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Subject: Russian Words Are the Russian Mission
From: marjan <marjan@kud-fp.si>
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 1997 22:38:46 METDST

* * * * *

Sitting at home, we feel the Earth to be a tiny, compact
world. Means of communication make it possible to reach out
and touch any corner of the globe. The Earth is as familiar
and domesticated as one's apartment. And although
boundaries still crisscross the Earth's surface, art and
culture already represent a single, universal field, having
broken from archaic ritual. In this universality we can
still make out, nevertheless, discrete parts and
particularities. Consequently, any large-scale artistic
forum turns into a Noah's ark in which every participant
fills his own niche.
What, then, are the Russian 'message' and the Russian
mission in world culture?
Literature and the word are the hidden mainsprings of
those unhurried reflections and the feeling out of meanings
which constitute the peculiar 'Russian' way; a way in which
inaction is experienced as a pause for making sense of
things; a sudden burst of activity - as an abscess which has
finally burst. In which revolution is as inevitable as fate
and delusion.
The Russian mission consists in the uttering of words.
Russian culture is embodied in the word.
The reading of Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and
Chekhov at DOCUMENTA X is an actualization of the Russian
'message' in world culture. Word and speech are turned into
a weighty, spatial object.
The present age is an age of neostructuralism, an age in
which meaning is illuminated in context, in the situation.
Thought is expressed quickly, capaciously and simply.
Neostructuralism is a time when there is no time to read and
the text does not pass for literature. The age of poets has
come to a close. Foucault and Virillo are replacing
Derrida. Language today is a hindrance, an obstacle to
speech's opacity. Language today is a milieu, not a means
for communication. But understanding is needed as never
before. The language of our communications is 'bad
English.' English takes on the role of Esperanto and is
damaged as a result.
Language is the easiest and most natural means for
objectifying any kind of psychological stress. The more we
speak (thus creating mental images), the greater the number
of 'clamps' we remove. As Freud put it, "If a man were not
able to speak, he would soon go mad." In order to
compensate our losses, we talk more often and more quickly -
but worse, with less imagery and a smaller vocabulary.
Language today is merely a function. The nonfunctionality
of literature forces us to remember, to take a look around,
to live and to think.
The loss of imagery is the loss of that which we call
art.


Dmitry Pilikin

Translated, from the Russian, by Thomas Campbell