no one in Russia wants to tell. These stories may trigger, may not like, may not be to the table and out of place, but they should be. "Cargo 300" in this sense is a desperately honest project. We not only tell people the story, but also offer our viewers to design their own within the game. In my life, violence also took place, and, unfortunately, not the last.
"Cargo 300" and invisibility
Katrin: After the cancellation of the exhibition in the gallery "Solyanka" the only opportunity to continue the statement was a street action in which Sasha also participated. Inside a cell covered with polyethylene, I was in different places, first Moscow and then other cities. This is a frozen body with parts protruding from the cellular metal, in my opinion, a story about invisibility. Torture and violence are mostly invisible, and this makes the injury deeper: the person tries to recover, but it is very painful and scary because at the time of the violence, when it was hard, bad and scary, no one saw him and could not help. Any violence affects a person’s identity, as well as artistic. When they put a muzzle to your head and shout: "Well, are you going to do your damn actions now or not?" - It is very difficult to look for a language to make a statement and generally go out. You know that there’s no help waiting.
After that, I realized that the topic we started to deal with was uncomfortable, unpleasant, complicated, but very important. Therefore, we again united with Sasha and Stas and made the first private show of the performance. The first show took place at the Zverev Center and was accompanied by threats; a policeman even came to us, filmed everything on video, and passed on to his colleagues. Soon, as a performer and conceptualizer, Pauline joined us. And we realized that it would be great to make a series, try to tell the accumulated human stories, and experiment with theatrical format within the framework of social art. This is how the second show, which we have been preparing for several months, turned out.
Sasha: I joined Catherine in the summer, quite spontaneously, when she and I were preparing Psychorfest in St. Petersburg. Katya let slip that if I'm interested, I can start writing music for the project. At that moment I started playing with Stas Gorev and invited him to take part in it. Then we still thought that we would have an exhibition in Solyanka, we recorded a great soundtrack. We had plans for performances that could be made around music, but, unfortunately, nothing happened because of the canceled exhibition. At the same time, I observed Katya on trips to Dagestan when she interviewed Ruslan Suleymanov (one of the former prisoners of Omsk IK-7, who spoke about extremely cruel torture. - Note ed.). We then lived together in St. Petersburg, and all this happened before my eyes.
In Gruz 300, I am not speaking on behalf of a victim of violence. I had problems with aggression - yes, it was local, and I didn’t have any power, but I used to be someone called an abuser. For me, it is important that I act out the story of a person in whom the injury produced a state where the only possible interaction with the world occurs through violence. When we talk about violence, whether it is systemic state violence or private, family, domestic, we need to understand the mechanisms of the person who creates the first impulse in this chain. But it is not about justifying all rapists and starting to regret them. We need to understand how this works.
Polina Andreevna: When I joined this project, we were already familiar with Sasha and Katya from working at “Psychoactively”. We were not close friends, therefore, when this story only happened to Katya, I didn’t know about her immediately. We continued to communicate on some working issues both before and after. It was not obvious to me that she is in some altered state, which is bad for her. And then I read the material on the BBC and, of course, was shocked. But most of all I was struck by the reaction of Catherine herself, when she described what has already been said - that our reflection should concern not only the assistance to the victim, but also the behavior of the abuser. I was impressed and wrote Catherine a letter with words of admiration and support, and then I got to the very first show of "Cargo 300". There was a performative part, which includes the participation of the viewer - it seemed to me that I could help the project with this. I have theatrical experience, I was engaged in physical theater, danced under the direction of Zhenya Chetvertkova (modern dancer, choreographer PoemaTheatre. - Note ed.) a few years, and I was clear that I can offer. We met and started working together.
On my own behalf, I am in this project talking about domestic violence. For some reason, people tend to think that domestic violence and torture are far from each other concepts, but in reality this is not so. Unfortunately, I met with this. And maybe, fortunately, because now I can tell about it and try to speak as loudly as I can. My character tells about the invisibility of the victim of violence, not just marital. About isolation, which is a person who has undergone any type of aggression.
Olesya: I met the “Cargo” team after the exhibition was canceled in the gallery on “Solyanka”. I was asked to help at one of the meetings, and I saw how deeply the project participants were ready to dive into the topic with which they are working, conducting this research, while paying considerable attention to each other’s reflections. Then it seemed to me that this is a very professional team that knows why it does what it does.
My participation in the project took place somehow by itself. At some point I realized that I no longer say: "I help with" Cargo "", but I say: "We do" Cargo "". In the performance, my role is the role of the presenter, who first guides the audience around Ruslan’s world, and then invites them to play the game. As for the team, then we actually have two psychologists, me and Artem Maternal, but for a long time of close interaction in the team, we all have become “psychologists” in the everyday sense of the word, so everyone cares about communication hygiene. Of course, we have quarrels, divergence of creative views, clarification of relationships, but these are working processes, they also sometimes fail. But later they can be debugged much more delicate.
