Bear, my Love
Bear, my Love is a transdisciplinary project that researches the complex relationship between an immigrant genderqueer body and a Russian nation-state by the means of performance art and dance and through working with an oversize costume of a headless bear.
Currently, I am continuing the development, research and production of the work. Throughout the project I am inviting the experts from various disciplines such as dance dramaturgy, sound design, anthropology, and political science. For the dance solo performance I am collaborating with a dance dramaturg Anna Kozonina and a sound designer Oula Rytkönen.
Photos by George Kondylis. MIRfestival in Athens, GR. November 2023.
Initially, Bear, my Love was realized as a site-responsive live art piece at MIR festival in Athens in 2023. Bear, my Love consisted of a slow-traveling Helsinki to Athens with a bear costume suitcase for two weeks as a traveling residency and a live art performance in front of St. Nicolas church in Athens. During the traveling I crossed nearly 3000 km, passed 12 countries, took nine buses, one boat, two trains and one car. Nearly every day I went to a public space and wrote a love letter to the Bear meditating on questions of love, belonging, lovelessness, loneliness and toxic attachment (to a human, to an idea, or to a country).
Below is the documentation of 10 out 12 love letters that I wrote during the trip. I always asked a stranger to take a photo of myself and the Bear with my old digital camera. Then I made a drawing with my non-dominant hand depicting the Bear, the digital camera image and my immediate surroundings. The only time I wrote a letter in a private space was in Budapest when I was too sick to leave the rented apartment.
Documentation of slow-traveling love letter writing by the artist. November 2023
After performing Bear, my Love at MIRfestival in Athens I worked in TanzHaus dance residency, Zurich, CH. The main aim of those two weeks was to test how the live art piece was adaptable for black box theater space.
Photos by Filo Krause. TanzHaus, Zurich, CH. December 2023.
Bear, my Love project is continuing in 2025 to be shown as a dance solo piece in Helsinki, Fi and abroad.