ORELART PARIS Art Contemporain Russe et International

The young Russian artist Dasha Fursey presents its new project “Pioneer girl”. She protests against the fact that in the Russian society, sincerity and romanticism are seen as a grave form of stupidity. The pioneer girl Katiusha Ivanova represents a happy Soviet childhood, into which the adult world infiltrates through the symbolic image of Gagarin. The cosmonaut, smiling from the space, appears in the young girl’s fantasy genderless like a Ken doll, gorgeous like Brad Pitt, nice like Santa Claus, fearless like Batman.

Young minds have a picture of the world divided between absolute good and absolute evil. Their perfectionism accepts easily the goals and missions submitted to them by the creators of the Soviet organisation of pioneers, as well as those of Hitler Jungen. But does it give us a right to make fun of the naivety and enthusiasm of the youth?

If the artist is slightly ironic, its criticism addresses the voyeur audience rather than the character itself. She noticed that Katiusha Ivanova “awakes noble feelings in the souls of males”.

The integration into the Pioneer organisation takes place at the age of stirring sensibility, and the tying of the red scarf is an initiation ritual. According to the author’s idea, “in the mind of the young, maturing girl, images of the Soviet cult blend with an unconscious desire for love, unformed erotic fantasies”. Feet dressed in white cotton socks, a short pleated skirt: the pioneer girl is an ideal object of observation, trapped into an endless circle of cult representations.