SAAL Biennaal 2021: Yulia Arsen “Plastic Bag"

Femininity is a product. This product is mass-produced and you can go to the store for it. Yulia Arsen goes with a plastic bag to "Funny prices" shop, so there to achieve the only true femininity for sane money. And finally, to become full-fledged.

Presentation with elements of dance, humor, and soap bubbles.

This piece is very ironic but at the same time very honest and intimate work. It appeals to the theme of gender and self-identification of a person, through dealing with all the possible cliche about what does it mean do be a real woman. Even if we live now in 2021 there are still a lot of patriarchal voices and expectations on the woman behavior. And a lot of these ideas about “norm” are produced not only by men but by women themselves too – just Google for “womanhood coach” and get into the world of “real women”. So feminity is a part of the market now. Through humor, I would love to examine the main female qualities (I figured out while research on Google), and then test the idea of where all of these bring us. If the female is someone passive and the male is someone active, then it will be always in a pattern of victim and rapist, followed by victim-blaming.

With this work, I would love also to support people who do not want to fit themselves in any “normal”, who just want to be themselves and develop empathy as a main urgent skill for today`s life.

Yulia Arsen is a Russian dance artist and choreographer. She was educated in Germany, participated in festivals in Korea, Hungary, Germany, Russia, and Tanzania. Collaborates with young theater directors at the Sovremennik Theater, the Moscow Art Theater School, MTA. A resident of Meyerhold theater center (Moscow), participant of the Residency of Young Choreographers (ZIL and Stancia). She was accepted to the Atlas program of the Impulstanz festival. Fellow of the STD of the Russian Federation 2020, winner of the Kulturamt der Stadt Kassel 2020 grant.

Made and performed by: Yulia Arsen
Outside eye: Nastya Nikolaeva
Made with support of: STANTSIA_art
Music: Philip Kirkorov “Diva”, Robert Parker “Sweet Nothings”
Photos: Egor Gogen
Video: Sasha Panichkin
Premiere: January 2021

Duration: 50’
In English

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