“Zina was a strange creature, I often thought; as if she had come from another planet. Her brick-red cheeks, her dyed hair, which resembled a wig: it was as if she had consciously molded herself into some kind of parody of femininity. She wasn’t just a poet, her whole being and dress sense was poetry: loud and provocative.”
Land of Mermaids delves into the queer history of 19th-century St. Petersburg’s literary and artistic scene.
Directed and written by Carmen Kautto, the performance is based on the works of poet Zinaida Gippius and is built around gender identity, sexuality, and the building of community and collective space.
Zinaida Gippius (1869–1945) was a poet belonging to the Symbolist movement of the Silver Age of Russian literature, known for her writings on gender, androgyny, and sexuality. In her texts Gippius passionately seeks an alternative to the gender binary and constructs a queer identity that combines her experiences of body and love, her theological thinking and resistance to heteropatriarchal norms.
The spirit of the performance captures the joyful, open, and at times intensely spiritual attitude toward gender expression, sexuality, love, and queer community that is reflected in the works and diaries of Zinaida Gippius and her circle.
Working group:
Carmen Kautto, Benjamin Dequiedt, Minerva Kautto, Anna Korolainen Crevier, Marion Duvinage, Alpi Vaalaja and Louna-Tuuli Luukka
Stage Konepaja • Aleksis Kiven katu 17, 00510 Helsinki, Finland
