2003 BEHIND THE SCREEN

exhibition”Kataharina II. Machtig aber gross?”
20.09 –30.11.2003
frauenmuseum, Bonn, Germany
www.frauemnuseum.de


Behind the screen, video, 5.10 min.


Dramatic personae: Catherine the Great – Official portrait (the favorite genre of the XVIII century) – Majestic mask in a beautiful dress – The beautiful screen in a golden frame.
In my project I tried to put away the screen and to break the boundary between two ways of life: court life and private life. The court-life and particularly life of Catherine I see as a kaleidoscope of passions, diamonds, nudity and blood.
Watching furtively behind the screen, one can hardly determine who makes this or that gesture, and one can only suspect what is covered behind.
An observer can see this or that fragment depending on his position. Hisher conclusion depends on what fragment heshe observes.
Catherine’s the Great acts and doings, letters, notes and documents she left, create the sort of a screen, which coveres her real biography but suggest only myth made by her own. And every new interpretations of her life add new details to this myth.