Bread and circuses

This is a performance that was never completely realized.

Buba and Marina made a proposal (with the title: Bread and circuses/Хлеба и зрелищ) for a performance at the Moscow International Biennale for Young Art – “Qui vive?” in 2010 and were accepted for the realization. Although it has certain political/historical aspects, their proposal was primarily rooted in the idea of the performance (as such) that manifest through the phenomena of the aesthetic spectacle and entertainment. They wanted to present and explore the possibilities of contemporary performance practice as a basic, instant “food for masses”.

Technical details of the proposal:

“We are planning to do a collaborative performance were we invite between 50 and 150 military female cadets from Moscow’s Military Academy or boarding school. They would be invited to play a skipping game dressed in their parade uniforms on the Red Square, following the composition that would be created specifically for this performance. Two of us will work together with them as well with their official coach professor, introducing instructions through the staged choreography/composition. The female cadets are supposed to stand in lines, creating an illusion of a military parade formation, while skipping the rope as in the famous childhood game. There is timing, rhythm, repetition and a certain discipline that follows this choreography. The performance should last for 30 minutes, and be performed on the opening time of the Moscow International Biennale.”

What happened after the proposal was accepted?

“Shortly after we were accepted, curators and organizers of the Moscow Bienniale decided to change almost all details in our original proposal. After two months of negotiation to maintain our idea we had to withdrawn our proposal due to the lack of communication, flexibility and clearness of the organization.

We have sent them a short statement with a photo of our ‘action’ that we realized in the forest of Switzerland.

When the artistic institution cannot support the artist's idea, then the artists themselves are responsible to make it happen."