My Predecessors Had a Hard Look, Interactive Performance

 work in-progress


In this performance of endurance I aim to deconstruct the stereotype of a Soviet Woman. Having been born in the former USSR I grew up listening to the stories of my country’s heroic past and numberless stories about  mighty soviet women. What I was never told were the stories of horrific physical and mental struggle my great-grandmothers and grandmothers had to go through to survive the Soviet regime. This work is an attempt to reconcile with my ancestors’ past and to give the voice to those women who were silenced during their lifetime. (Photo: John Looye)