Soviet Barbara, the Story of Ragnar Kjartansson in Moscow is a complex, sometimes hilariously funny, and slightly terrifying story of an artist in the wrong place at the wrong time.
In December of 2021, legendary Icelandic multiple-disciplinary artist Ragnar Kjartansson was due to open a massive retrospective at the GES-2 Gallery in Moscow, a museum owned and funded by a Russian oligarch, located about halfway between The Kremlin and Pussy Riot’s cathedral. Ragnar, who has Russian heritage and is the child of two devout socialists, was thrilled at the chance to showcase his work (and that of other artists he admires) in a city he has always admired. There would be massive video installations, paintings, enormous floor to ceiling sculptures, and the pièce de résistance would be a highly ambitious piece of performance art: live daily recreations of episodes from the old American soap opera Santa Barbara performed once a day by a group of actors and technicians for 99 days.
Most can judge from the timing of Kjartansson’s exhibit where director Gaukur Úlfarsson is heading with all of this, but the destination – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – is only a small part of a rocky journey. Kjartansson is a highly likeable subject to follow around; prolific, cheeky, self-aware, disarmingly unpretentious, and very thoughtful. It’s fun to watch him go about mounting the exhibition in the weeks leading up to the grand opening because he has an infectious charm and affability.
As tensions in the country rise, Kjartansson is forced to compromise or modify some of his art to appease those in power (including Vladimir Putin himself who shuts down the set-up midstream to do a walkthrough). The result is the kind of satire most writers would kill for, but it comes naturally here. The uneasy balance between art, the press, Russian history, state influence is wonderfully rich and layered, even when one worries that there could be danger lurking on the not too distant horizon. Soviet Barbara sounds like a bunch of ideas that might never come together, but Kjartansson and Úlfarsson make sure all the pieces connect perfectly
Friday, April 28, 2023 – 5:45 pm – TIFF Bell Lightbox 2
Thursday, May 4, 2023 – 8:30 pm – Isabel Bader Theatre
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