decembrist wife // performance by Josef Ka // Finland March 2019
After the 1825 Decembrist Revolt in the Russian Empire 15 out of 124 Decembrists were convicted of “state crimes” by the Supreme Criminal Court and sentenced to internal exile and sent directly to isolated settlements in Siberia.
Wives of many Decembrists followed their husbands into exile. The expression ‘Decembrist wife’ became a Russian symbol of the devotion of a wife to her husband.
The story of Decembrist wives has, in a certain way become part of my own story….
International performance, visual and sound artist Josef Ka blends richly varied influences – everything from Butoh dance to cinematic theory – with her decades of nomadic world travel to create bold, highly personal site-specific art.
Josef Ka’s themes range from investigating the place of the human body in contemporary reality to exploring the inner body as a representative system of our human and post human kind.
Her artistic practice often actively invites the audience inside a sort of private reverie, making it is a deeply participatory one; she actively engages with both her audiences and with a wide diversity of other experimental artists.
In addition to her own work, Josef Ka curates a regular series of events and exhibitions at her Helsinki underground space – Sauna Gallery – and teaches classes on the theory and practice of performance art. She is also the inventor of the WORST THEATRE and her yogic training system, KA-YOGA.
https://eskargoeskargo.com/ View all posts by Josef Ka