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kovylina - waltz

Helena Elena Kovylina: "Waltz" (2001). Photograph Nora Bibel

Helena Elena Kovylina (Russia *1971)

Elena Kovylina was part of the radical 'Moscow Actionism' in the 1990s but developed her own method of staging scenarios with extreme precision. She completed most of her studies in Zurich and Moscow in the 1990s and began studying under Rebecca Horn at the Berlin University of the Arts after 2000. Elena Kovylina regularly holds performances all over the world.

In her performance "Waltz" (2001), Kovylina asks members of the audience to waltz with her, while she becomes increasingly drunk in a kind of militaristic initiation ritual. Her dancing partners are chivalric at first, but later they have to help her stay on her feet. Elena Kovylina sees this performance as a symbol for a forced relationship of understanding between Russians and Germans.

 

In the Video Archive:

"Waltz", 2001, 6:00min.