ANTONINA SLOBODCHIKOVA
The Vote to the Ground. Ashes to Ashes.
Video. 2012-2016.
Initially titled Tongues, the project alludes to a children’s play called ‘sectrets’.lt involes burying important and valuable little objects under a piece of glass to rediscover these ‘small secrets’ later on. The content of the undeground hiding places partly visible. Consisting of several stages, Antonina Slobodchikova’s prolonged artistic activity is a kind of ritual burial. In 2012, she invited her artist friens to join in making ‘secrets’ related to one of the most important values- voice. Our voice is our right to operate tongue in the literal meaning of the word. Especially in a society where severe limitations are imposed on yhe artistic language by external forces. Don’t give it to anyone! – Slobochikova says. It were pork tongues purchased in Komarovsky Market in Minsk that were to be buried. Performed by the artists in Sevastopol Park, the action was disturbed by apprehensoin of two of its participants- Mikhail Gulin and Tatiana Gavrilchik. The project could not be completed because of the difficulties that arose.Tongues were not ‘buried’.They were intially frosen in a fridge to be then defrosted, cooked and given to a dog. In 2016, the artist finished the action on her own, burying an animal tongue not far a from her studio.