I visited this exhibition in Berlin. I cried with tears streaming over my face. I started to cry again hours later trying to tell my friend about the exhibition. It was one particular piece of art which rolled over my soul. 196 names of deported Kalmyks sewed on handkerchieves /1
A Kalmyk artist Boova Sarangova created this art. She found, that 196 Kalmyks with the same surname were deported by the Soviets. She started to sew their names and what happened to them. "Sarangova Bulgn Kichikovna. Deported on ethnic reason (Kalmyk). Died on transport 1943". /2
"Died in Siberia 1954". "Died on transport 1943." "Died in Novosibirsk 1944". This artwork is full of death notes. And of respect to the people. One needs to understand: sewing handkerchieves was a typical way to protect one's dignity. To let others know what happened to you. /3
This way of sewing was typical for many deported nations in totalitarian regimes. The deported Ukrainian women sewed icons, their names, wishes for their children. (Read more in a great book by Oksana Kis "Survival as Victory"): /4
The arrested in the USSR used this way to let their dear ones to know what happened. That they love them. That they have not "disappeared". That they want to say the last farewell. It was the last message. Thrown out of a window in a hope, that someone will find and bring it. /5
In the case of Kalmyk remembrance, another layer is added. In the Kalmyk tradition, memorial places are being marked with flags. These handkerchieves with the sewed names make the basis for such memorial. I cannot imagine a way more moving and precise to honour the killed ones /6
I highly recommend everyone who is in Berlin to visit the exhibition. The art I described above is just one of dozens of incredible objects presented there. The story of the Kazakh genocide by famine (like Moscow did with Ukrainians amid Holodomor)... /7
museumsportal-berlin.de/de/ausstellung…
...the destruction of the Bashkir culture or of the Komi nature, the rob of the land, endless deportations, oppression, imperialist exploitation. You will see everything there. You will be be the same after that. Come and see. /END
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