Diana Machulina

Born in 1981. Lives in Moscow. Graduate of the Institute for Problems in Contemporary Art and the Surikov Institute. Contributed to special projects at the 1st Moscow Biennale (2005), and special projects and the main program at the 2nd Moscow Biennale (2007).

Labor

Labor is a reproduction in painted form of a photograph found in the newspaper Labor from May 9, 1985 of a meeting of the Central Committee of the CPSU at the Kremlin Palace of Congresses. After the publication of this photograph, the entire editorial staff was fired. At the moment of this photograph’s publication, the montage of history and adjustment of facts became obvious. The General Secretary turned out to be in a place unbefitting his rank, to the left and below the composition’s center. The photo editor gave instructions that the figure should be moved to its appropriate place. Due an oversight, a part of Gorbachev’s head remained in its old place, lying on Tereshkova’s table.
Retrieved from the archive, the photograph amazes by the archaic quality of its composition, regimented no less strictly than the murals in ancient Egyptian tombs. At the bottom — that much background, so as not to crop the state emblem; at the top — a bit of space left above the gigantic bust of Lenin. The fold of the newspaper page must not touch the leader of the world’s proletariat. From one edge to the other, members of the party fill the span. Cropping or accentuating is impossible: a reporter’s original point of view is an asset that comes with democracy. It is precisely within such a rigid cannon that the visual shift looks particularly terrifying, similar to the verbal displacements in the work of writer Vladimir Sorokin, where official language reaches the point of decay and schizophrenia. And, indeed, that point did mark the disintegration of the Soviet empire.

Diana Machulina

Диана Мачулина. Труд, живопись. 2008. Холст, масло. 163х400. Сourtesy автор / Diana Machulina. Trud, painting. 2008. Oil on canvas. 163х400 cm. Сourtesy author