You are not alone in your monologue
Vica Kravtsova and Kira Shmyreva
15th March 2021
Last week, the world feminist communities celebrated International Women’s Day on the eighth of March, holding demonstrations, exhibitions and concerts in support of the feminist liberating movement across the globe. Despite the liberating legacy of the Soviet Union, which was one of the first countries to adopt basic laws protecting women’s rights on a legislative level, post-soviet territories, eroded by neoliberal economic measurements, are set back behind the contemporary feminist development in the West. Apart from women who in their daily lives grapple with frequent encounters with sexism and misogyny in societies that recently re-discovered their patriarchal traditions, there are larger political implications. Among the most bizarre precedents in the anti-feminist thought is a case against Yulia Tsvetkova. Today, after almost two years of prosecution, Yulia can face from two to six years in prison for publishing body-positive illustrations. Earlier, we published an open letter by the Russian art community in support of Yulia.
Speaking of Yulia’s situation, one cannot help but draw parallels with the recent scandal at the Feminnale in Bishkek. At the time, six works were censored and removed from the exhibition, and the director of the museum resigned from her position. The 1st Feminnale, held at the Kyrgyz National Museum of Modern Art from November 27 to December 16, 2019, brought together works by 56 female artists from 22 countries. Among the curators of the exhibition were Kyrgyz writer Altyn Kapalova and museum director Mira Dzhangaracheva. Unlike in Yulia's case, the story did not end in a lawsuit, yet the situations clearly echo each other.
In support of all brave women in the arts, TransitoryWhite publishes curatorial text to the exhibition in support of Yulia Tsvetkova held in Moabit, Berlin.
In August 2020, Kulturfabrik Moabit in Berlin hosted an exhibition in solidarity with Yulia Tsvetkova. About 200 people visited the exhibition, raising 720 euros in support of Yulia. Now the show has an online version that presents Yulia as an atypical child, activist, artist, director and a political prisoner.
Yulia Tsvetkova is a theater director, intersectional artist and feminist, LGBTIQ+ activist from Komsomolsk-on-Amur (Russia). Since the 5th of February 2019, the Russian state government has persecuted Yulia with fabricated criminal charges; she is currently the Kremlin’s political prisoner. The police and local law enforcement agencies investigated all of her projects and forms of educational and creative activities and are still looking for a reason to bring her to "justice." The artist is faced with 2 to 6 years in prison. Yulia's case is the state’s attempt to update laws on homophobia and misogyny, the number of which has increased greatly since 2013,creating unbearable conditions.
As curator of the exhibition Kira Schmyreva writes, the story of Yulia Tsvetkova is the story and the stories of feminist solidarities and practices of care in (art)-actionism, -activism and feminist writing.
Yulia is an “uncomfortable” child for the state: her physicality is “improper and undeserving” of life in the family. Her mother, Anna Khodyreva, debunked this patriarchal myth. Fighting the pressure of totalitarian medical institutions, she took upon herself what the society generally entrusted to the state - the choice of educational methods and child development. Yulia Tsvetkova grew up, became a feminist and created corresponding projects: theatre, the group “Komsomolka. The feminism of intersections”, and the project “Vagina Monologues.”
Through the activist youth theatre “Merak,” Yulia, together with a group of children and teenagers from Komsomolsk-on-Amur, demonstrated how theatre can transform reality. Children and teenagers demythologized preconceived notions of gender, patriarchal culture of violence and bullying, which the state tries to portray as “core” values. Local police considered these actions as gay propaganda. They tormented children and pressured Yulia and her mother into closing the theatre.
Close reading of “The Vagina Monologues” by E. Ensler and Yulia’s own experience of abusive relationships prompted Yulia to create a group dedicated to the right of a woman to explore her sexuality and physiology. Yulia is facing six years in prison for the “delicate drawings of vaginas.” Sex education and empowerment are misrepresented as pornography.
Yulia Tsvetkova frequently says that “feminism is the impossibility to live in your own “small feminist world”.”. Activists from the different Russian regions take it to the streets in single-person protests #forYulia, knowing that they risk being detained and fined;detained art-activists continue to show acts of solidarity. Solidarity chains exceed the borders of the Khabarovsk region and the Russian Federation. The case of Tsvetkova produced the webs of solidarities she herself wished for:
Feminism should stop being limited to Facebook posts. Feminism must stop being a privilege. We can no longer discuss our problems in a vacuum. We can leave Russia, we can set ourselves on fire like Irina Slavina. But this is not a sustainable way. And why do we need to do this? I believe that we can change the country. But at what cost and how long can we hold out? We need to unite against this and fight against domestic violence, we must also share the same dynamics and build bridges between LGBTIQ+, feminist and civic activism in order to solve these problems.
The participants of Yulia's theater created a manifesto in which they described their vision of a truly inclusive theater culture in Russia. Here is what they want to achieve with it:
We want such theaters as "Merak" to feel confident, and we believe that a new theater culture is emerging in Russia thanks to us, the "Merak" Theater, and all the other free theaters and creative groups in Russia. We do not want anyone to think that there is no culture in Russia. Culture is here. We hope that this manifesto will help us unite and fight for freedom of art and self-expression.
You can read more about the exhibition and how to help Yulia here.
Vica Kravtsova is a feminist researcher and cultural worker born in Smolensk, based in Berlin. She has created the Feminist Translocalities platform that aims to support feminist solidarity across borders.
Kira Shmyreva (Vladimir, Berlin) is a fluid author and activist, curator and assistant in the spheres of care and theater.
Edited by Ira Konyukhova, Tamara Khasanova and Lina Iliaeva