"The camps disappear quickly, and the memory of people is even faster."

In the Gulag Museum in Moscow, until August 6, there is an exhibition of the artist Anna Andrzhievskaya "System of Fences" dedicated to the Perm-36 camp.

From Perm-36 to the real Perm-about a hundred kilometers. Once in a camp near the village of Kuchino, dissenters were kept. Among the prisoners were human rights activists Nathan Scharansky and Sergey Kovalev, priest Gleb Yakunin. In 1996, the camp was turned into a museum, whose history was typical of modern Russia. Founded as a public organization, in 2014 it turned under the control of the state, and its creators were replaced by employees appointed from above in leading posts. The journalists of Novaya Gazeta reported that even the modest position of the caretaker was taken by the former Vokhrovets, who once guarded the prisoners here. Anna Andrzhievskaya, a native of Perm, studied in St. Petersburg, and now lives in Barcelona. For the first time, she "lit up" at exhibitions and auctions as a participant in the St. Petersburg group of young artists "North 7". The series "Fencing System", created in 2012, stands apart in its work. The modest, restrained black and white printed graphics of a small format is strikingly different from its bright, with a shade of the surrealism of painting. Anna Andrzhievskaya told how it happened that she was inspired by a former camp, and as the project "System of Fences" is connected with the history of her own family.

-You were a member of the North-7 group, how can you describe your role in this group?

- I did not leave her! I hope that I am still part of the group. I have been in it from the very foundation, since 2013 or 2014. I met with Sasha Cicarishvili in Pro Arte, where we both studied ( artist Alexander Cicarishvili-founder of the North-7 group, a graduate of the St. Petersburg Institute of Pro Arte, founded by a private foundation.-RS ). At first it was called the gallery that we opened. Then this name switched to a group of artists who organized it. At first we were performing performances. Then I began to make objects - fountains, in particular wine fountains, and performances with food. For example, a cake in the form of a microdistrict is a constructivist district in Perm, which is slowly destroyed. Spectators at the opening could have this cake, and so it disappeared.

-What happens to the North-7 now?

-All members of the group develops a solo career very well, it seems to me that we did at all the sites that could be, at the exhibition, somewhere even two-in St. Petersburg, for sure. It is not very clear where to move on, how to develop a group. Now we are not doing general projects, everyone is doing their own business. We used to have a common workshop, there was a gallery. Then, gradually, everyone has their own workshop. When we started, we were unknown graduates of art schools, no one wanted to make our exhibitions. I had to open my gallery!

Anna Andrzhievskaya

- How did the idea of your project "System of Fences" arose?

Infinite a series of numbers, buildings, machines for oppressing people

- This is a very long story, it began in 2012, or maybe earlier. You can say this is my first solo project: I was still a student when I did this series of work. I come from Perm and, although I studied and lived in St. Petersburg, every summer I came home for the holidays. And I always went to the Civil Forum "Pylorama". There were round tables, film screenings, concerts - for me it was like a festival. All this happened in Perm-36, so I first got there. I was interested in that prisoners had very few personal things. There was not even some basic, elementary utensils, not to mention any things that can leave a cultural and historical trace. “Perm-36” is a unique place: the entire Gulag’s camps were not preserved anywhere, although many of them existed until the end of the Soviet Union, in the late 1980s people were still sitting in some of them. Camp buildings were built as time ranges, they disappear very quickly, and the memory of people disappears even faster. I wanted to do something about it. So it all started.

The work of the artist Anna Andrzhievskaya from the project "System of Fences"

- What happened next?

