2019, ORGANIC LIFE, Steam Train Museum, Brest

BERGAMOT GROUP

ORGANIC LIFE. OBJECTOPHILIA

Video performance
2019
Steam Train Museum, Brest, Belarus

1,45 h

The performance action took place at the Steam Train Museum in Brest - a vast space full of nooks and crannies, also known as an informal cruising zone. Formally dressed Volha Maslouskaya and Raman Tratsiuk kissed various elements of historic locomotives.
The locomotives at the Brest Steam Train Museum are not neutral exhibits - they are carriers of ideology, symbols of Soviet progress, modernization and collective strength. Today, similar images are sometimes used in official propaganda, building the myth of national power and continuity of power. The performance of kissing the locomotives brings out this aspect, showing their aura of power and historical pride, but disarms it in a perverse, sensual gesture. The fetishized machines become objects of affection, almost absurd desire - thus criticizing ideological narratives through their exaggerated, ironic personification.

The action can also be read as a subtle tactic of appropriating space. Kissing the locomotives is a quiet, non-confrontational but subversive gesture that gives the official space of the museum a personal, intimate meaning. In this way, the artists reclaim a space dominated by the state narrative and monumental stories of progress. The performance transforms it into a place of private experience and bodily contact, breaking the distance and rigidity of the museum exhibition.