'Soviet Barbara, the Story of Ragnar Kjartansson in Moscow': Art, censorship and Russia's war on Ukraine
Artist Ragnar Kjartansson had the opportunity to open
Elisabetta Bianchini Sun, May 7, 2023
Gaukur Úlfarsson's documentary Soviet Barbara, the Story of Ragnar Kjartansson in Moscow (part of Toronto's Hot Docs festival), raises questions about art, politics in censorship as it chronicles the creation of artist Ragnar Kjartansson retrospective in a Moscow museum.
Back in 2021, Kjartansson was given the opportunity to open a massive retrospective at the GES-2 House of Culture in Moscow, a renovated power plant owned by a Russian oligarch.
The retrospective included recreations of episodes of the U.S. soap opera Santa Barbara, which had been a massive hit in Russia.
“We've known of each other for a long time and we have a group of friends that are the same group of friends,” filmmaker Úlfarsson told Yahoo Canada about creating a documentary around Kjartansson's work. “A very good friend of mine … told me about what Ragnar was going to do in Moscow.”
“I didn't really understand the scope of what he was going to be doing and later, maybe a week later, I spoke to him on the phone. ... Then he started talking to me about [Santa Barbara], and what he was going to be doing in Russia. Even then, after a long conversation on the phone, I didn't really understand, he just told me that he was going to recreate 99 episodes of Santa Barbara.”
While it ended up being the basis of his film, Úlfarsson had an interesting initial response to this retrospective.
“My first reaction was, this is completely ridiculous,” Úlfarsson said. “But this is also completely brilliant.”
“I didn't understand the politics about it firsthand. … He kind of gave me many of the layers and … I asked him if we could come and do a documentary on this. He was very willing to let us do it.”
Soviet Barbara, the Story of Ragnar Kjartansson in Moscow shows individuals, and Kjartansson himself, questioning the ethics around showing this work in a Russian museum. Even equating the move to people going to consume art in museums funded by the Sackler family.
“My parents were also socialists so I completely identify with being passionate about Russia,” Úlfarsson said. “As a young man reading a lot of Russian literature, I always wanted to go and going there, I was completely amazed by how amazing Moscow is, and the people there are also beautiful people.”
“He really wanted to go there. This was a part of him as an artist. … The music and the literature from Russia is, I think there's no country that compares. So that's part of it I really understand.”
But Úlfarsson identifies that the "heartbreaking" thing is how beautiful the city was, but had so much political turmoil.
“When I started with this, I had a hunch that because of where he was going, things could happen,” Úlfarsson said. “After the invasion, obviously just completely took a U-turn, in a sense.”
Kjartansson quickly had to face the reality that Putin's power will impact his art, including a visit from Putin himself. When Putin invaded Ukraine, that's when the reality sets in that Kjartansson art can't exist in what he calls a "full-blown fascist state."
For Úlfarsson, he hopes that Soviet Barbara, the Story of Ragnar Kjartansson in Moscow, provides an opportunity for people to think more about the threat of censorship.
“I was reading in the Canadian newspapers yesterday about this Canadian poet, [Rupi Kaur who wrote 'Milk and Honey,'’]” Úlfarsson recalled. “She's been banned [in the] United States. There are so many levels of censorship.”
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