Time

Speaker / Type

Text

00:00:27

Victoria Lomasko

I think that the last Soviet artist can only be a person who has caught the end of the Soviet era..

It’s not at all possible to be the last Soviet artist if you don’t remember anything about the Soviet period, because then for you it's just one of the historical eras. And you can only work with other people's memories from the archive.

00:00:52

Victoria Lomasko

I look at younger artists who are working on this topic. And I see that for them there is a clear end to this era which has clear and distinct features which is not interesting to them.

00:01:28

Victoria Lomasko

On the one hand it is viewed as a terrible time of depression, control, the destruction of dissent, the Stalin gulag time and they want to disown this very disgusting story.

00:01:49

Victoria Lomasko

On the other hand it is a patriotic story, of a great empire that we have lost.

And in order to feel it as something, that is neither black nor white, neither good nor bad, but as it actually was, you have to find it and feel it in yourself, that at the same time this control is permanent and at the same time there is this feeling you are in this kindergarten

00:02:21

Victoria Lomasko

You were guaranteed to have education, a job, there was housing for all.

Everything was of a very low standard, but nevertheless, you would never fall out of this society.

00:02:38

Victoria Lomasko

You would even receive some medical care for free.

I don’t know whether this is good or bad, but if you were born in Soviet times, you can't escape from this experience.

This experience is very specific because we were born in the country of realized or unfulfilled utopia. In a very strange country where social life was arranged as a great social experiment.

00:03:18

Victoria Lomasko

And..

I don’t know…

Sometimes I’m proud that I’ve found such times, sometimes I want to get rid of it.

But it’s not in my power anyway, and everything that happens next in Russia I see through this experience.

00:03:40

Victoria Lomasko

Many of the younger generation idealize leftist ideas, but if you were already born in the stronghold of ‘victorious socialism’, then you cannot idealize them like that.

And to be the last Soviet artist means to be immersed in this complexity and understand all its shades.

00:04:05

Title

‘The Last Soviet Artist’

00:04:08

Victoria Lomasko

From my early memories I have two kinds which stand out.

These connect my  childhood with a feeling of complete global control.

That I belong to a society that completely controls  me.

00:04:30

Victoria Lomasko

And…

this sensation of continuous unjustified cruelty and rudeness since kindergarten since school.

And…

For example, I remember kindergarten where teachers were very rude to us, and they shouted at us, and punished us.

00:000:4:57

Victoria Lomasko

And…

Once I noticed that there was a big hole in the kindergarten’s fence that you could climb through,

and I escaped from school out on to the street and I just stood there and it felt great.

00:05:15

Victoria Lomasko

I thought that I could go home, or go wherever I wanted to, although in principal I didn’t really have anywhere to go .

It was just enough to go beyond this cage.

Then this sensation is something which has repeated throughout my whole adult life.

Wanting to go beyond this social cell.

00:05:46

Crowd

‘Stop lying to us’

00:06:27

Victoria Lomasko

‘ We tried to walk now  but today walking in the centre of Moscow is prohibited.

It practically amounts to revolution.

Today looks like the beginning of a military dictatorship.

00:06:47

Victoria Lomasko

People around us are discussing that they tried to get through Pushkin Square but everyone is detained and being questioned if they’re here for the rally or not.

They are warning everyone that you can’t walk here today.

Of course, the question for me as an artist is how to make books about social life in Russia like my book “Other Russians”.

Even if I just stop or get out my sketchbook they could detain me.

00:07:23

Title

‘Victoria’s first commercial exhibition, London, Edel Assanti Gallery 2019’

00:07:30

Victoria Lomasko

For me, without doubt, it is important to do commercial projects, because they allow me to be free.

And…

Well, in general, money allows you to feel free.

Money allows you to choose.

00:07:48

Victoria Lomasko

I told you the situation, when I came to finishing my book (Other Russias)

When I was finishing the book, I had long run out of money.

And I didn’t even have enough money to buy felt-tip pens.

And my camera broke and I felt it was all over.

And…

I tried to sell my drawings on the Internet for money to buy materials for work.

But then no one in Russia bought them, only foreigners That is when I realised it is impossible to only do socio-cultural art in Russia.

00:08:31

Title

‘The Center for Prison Reform’

00:08:40

Valeryi Sergeev

At the moment we only really have the opportunity to engage in legal support for prisoners.

We respond to letters from convicted prisoners, and prisoners who have yet to be convicted who are asking for our help with legal advice and information on how to review their sentence or appeal the administration’s actions in the detention centres and prisons.

And in the prisons they do not have this access, so in this sense we are in demand among prisoners.

00:09:10

Victoria Lomasko

Do you remember anything about our first trip to the colony together when you called me?

Do you remember anything?

00:09:18

Natalya Dziadko

They invited you, they just took you, then …

00:09:20

Victoria Lomasko

What do you mean?

