Theatre of a Madman

Freedom, unlimited freedom, this is the future that inevitably awaits us. A theatre is a special place, where anyone can express themselves in any possible and impossible way, where there are no taboos, where all secrets are being revealed, and all manifestations of living beings are present. Theatre without borders and without rules, without shame and deceit. Theatre as a domain and agony, where there is no viewer, no actors, and no director, but instead a naive existence, a desire for creativity, an incurable disease.

The installation Theatre of a Madman is dedicated to Oleg Karavaychuk (1927–2016), the infamous composer, conductor and pianist, who had a remarkable influence on Shishkin-Hokusai (the artist behind the concept of the installation).

As an improvisational musician Oleg Karavaychuk composed music for many theatre performances and films, which included his own version of music for Sergei Eisenstein’s legendary film of Battleship Potemkin.

Oleg Karavaychuk was an iconic figure for the entire city of St. Petersburg: an officially recognized great composer, he was in fact like a big kid. His creative self and his active involvement in film bordered on the desire to abandon everything, have solitude that would be similar to madness… an escape into the woods.

Country/Region Russia

Presenting Organization Russian Theatre Union, Russian Centre of OISTAT, Street Art Museum, Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation

Curator Inna Mirzoyan

Artists Shishkin-Hokusai, Olga Muravitskaya