Helsinki Festival: Circus Russia flirts with death
Andrei Muguchi, director of Circo Ambulante, accidentally produced a critical allegory of Russia at a theatre supported by Putin
"I am an artist and I say what I want to say”, says Andrei Moguchi, director at the Circo Ambulante. “If I start to think about politics more than theatre, it will kill me.”
Photo: AAPO HUHTA HS
By Suna Vuori
Sixty people. That is how many the performance requires - to act in the production, and above all to build the set of a production of St. Petersburg avant-garde director Andrei Moguchi on the large stage of the Finnish National Theatre. It is his vision of a world which fortunately does not exist in reality, but which nevertheless seems strangely familiar - should we say, perhaps, in Russia?
"Yes, Circo Ambulante depicts Russia", Moguchi admits. "But I am doing art, not politics".
Andrei Muguchi, director of Circo Ambulante, accidentally produced a critical allegory of Russia at a theatre supported by Putin
"I am an artist and I say what I want to say”, says Andrei Moguchi, director at the Circo Ambulante. “If I start to think about politics more than theatre, it will kill me.”
Photo: AAPO HUHTA HS
By Suna Vuori
Sixty people. That is how many the performance requires - to act in the production, and above all to build the set of a production of St. Petersburg avant-garde director Andrei Moguchi on the large stage of the Finnish National Theatre. It is his vision of a world which fortunately does not exist in reality, but which nevertheless seems strangely familiar - should we say, perhaps, in Russia?
"Yes, Circo Ambulante depicts Russia", Moguchi admits. "But I am doing art, not politics".
According to Andrei Moguchi, it is now fashionable to be a political artist and to take risks in Russia at the moment. Circo Ambulante, too, sees the building of a theatre right in the crater of a live volcano.
Photo: VERA RODMAN
Russia’s artists, and their freedom of expression, have been a hot topic of conversation in recent days. Andrei Moguchi also makes a point of taking up the topic.
"Pussy Riot certainly never imagined that they might end up in prison for two years. They have pulled stunts before! However, doing a performance in a church struck the moment, and a nerve, in such a way that the stupid sentence and the attention of the international media made it a big thing."
"Time will tell if anything will change in Russia, but right now the country seems to have been split in two, for and against Pussy Riot, almost like the Civil War. I believe that our situation at the moment is not fully under the control of the Kremlin."
read more at:
http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Helsinki+Festival+Circus+Russia+flirts+with+death/1329104654932
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