00:09:21

Natalya Dziadko

Back then it was much easier…

much easier to get into the prison colony, than it is now.

Even when our relations with the system were simpler, you could still feel the tension, and when you enter the prison, you enter some kind of barrier.

Regardless you could feel the tension and still you go to jail, you cross some kind of barrier.

00:09:37

Victoria Lomasko

Do you remember? I immediately started drawing there and no one stopped me.

00:09:40

Natalya Dziadko

And no one stopped you, they welcomed it. In fact, what year was it? 2009?

00:09:48

Victoria Lomasko

Yes Probably.

00:09:50

Natalya Dziadko

Yes, 2009, two thousand and nine.

By this time, we had been visiting Mozhaisk colony for almost 10 years.

Well, Mozhaisk colony a little less, but in general visiting the colonies with this educational mission.

00:10:04

Victoria Lomasko

For me the main reason to go there was because the boys and girls who really liked to draw came to the lessons.

And it might have possibly ended had some of the prisoners not come up to me and said “I also like to draw.”

“When will you come next time? ”

They even said to me: “And the next time you come, what will we do?”

And then when I started to visit after each lesson they would as ask: “What will we do next?”

They put me in a situation where I couldn’t bear tell them that there wouldn’t be a next time.

00:10:52

Victoria Lomasko

Do you remember the pupil’s reaction, when they received the calendars we drew with them?

00:10:59

Natalya Dziadko

Well they were shocked, everyone was shocked and it was incredibly pleasurable.

This is the most important thing, that there is some kind of evidence that they are worth something, that someone cares

00:11:19

Victoria Lomasko

It is so interesting to me that my book hasn’t been published in Russia. And they’ve recently told me that it couldn’t be published, because it was violating so many new laws.

00:11:36

Victoria Lomasko

The social stories that I draw in Russia, they do not need colour, because even in reality there is no colour.

For example, beige or grey courtrooms, some faded corridors.

Or in winter when everything is black and white.

00:12:09

Victoria Lomasko

In our life in Russia there is not a lot of colour.

And every time that I paint with colour, it is always a conscious choice.

It means that this story, these feelings cannot be conveyed by a line, only by a spot.

And more often these are some of more emotional and mystical things.

00:13:57

Victoria Lomasko

In these photos I often see myself with a chicken.

This was my chicken, I raised it from a little chick.

She was my best friend.

I played with her a lot and she used to chase after me like a dog.

00:14:20

Victoria Lomasko

Then one day my parents told me that the chicken ran away.

I was so surprised and wondered, why would she run away because she loved me so much?

On that same day, my parents fed me with a chicken soup.

The soup was tasteless and the chicken was very tough.

Only in the evening did I realise that they had killed my chicken and fed me with her.

00:14:55

Announcer

‘Moscow – Tovarnaya’

The next stop is Kalitniki

00:15:01

Victoria Lomasko

We are going to Serpukhov.

The journey takes two hours.

Serpukhov is located on the outskirts of the Moscow region.

It is an ancient city, formerly a small merchant’s town.

00:15:21

Victoria Lomasko

I want to talk about my impressions from yesterday’s rally.

Although we were only there physically, it was still frightening enough, Because being present was enough for OMON (SPECIAL POLICE UNIT) and the Russian national guard to seize, beat, arrest, take mobile phones and take finger prints.

All this felt terrible.

00:15:53

Passenger

Here on Academican Sakharov street?

00:15:57

Victoria Lomasko

No, the rally wasn’t on Academican Sakharov street.

They suggested doing it

there in an enclosure, but people decided to go out onto the boulevard ring and just spill out into the boulevards.

They detained almost everyone.

But how can they distinguish those who...

00:16:17

Passenger

I see..

00:16:18

Victoria Lomasko

Those who went to rally and those who are simply going about their business.

00:16:22

Victoria Lomasko

Yesterday I spoke with people of all generations, with the young adults, twenty years old or so.

And they said that my generation has missed an opportunity and we must live in this country.

But we cannot live here like this.

Many spoke about emigration.

00:16:50

Victoria Lomasko

Some are comparing this era with Soviet times, because they also controlled everything.

00:16:57

Passenger

Passenger: There is no comparison

- It was a country of scientists, engineers and workers and now it is a country for the merchants, and security guards.

So why compare it?

00:17:10

Victoria Lomasko

There was control. But it was still...

00:17:12

Passenger

- No there was no such control

00:17:14

Victoria Lomasko

but they were still investing in science, education, medicine...

00:17:18

Passenger

In production, it was in production! There was no such pettiness.

There were no fences at the stops.

00:17:45

Victoria Lomasko

Serpukhov reminds me of a passage from the stories of Zamyatin when he describes pre-revolutionary Russia and the provincial places.

