Reading by Fire

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Performance by ETI movement, February 15, 1991

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The venue: Chapaevsky Garden – construction site of the unfinished theater (nowadays apartments “Triumph Palace” is built at this place).
Idea: A.Osmolovsky
Audience: Three people – Oleg Kulik, Anya Chijova, Anton Nikolaev.
Time: February 1991, late evening, it was dark outside.
Description of the venue: in a place, where should be a scene, was the foundation pit, in the middle of which stood a large concrete column, and around 12 smaller pillars.

Description of the performance: there were piles of books of Marxism theorists on the six pillars: Lenin, Trotsky, Marx, Engels, Ho Chi Minh and Mao. People with the books of the same theorists in their hands were standing on the other six pillars. In the center stood a man with a lighted torch of 3-meter length in the hands and subsequently set fire to piles of books. As a pile of books was ignited, a participant with a book in his hands began to read this author. So clockwise the piles of books were igniting and the reading of these authors were passing consistently. As a result, it was a simultaneous reading of the books – “drone of the language”. “Drone of the language” is a structuralist term, which means simultaneous reading, reading and overlapping of texts.

Designation of the meanings: burning was resulting in a public reading-reproduction. It was a critical element of the time when people turned their backs on Marxist theory. Since that time the society was “burning” Marxist theory, we warned that the removal from libraries leads to actualization – public demand.

Publication: “Decorative art” magazine for 1991, authors – Ludmila Bredikhina and Oleg Kulik.

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