SOVIET BARBARA Selected for Hot Docs
Soviet Barbara, the Story of Ragnar Kjartansson in Moscow, a documentary that follows Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson while he prepares an ambitious "living sculpture" in Moscow in the winter of 2021, has been selected to have its world premiere in the Artscapes section at Hot Docs documentary film festival in Toronto.
Hot Docs, North America's largest documentary festival, runs from Thu, Apr 27 - Sun, May 7.
The documentary is directed by Icelandic filmmaker Gaukur Úlfarsson (Gnarr, 2010), who also serves as producer alongside Gudrun Olsen, Gudni Tómasson, and Kristín Ólafsdóttir.
Painter, pop singer and performance art-star Ragnar Kjartansson did not anticipate drama when he opened an oligarch's private museum in Moscow in December 2021. His conceptually and physically massive show Santa Barbara – A Living Sculpture involves 70 people acting and producing a different episode of the 1990s soap opera each day for 100 days in the building's concrete nave.
Cameras set up to observe the installation and unexpected negotiations of the artist's vision. Censorship, a watchful museum director and a private visit by Vladimir Putin himself rachet up the tension. The show, itself a cultural bombshell, examines the collision between Western capitalism and the collapse of the Soviet empire. But artistic ideas confront practical realities head-on as this most anticipated cultural event opens just weeks ahead of a full-scale invasion. Jaw-dropping moments, Pussy Riot stars and the golden shadow of American TV electrify this shockingly candid look at modern art foreshadowing real life.