State emergency powers perpetuate centralization of power and erasure of ‘unruly populations’ – already targets of police brutality and violence – at even more risk. 

Katerina Sidorova is a multimedia artist working in performance, sculpture, painting and printmaking – all of which made their way into this second iteration of  ‘As A Pile Of Ash’. It is an holistic, set-like installation piece drawing connections between fine art and literature as well as political activism. 

On December 22, 1849, Fedor Dostoevsky, amongst 24 prosecuted for political activism ‘Petrashevsky circle’ members, was led before the firing squad but received a last-minute reprieve. The first three of the sentenced men were tied to the poles for execution as the amnesty was announced. 

What Dostoevsky believed to be his final five minutes before learning that the execution was called off is the conceptual scaffold around which this multifaceted solo show. Sidorova researches and interrogates the performative techniques used by the state to affirm power in times of tyranny – now and then. 

The 5 minute interval reflected in the public, virtual performance at Glasgow Green is also about a practice of being beyond all official narratives and yet inevitably captured in the greater dramatic arch of the state. Living one’s impressions and thoughts in real time comes at a cost. Can we even exist in a reality separated from its own fiction? And, how is it possible through the work of art?

Curator: Aga Paulina Młyńczak

Image Credit: Katerina Sidorova