33.   THE RUSSIAN WORLD

A group of viewers was met on a highway by S.Romashko, who offered the guests to proceed to the field along the path trod in deep snow. It is important to notice that S.Romashko followed the group in the rear. When the viewers approached the center of the designated field and stopped by the purple cloth with white canopy (in its center there was a tape recorder switched to play back), Romashko turned on the right, away from the trail, and began walking along the line of the forest towards the plywood rabbit standing on the forest’s verge 70 meters away from the audience’s position. The rabbit’s contour (3 meters high) was established facing the field, its side facing the audience: from viewers’ position it looked like a pole or a shield protruding from the snow.

While Romashko was trudging through deep snow towards the hare  figure, escaping the audience’s attention (as he was moving along the forest’s line and avoiding the audience’s line of sight), the viewers were listening to a record consisting of noise produced in the course of assembling and installing the hare figure (recorded two hours prior to the action). Besides that, in the course of Romashko’s moving the viewers could observe Monastyrski’s motionless figure, standing 70 meters away from the purple cloth, opposite to it and facing the audience. While standing in position opposite to the cloth and divided from the audience by snowy wild land (Monastyrski took his position before the audience’s arrival by avoiding line, so there was no visible trace of his footprints on the snow), A.Monastyrski was evenly reeling white thread on the "Soft handle" – a prefabricated object made of a thick cardboard circle with an outstretched handle; on one of its sides an image of a dialplate with hands was glued, while the other was formed by a red circle with silver five-bladed star in the center; on the disk’s handle there were 200 meters of white thread spooled beforehand, so in the course of the action the thread was spooled from another reel over existing layer of thread. However, the distance between A.M. and the viewers prevented the latter from seeing neither the "Soft handle" nor the process of spooling itself: the spooling was perceived as vaguely visible rocking motion of a formless object in A.M.’s hands.

Some 6 or 7 minutes past the start of the movement S.Romashko reached his position and began gently rapping with his feet on lower part of the plywood hare, as if shaking snow off his boots. Gradually he applied more and more effort, so that the knocking sound arrested the audience’s attention. For 3 or 4 minutes S.Romashko was increasing the power of kicking on the hare – first with the toes of his shoes, then with whole soles, and finally he kicked at full power, knocking the hare over. After smashing the hare, Romashko dragged it beyond the forest’s verge and disappeared from sight.

As soon as Romashko disappeared in the forest with the hare, Monastyrski turned the "Soft handle" with the red circle facing the audience (its reverse side with hour-plate was indistinguishable against the background of Monastyrski's overcoat). Having finished reeling the rest of the thread – it took him 1-2 minutes – Monastyrski started moving towards the audience through the snowy plain. The snow was deep, and it took him no less than 7 minutes to reach the viewers’ position. On approaching the purple cloth, Monastyrski removed the tape recorder from it and put the "Soft handle" red side up. Then he opened the white canopy, discovering under it nine white objects decorated with golden foil and wing-shaped golden furnishing. These objects were: 1) a glove 2) an enema 3) a walking-stick 4) a doll’s head 5) a clothes brush 6) a rolling-pin 7) a toy ladder 8) a black bag with cardboard dripping pan inside 9) a folder titled "The Book of Nothingness" (see photo and article by A.M. "TZI TZI"). These objects were then put inside cardboard boxes with labels saying "C.A. The Golden Asp (then the object’s name in brackets)" and given to those viewers who had pieces of cardboard (given to them beforehand) with appropriate objects’ names. I.Kabakov received an individual tenth box labeled "C.A. The Golden Asp (the flask)" and was asked not to take out the flask (the box with the flask inside was buried in snow until given to I.K.).

After the distribution of objects the tape recorder with taped construction of the hare was switched off, and the viewers were prompted to make their way back to the highway.

After leaving the forest, the viewers found themselves on a snowy plain where a white hare, 3 meters high, stood facing them. He had a golden line across his belly, imitating the outline of his head. Under the line there was a label identical to those on cardboard boxes: "C.A. The Golden Asp (the golden asp)".

Having photographed with the objects near the rabbit, the latter was knocked down to the snow, and the viewers were prompted to put the boxes on him. Then Romashko and Monastyrski dragged the hare with boxes on it to the field some 10-15 meters away from the audience. A.M. took the flask out of the box (the flask was painted white and filled with black gasoline) and broke it with a stick; black gasoline poured over white objects and boxes. Then Romashko threw a lit match, gasoline ignited, boxes and objects burst into flames. At this moment a tape recorder was switched on (one of the action’s organizers carried it on him), set to play back a recording of various railway announcements, such as "Train so-and-so arrives at platform number so-and-so at designated time" (the recording was made at Kursky railway terminal). When the objects on the hare stopped burning, A.M. and S.R. began throwing snow over them and soon buried the whole hare.

 

Moscow region, Savyolovskaya railway line, field near village Kyevy Gorki

17th of March, 1985

A.Monastyrski, S.Romashko, E.Elagina, G.Kizewalter, I.Makarevich, M.K.

Viewers

I.Kabakov, V.Sorokin, I.Nakhova, I.Bakstein, N.Abalakova, A.Zhigalov, E.Zhigalova, M.Chuikova, S.Anufriev, E.Gorokhovsky, Nina, V.Naumets, V.Zakharov, D.Prigov, A.Prigov, Yu.Leiderman, G.Witte, S.Haensgen, I. and S. Kopystyansky, N.Alexeev