Such places in which time seems to have stopped, where they are in their own kind of mercy.

00:18:06

Victoria Lomasko

In these small, dusty, cosy streets, this city that you can get around in a few hours from beginning to end.

00:18:18

Serpukhov has such interesting landscapes, with hills, ravines and there are churches

on the hills and houses between the ravines.

And there are hens, dogs,

cows and sheep.

00:18:42

Victoria Lomasko

On the one hand, it‘s all very touching, but on the other hand, it takes such a big step to move from this small world into the wider world.

But my whole life is

about this pursuit, to see what the wider world is like.

00:19:10

Inna

Hello, I’m Inna, a native of the city of Serpukhov.

I’m standing on Lenin Square,

near Lenin’s monument.

Every year on this square we went to parades, on the 9th of May and 7th of November and these holidays were always fun.

We carried banners.

On May 9th, there would be

a parade and people would march, they walked with banners and honoured the dead.

I really want those times to return.

And I really want to be

under the flag of the Soviet Union of Socialist Republics I give all my regards to

my friends and comrades.

00:20:11

Victoria Lomasko

My father often painted this place.

And why did he do it?

Because, in Soviet times, churches were either turned into clubs, culture houses or into some kind of public place or even destroyed.

Now all the churches and

monasteries in the city have been restored and are in excellent condition.

00:20:42

Victoria Lomasko

And...

the priests are some of the richest people in the city.

But all the Soviet plants and factories that were in the city were completely destroyed, so everything has changed in

the course of one life.

Even less than one life.

As a child, I remember these ruins, which at the time seemed as though they would never last this long.

00:21:14

Victoria Lomasko

Now I have to look at the ruins of Soviet factories instead.

To be honest, I would prefer to look at the ruins of churches instead of the ruins of factories.

00:21:30

Victoria Lomasko

I was specifically looking for a place in Serpukhov, a symbol

that represented that the Soviet era is well and truly gone, that this history is almost

half-forgotten.

And I thought...

This place is the perfect symbol, It reads...

00:22:00

Victoria Lomasko

“No one is forgotten. Nothing is forgotten”

But in reality everyone is

forgotten.

It looks so interesting,

you can see the banners, when we celebrate the victory of the second world war.

But it looks so strange to see all these happy people among the factory ruins.

00:22:30

Victoria Lomasko

It is very difficult for me to break free from Serpukhov,

and to break the cycle of

my parent’s life.

Of course, I consider my Moscow apartment as my home.

It’s modest, but it’s mine, and everything is how I like it to be,

and not how my parents expect it to be.

00:23:05

Victoria Lomasko

And...

If you are born in Russia,

it is easy to repeat your parent’s life.

My mother is an ordinary Soviet woman who had a maximum programme.

Get married, have a baby and she did it.

She wasn’t sure if it would make her happy.

00:23:33

Victoria Lomasko

And my father tried to rebel, but it was a senseless rebellion

without any results.

Just a lot of talk about how he hates power, and he created several works criticizing the authorities.

But to me this is not living your life as you want or being happy.

00:24:02

Victoria Lomasko

Being an artist was not my decision.

It was the decision of my father, who is an artist loser himself.

He wanted to be a genius, but didn’t do anything to achieve this, he didn’t go to study in Moscow.

He worked at a factory and served the authorities as an artist-decorator.

He created Soviet propaganda, but of course he did do something for himself, but not enough to become a major artist.

And so because of this, he decided a child would be born.

This child would realise all

his ideas and dreams.

00:24:54

Victoria Lomasko

During my childhood, I didn’t have many toys, but instead, canvases, brushes, paints, pencils, felt-tip pens and albums.

And...

domestic violence from my father was a normal thing.

He was only kind or affectionate to me when I painted.

I think Russian and Soviet families are used to living in some state of control and unjustified cruelty.

I wasn’t shocked that my parents behaved with me like this.

00:25:49

Valentin Lomasko

They used to sing a song...

“Kok (type of hairstyle) glistens with hair cream, I am wearing a fashionable jacket, But it’s not a big deal friends that the

jacket is a little too long. It’s no coincidence that I am known as a hipster.

It’s natural, like this.

00:26:05

Valentin Lomasko

So these are two diptychs which are called, “The symbol of time” in Soviet times.

The first work is from 1976.

The other work is from 1980 when I had no canvases.

Since childhood I have never liked Lenin.

Nor the fact they turned him into a Pharaoh

So this diptych is made for the purpose of depicting everything, those who believe in Buddha, or Russian orthodox icons.

But they made Lenin into an

icon to pray to.

And when I brought it to the art council

in Podolsk and the art council in Moscow, they were afraid and all the FSB and KGB were all corrupt.

And they said if you bring it again we will imprison you for ten years.

