GO EAST blog

this blog follows the road movie research of estonian performance artist katrin essenson and swiss performance artist matthias ruettimann across the former states of the sovjet union. mai - july 2016   

about eternity

Pripyat Hotel 01072016

Pripyat was meant to be a model of a modern sovjet city. This model should prove that the communist idea of a better society has become real. The beautiful reality of Pripyat town. The ideal town were the workers of the four nearby nuclear power plants are harmoniously leaving with their families. A lot of children lived in Pripyat. The future generation of this glorious ideology. Thanks to technology and science life becomes better and better. Mankind should profit of the development and earn the fruits of their work. In a promotion movie from the eighties you can see the happy life of Pripyats inhabitants. 

Pripyat had everything needed for a good life. Schools, supermarkets, restaurants, a cultural center with cinemas, theater, concert hall. Sport facilities, a stadium for football and athletics, a hospital and a lunapark was ready to open on first of May.

The lunapark never opened. First of May 1986 Pripyat the ideal city for the future was abandoned. Two days before the inhabitants had to leave the city. They were told to take only few necessary things, they were told to come back soon. They never came back. They left behind their whole life. In the night of 26 April 1986 block four of the nuclear power plant Chernobyl, two kilometers away from Pripyat exploded. This explosion changed Pripyat to a landmark. You can visit it and you can still measure the radiation. And it will go on.

 

masterclass improvisation kiev

Masterclass Kiev

from 28 till 30 June dancers from Kiev participated in masterclass improvisation at totem dance school.

thank you all for sharing this journey into the unknown.

special thanks to Kristina who runs the totem dance school in Kiev, a strong captain on a ship in difficult times and under heavy conditions, the sea is rough and not favorable to contemporary dance in Ukraine, but luckily there are people like kristina and jaroslaw and Anton. The world needs you!

Totem Dance Group Kiev

murals for the people

St.michaels golden dome monastery kiev

Three dimensional wall painting in front of St.Michaels Golden-Domes monastery in Kiev. Waiting for eternal absolution or a donation for daily needs?

more murals

Mural in Kiev

New faces for the old walls. Art goes to the streets and courtyards. Stories to be told. 

actor appearing in front of his house

Actors house Kiev

Actors house in Kiev was a synagogue, Karaite Kenesa called, sponsored by the "tobacco kings" of Soutt-Western Land (the name of Ukraine in tsaristic time), under Bolsheviks it was an educational institute, then home for the Union of the theatrical workers, after that it transformed into a cinema and finally a concert hall. Music the new old religion for the ongoing century, and who is going to sponsor the celebration halls for the new religion, Marlborough or lucky strike?