WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF? DE QUOI AS-TU PEUR?

work in progress

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Despite the fact that Russia has been a multinational country for many centuries, Russians still have tense relations with representatives of different nationalities. It is especially important today when, due to Russia's foreign policy, interethnic relations become more complicated. 

 

This project is not about political courses or mistakes. This project is about the collective psychology of Russians.

 

The artist explores how we react today to people from other countries, while we have deep, strong interethnic relations within the country. Also, she questions which basic reactions we have when we see the “other” person, and how we choose the representatives of which nationality we interact with. Foreigners from developed countries cause us sympathy, friendliness, and openness. Foreigners from developing countries cause us rejection, fear, and negativity. What are we afraid of? What are we waiting for? Why are we reacting this way? These are the basic questions the artist is trying to answer while studying the nationalist neuroses of Russians.

 

The main characters of the project are Africans, African Americans, Cubans, the representatives of the nationalities the visual appearance of which is as far as possible from ours. Russia does not have historical relationships with them in the past. We are not used to seeing people with black skin color in the street or among neighbors. Creating the dialog scenes between the Russian environment and the hero, the artist constructs a psychological environment of the frame, where each spectator should have a reflection about the presence or absence of nationalist fears and worries.