00:27:08

Valentin Lomasko

This worked is called ”Clownery”.

It’s about the influence of Putin’s power and how he made a symbol, rather than the hammer and sickle, he made an imperial eagle.

I was always against this and

have spoken out about it, because this eagle with the crowns is a symbol of imperial power.

Here is Lenin square.

There never used to be police

dogs during Soviet times, never on the parades on the 1st of May, on Oktyabrskaya.

Here you can see the dog.

The priests are standing here.

There never used to be any dogs.

On the rostrum it reads

“Glory to the labourer”

I didn’t call it the 1st of May, nor Oktyabrskaya but April the 1st.

00:28:13

Valentin Lomasko

This piece was not done for nudity.

Its content is explained in the text at the top.

It reads:

“To independent Russia, a power independent of the people”

There was nowhere for women to earn money, so they began to engage in prostitution.

And this text reads...

Actually no one can guess it, only three people were able to guess it.

“Not to have a hundred rubles,

but to have a hundred whores, or prostitutes”

In short, they cannot earn money, so they have to work.

00:28:58

Valentin Lomasko

I was always a freethinker.

During Soviet times, and after.

So I made this new painting about Lenin.

And I had a text hanging beneath this portrait.

The text reads:

“Now my painting of Lenin is

more alive than all living things.”

In Soviet times I spoke openly about how Lenin, should be thrown out of the mausoleum  and I was not afraid of the KGB.

And they should not have arranged monuments on Red Square for members of the Politburo and for generals.

Red Square was not made for this, it was made for celebrations.

Not for burial.

And they made it like a cemetery.

00:29:49

Victoria Lomasko

I don’t think my father could be considered the last Soviet artist

In his style he is a Soviet artist, he lived as a Soviet artist, he served the Soviet government.

But some of his arguments are not Soviet.

And maybe in some ways I am more like the last Soviet artist.

I am for Lenin being in the mausoleum.

It seems to me that Lenin is

a great historical figure.

00:30:25

Victoria Lomasko

I like this landscape, where the pre-revolutionary churches

and Soviet ruins are one.

In my childhood, I spent a lot of time here, painting this landscape on this mountain and all the surroundings.

00:30:46

Victoria Lomasko

The city is very small.

There are not many places

where you can draw.

And this is one of the more interesting places.

I painted it during childhood and also when I was a teenager.

I also drew it at University and then in London for the

exhibition De La Sainte.

00:31:09

Victoria Lomasko

I would sit on this mountain, and watch the birds flying...

And I would want to fly away with them.

Because even back then this city was too small and boring for me.

It seemed to me that here you can live your life as a dream, a very quick and short dream.

And before you realise it, old age already has come.

And all this life I sat on this mountain, in this ravine, walked between these churches.

00:31:52

Victoria Lomasko

And nothing happened.

And...

for me to take my steps from

this place to Europe, to England, and to America was a huge effort.

It took all my strength.

00:32:15

Victoria Lomasko

And...

I’m not married, I have no kids, but if anyone asked me to choose again when I was a teenager on this mountain what would I prefer?

To live here with a husband and child or to conquer America with my art, I would firstly say, I want to be an individual, and to change.

I want to move through space freely, and to know this world...

00:33:00

Victoria Lomasko

And now, just like before, like Serpukhov, this flag has become a little boring for me.

It is like an anchor, preventing me from moving on.

And I don’t want to be just a Soviet person.

I do not want to become a hero, or a heroine similar to Zoe Kosmodemyanskaya.

I do not want to accomplish anything for the sake of any system, or someone else’s ideology.

I want to achieve things for my own sake.

00:33:42

Victoria Lomasko

Those feats will allow me to be happy.

And this flag is holding me back now.

This Serpukhov is holding me back, and I already want to go further.

Russia is not enough for me,

neither is this post-Soviet space.

The whole world I want it to be mine, I am not a Soviet woman.

I am not a Russian woman.

I am a human of the world.

I am pretty sad to leave this flag behind.

At the same time it is necessary, so that something new can appear.

00:34:42

Title

The Last Soviet Artist

00:34:45

Title

A film by Geraint Rhys

00:34:49

Title

Filmed, Edited and Scored by Geraint Rhys

00:34:51

Title

Translation

Tuyana Atanova

 Alina Skorohoda

Nikolay Boloshnev

Anastasia Osadchaya

00:34:54

Title

A special thanks to

Victoria Lomasko

Nikolay Boloshnev

Natalya Dziadko

Valeryi Sergeev

Valentin Iosifovich Lomasko

Galina Semenovna Lomasko

00:34:57

Title

Thanks to the following for permission to use their work:

Photo: ‘Daughter or Artist Decorator’, Lee Baxter HOME Manchester

Photos: Edel Assanti, Studio Will Amlot

Additonal footage: Yan Katelevskiy