Performance, 2003
Embankment of the Iset River, Yekaterinburg, Russia
As part of the ON/OFF contemporary art magazine launch

Performer: Vladimir Razhev

The Penguin plays the wooden flute on the river bank. The fish were arranged in a semicircle around him.
In a transparent crystal vase at the feet of the flutist there are granules of fish oil.

This performance became part of the video “Penguins, You Say?” and was included in a larger project marking the 160th anniversary of Anatole France.

Artist’s Note:

This performance is a quiet ritual of care and absurdity.
A lullaby—not for a child, but for the city’s river — burdened, ignored, polluted, yet still flowing.
The Penguin, a creature from a distant world played by a child, becomes a gentle mediator:
he sings not with words, but with breath through wood, a lullaby for something that cannot sleep.

Fish, once swimming in the depths, lie arranged on land : a gesture of remembrance and paradox.
The fish oil glimmers like relics or offerings — both nourishing and useless at once.

This is a moment of stillness amid noise.
A small act of poetic compassion to honor the river as a living being, reminding the city that even the absurd can be an act of tenderness and deeply necessary empathy.

It doesn’t solve problems, but it changes the tone.
It is a lullaby for a world that can no longer respond — and still deserves to be sung to.

“Lullaby for the River” is a poetic performance about care, loss, and quiet attention to a vulnerable world.