World Premiere
Anton Batagov
OPTICAL ILLUSION
Songs to the poetry of Alexander Pushkin and Daniil Kharms
Vocals: Alexander Korenkov
Violin, electronics: Asya Sorshneva
Bass guitar, electronics: Sergey Kalachev "Grebstel"
Drums: Vladimir Zharko
Piano, electronics, voice: Anton Batagov
Sound engineer: Ruslan Zaipold
Photo: Alisa Naremontti
Optical Illusion is a journey to St.Petersburg/Leningrad, a city where two great Russian poets, Alexander Pushkin and Daniil Kharms, lived, worked and died. Both of them were censored and persecuted by the repression machine. In Optical Illusion these two geniuses separated by a century are writing one and the same text and using the same navigation that leads them through samsara to freedom. In samsara, both of them had short lives limited to 37 years. The entrance to freedom is closed to their censors and torturers. Freedom is a place where Tchaikovsky listens to BG (a Russian iconic rock star), Shostakovich plays keyboards in a band, and Semyon Semyonovich from Kharms’ poem looks at the pine tree with his glasses on, and at this very moment he attains enlightenment.
Anton Batagov
Place of event: Shpagin Plant / Hall No. 5
Age category: 16+
Duration: 1 hour 20 minutes