Talk about the ineffable
Sasha Old age: There is one very important point in the conversation about torture. When it comes to people with some kind of media power, or representatives of a certain social group with which readers of conventional Russian social media can relate themselves - for example, the “Network” case - people talk a lot about this, but it is important to go further.
We have a story of Ruslan Suleymanov, this is a simple man from Dagestan, who really broke the law. He is not an activist, a representative of a completely different social stratum. And such people are constantly used in the media as pawns, which simply embody some kind of case. They have no subjectivity, and they are very quickly forgotten. Nobody wants to relate to them - this is such a double stigma.
Torture is a "unfashionable" topic, it is as unpleasant as possible, demonstrating that there are spaces in the country where there is no law where you cannot protect yourself. These are not questions of power and subordination, not a question of media weight. It’s just lacunae of powerlessness, within which you can do nothing at all. Our hero, as they say, a criminal, he was in prison not for political convictions. And here you need to equalize all cases. Because either we are talking about violence, or we are not talking about it, or it’s a problem, or it’s not a problem. We cannot single out people who belong to a pleasant community, and use the rest only as objects. Therefore, we wanted Ruslan to be present in the play as much as ethical and possible.
Katrin: Why didn't we stop at one show or action? We work in a laboratory group format, we test various practices on ourselves, we call for participation in performative actions of different people, and our task is to learn, to search. The topic is complex and many people turn away from it. But this very silence further creates the ground for collective trauma: it will hurt more to turn back and look ahead. "Cargo 300" was created not only for its participants, we want to talk about violence with viewers, subscribers, bystanders, so that it is not so scary. So that each of the people who have heard of torture and systemic violence should not have this common fear. We must talk about cruelty, and we need to talk to her.
Pauline: I really do not like formalities and never do something that does not affect me personally. This applies not only to "Cargo 300", but also to any form of action. I believe that my activism does not have to be loud: when I talk to several people who are not particularly knowledgeable about a certain topic, but I give them enough food for thought, after which they may change their mind, after all, too, activism. We are often asked the question: "Why are you doing this, what is your goal?" But the answer to it seems to me intimate, I have a goal, but it is my personal one.
When people ask me why I am so concerned about social issues, I answer: "Because society is me and all social problems concern me personally." I am afraid to think that violence is the norm, because many times I was a man who cannot resist him. We have to be a witness to cruelty and just silently leave. But now, thanks to this project, I have a voice. I can argue that this is happening, and very often, at every corner, in your home, under your nose, at the next door. And this is a personal matter.
Teamwork
Katrin: The theme of experiencing some kind of trauma of violence turned out to be fertile ground for uniting people in activism and creativity. For me personally, "Cargo 300" is still in some way socialization after the experience. When PTSD began, in the most acute period, I received little support from my loved ones, and I have to fill this lack of security in the first place with creative projects. All arising from the topic of violence - depreciation, the inability to achieve some kind of justice and even retaliation - it all unites people. It all started with the experience of the realization that you can live on, and moved to talk about it and understanding the experience. For me, it is probably not surprising that such a “medical history” can unite very different people.
Sasha: It seems to me that violence and relationships, which involve aggressive interaction, are a feature of the human community in general. This is something that just is in us. And despite the fact that today we live in a structural civilized society, episodes of violence arise one way or another. Even where human rights are respected more than in modern Russia. People have a natural interest in what violence is. Many, and we in particular, are trying to get to know him in such a playful way, through creative experience. Therefore, we do not forget that the viewer is also a participant in the project. У всех, кто к нам приходит, есть возможность просто проявить любопытство и нащупать собственные границы.
Так получилось, что в процессе работы над "Грузом 300" собрались люди, которые очень хорошо друг друга дополняют. Нам негде толкаться локтями, нет конкуренции за зоны влияния - у всех свои сильные стороны.
Полина: У нас высокий градус творческой активности, потому что в работе много свободы. По идее, мы делаем спектакль про пытки, но никто не запрещает мне рассказывать о близком, но другом опыте. Все мы готовы принять любую идею другого участника и рассмотреть её.
Katrin: In “Cargo 300” you can try on a few experiences: a person who commits violence, a person who is being abused, or just watch what is happening. We create artificial conditions through which you can look back at your everyday life and think about whether there are co-dependencies in your life, whether you can leave them, what to do with this further. So this is not only a social project, but also to some extent therapeutic.
Sasha: This is a study of the choices that we make with regard to violence and aggression, and this, as I have already said, is a very natural thing - the viewer does not need some background and knowledge on the subject to understand what is happening. Another question is that a performance can really be a trigger for someone, it is not very easy to participate in it.
Katrin: But we want to note that a psychologist works within the framework of the performance. We have a room where people can go and talk to him. A separate interaction takes place there: those who come to this room also unite, communicate, support each other. After the demonstration at the discussion, we once again offer people to take advantage of the free help of our psychologist, work through the experience and understand how valuable it is to you. We care about those who come to us.
Olesya:"Cargo 300" is primarily a study. Study on how violence appears, how it functions and whether it is possible to stop it.
PHOTO:Catherine Nenasheva / Facebook
