PROLETARIAN GREETINGS
TO HONOURABLE JEAN TINGUELY
FROM MASTER EDUARD BERSUDSKY
OUT OF THE CRADLE OF THREE REVOLUTIONS
Jean Tinguely (1925-1991) was a Swiss sculptor best known for his sculptural machines or kinetic art, known officially as metamechanics. Eduard was strongly influenced by Tinguely’s exhibition in Moscow in 1990. This set of 3 kinemats presents a crash course on the history of Communism in Russia.
GREAT IDEA (KARL MARX)
1990
The soundtrack is based on a popular song by Young Pioneers (children’s communist organisation) composed during the Russian Civil War:
“Oh, our locomotive, fly ahead!
Next station is Communism!
There is no other way forward for us!
We have the rifles in our hands!”
A small figure of the father of the Communist ideology steers the “flying locomotive” in action‚ and admiringly marvels at its menace.
THE DREAMER IN THE KREMLIN
1991
The British science fiction writer H.G. Wells visited Soviet Russia in 1921, in the heydays of civil war and red terror. He was charmed by Lenin and in his optimistic report about the encounter named him “The Dreamer in the Kremlin”.
Lenin’s body has been preserved in the Mausoleum in Red Square in Moscow. The Past does not rest, it controls from the grave.
AUTUMN STROLL IN PERESTROIKA
1990
“An Autumn Stroll at the Belle Epoque of Perestroika (Meta-Tinguely)”
The pair of heavy shoes was a part of Eduard’s working gear when he was making his living as a boiler man. The carved head is a portrait of Eduard’s acquaintance, an artist named Vatenin, a clever and ironic man. This ghostly couple walks amongst remnants of the past and hopes for the future, whistling a careless song.
