STORY
Lullaby for the River was created for VKL/VYKL, a mini-festival of performances and actions in the urban environment, held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on 11 June 2003. The festival was organized by the Yekaterinburg branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts to present the first issue of a magazine devoted to contemporary art in the Urals.
Instead of presenting the magazine within gallery walls, the organizers invited artists featured in its pages to make works in the city. The festival followed a defined route, conceived as a journey through the urban cultural landscape and an invitation to encounter contemporary art outside conventional exhibition spaces.
Marina Razheva created Lullaby for the River for this occasion. The performance took place on the embankment of the Iset River. Vladimir Razhev, dressed in a penguin costume, played a wooden recorder. A semicircle of herrings lay in front of him; beside him stood a small crystal vessel containing fish-oil capsules.
The scene brought together a lullaby and a river, a costumed figure and dead fish, a musical gesture and an unusual offering. The work unfolded in the public space as part of a festival that brought contemporary art into the everyday life of the city.
The performance was documented under the title Penguin in the festival’s online archive. The photographs and surviving media references now serve as traces of the action.
Event: VKL/VYKL magazine presentation and mini-festival
Date: 11 June 2003
Location: Iset River embankment, Yekaterinburg, Russia
Artist: Marina Razheva
Performer: Vladimir Razhev
Organizers: Yekaterinburg branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts
Curators: Nailya Allakhverdieva, Arseniy Sergeev and Tatyana Vetluzhskikh
The work continues as traces
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