Political prisoners in Perm-36 were both in the 1970s and in the 1980s

-I contacted Tatyana’s item, she was then the director of Perm-36. And she said that I want to do something about the museum-very abstract, I did not have any specific plans then. They told me: "Yes, cool, come!" It was not as such a residence for artists, there was no Open Call. We can say that it was my initiative. One of the barracks for prisoners was equipped as a hotel for researchers. I lived in it for a week and made a series of studies. I got such small graphic sketches. I did not know what to do with them, they were lying for me for about a year. Then in St. Petersburg I saw Open Call-the artist Alexander Gart opened the printed studio in the small arena and did the project "12 weeks of black and white art", it was proposed to try myself in printed schedules for six beginners and six of the held artists. I suggested making a project about the camp in printed schedule. It fell very well on the idea, because the camp is not by chance called "Perm-36". It is clear that not far from it there is Perm-35 somewhere, and, perhaps, a little further-Perm-37. An endless series of numbers, buildings, machines for oppressing people. Printing graphics also implies the circulation. It seemed to me that this is a very suitable technique for expressing this idea. The first time the project was shown in the St. Petersburg Small Manege. Now in this building is the Museum of Art of St. Petersburg. Then I showed these works in Perm-36 itself, and then their adventures began. I transferred them to the Perm-36 museum, it turned out to be a mobile exhibition-they were shown a lot in Perm. In general, they trained. Now they are in the collection of the PermM museum ( Museum of Modern Art in Perm. - RS ). In 2020, the museum was organized by the exhibition "System of Fences", Yana Tsyrlin invented its curatorial concept, Dmitry Merkushev became the architect of the exposition. It is this exhibition project that is now shown at the Gulag Museum. The tenth copy is stored in the Museum of the Political History of Russia in St. Petersburg.

The work of the artist Anna Andrzhievskaya from the project "System of Fences"

-Why not in the collection of the Perm-36 museum?

- Because, one might say, the raider seizure of this museum occurred. I don't know what happened there. Initially, it existed as a public organization, to which the land, where the camp was located, was transferred for free use. Then the museum went on jurisdiction of the state. It so happened that the directors who actually founded this museum were fired. They put some other people to deal with them. The museum and all buildings crossed the state, and the collection remained on the balance sheet of a public organization. I left my work to the founding directors. I don’t know what is happening in this museum now. Naturally, the civilian forum "Pylorama" is no longer there.

The work of the artist Anna Andrzhievskaya from the project "System of Fences"

- Why was it important for you to show this exhibition now at the Gulag Museum?

- It was the idea of the Permm museum, their initiative. It seems to me that this is important, because now many people have nostalgia for the USSR. It seems that the outcome of the Soviet Union was completely herbivore. Everyone knows perfectly well about the 1937 year, about the fifties ... But the political prisoners in Perm-36 were both in the 1970s and in the 1980s! There were many people from the republics that were part of the USSR, these people tried to preserve their language and their culture. It seems to me that it is important to remember that it was before. Of course, I see parallels with today. And what is now trying to erase this memory.

The work of the artist Anna Andrzhievskaya from the project "System of Fences"

- How did you plunge into this topic?

People spent 10-15 years there, and only a folder with their business and a photo card remained from them

- Naturally, I read Shalamova, Solzhenitsyna. But when I went to the museum, I still did not know what I would find there. It turned out that the museum collection mainly consists of some strange things that gave the warders. Mostly boots remained from prisoners there. They had practically no personal belongings, the clothes were very quickly wiped. There was a mountain of intercourse shoes - and that’s all, there was nothing more financially there. It was simply impossible to leave some kind of cultural layer, a historical trace. People spent 10-15 years there, and only a folder with their business and a photograph made after arrest remained from them. This camp, its construction itself is the only thing that has been preserved. It is completely typical, it is clear that other camps - in Kolyma or in Mordovia, were arranged in about the same way. It’s not that these buildings were important to me on their own: I was interested in destruction, the disappearance of memory, and the silence of history. For many people, relatives were repressed, and it was also in my family. But this is an absolutely taboo topic that is silent. It was important for me to show that it is, that this or another imprint on almost every family and for every person - the memory of this is erased, but this does not go anywhere.

The work of the artist Anna Andrzhievskaya from the project "System of Fences"

- Who was repressed in your family?

- Grandpa from the father and great -grandfather from the mother. They were not at Perm-36, they were sent further to Kolyma, where I did not have the opportunity to go. My great -grandfather was a clerk in the army of Kolchak, and my grandfather hit Kolyma after German captivity: during the Great Patriotic War in the army, he was an artilleryman, and in ordinary life an engineer. They both survived and returned. I learned some moments of their biography only recently. This topic stubbornly hushed up in our family. I would like to do a project about the history of my family related to repression. But I still do not know which medium is suitable for this. I work in different - performance, installation, painting, graphics, printed graphics. Choosing is not so simple.