Phobia of the Other, electro-mechanical theatre, 2016
Even if »The Border« is not a post-Soviet exhibition as such, it is scarcely possible to avoid this topic. Indeed, Katya Isaeva, Eleonore de Montesquiou, Alisa Berger and Where Dogs Run form a small post-Soviet enclave within the exhibition in their own right. Where Dogs Run focuses upon a specific border, namely the one than runs between different generations.
“Our friend once said that he was afraid of girls with smooth upper arms devoid of the scar left by a smallpox vaccination. Everyone born in the USSR has this kind of scar. The collapse of the Soviet Union coincided approximately with the abandonment of this vaccination policy, and people with smooth upper arms were suddenly among us. Their number is legion and our friend discovered that not only he was unable to forge relationships, but also that a more or less meaningful dialogue with the unscarred people was impossible. As far as he is concerned, they are foreigners. We believe it to represent a phobia of another biological species, which we also find totally understandable”. (Where Dogs Run)
