The driving force for this conversation was a group show ‘Өмә’, put together and presented in Kunstraum Kreuzberg (Berlin) from the 11th of March till the 29th of May 2023. The show took its name and format from a Baschkirisch term describing “collective self-practices”. Thirtyartists and art collectives presented their visual and research-based projects, which all spoke about the history and present-day situations of different ethnic groups living in Russia today.
The work of Victoria Sarangova ‘Motherland II’ created during the ‘Өмә’ residency and specifically for the group exhibition, traces the micro-stories of her Kalmyk ancestors, who during the Soviet times got forcibly and brutally deported from their ancestral land for allegedly conspiring with the Nazis.
In this and other projects Victoria uses the technique of embroidering as a manifestation of a craft that was historically assigned to women, and thus wasn’t considered a ‘high art’. After moving to Berlin, apart from working with embroidery, Victoria started to also work with sound and sight-specific installation. Her recent long-term project ‘Archaeology of Progress’ takes a critical look at the idea of progress as something equally positive for all members of our society.
Following the tradition of Kitchen Conversations, the podcast was concluded by speaking about Victoria’s favourite home food*, which in her case is Bortsg – traditional Kalmyk fried bread and Beerg – large dumplings filled with meat.
Listen to podcast with Victoria Sarangova here:
- The recipes of favourite home dishes by the podcast guests were put together and published by Contemporary Lynx in the Kitchen Conversations Cookbook: Homey Recipes from Artists back in November 2022.
