MAYANA NASYBULLOVA

It all started in 2015. I was eager to participate in the Krasnoyarsk Biennale, and I proposed the installation of UH TY in the form of a giant ear with a microphone on a tree near the museum. Inside the museum, there were supposed to be headphones, turning the museum into a place for the boldest revelations, similar to Moscow’s 'glasnost' booths. I even made a working prototype, but the museum changed its plans, and my participation needed to be improved. Nevertheless, I still came to Krasnoyarsk and hung the ear on a tree, realizing then that it was not an installation but street art. I started sticking ears everywhere, posting photos on social media with the caption #homelandhears, but quickly changed it to #homelandlistens. Later, my friends, their friends, and strangers from the internet, to whom I sent ears by mail, started sticking them everywhere.

So, a small plaster ear continues to listen, but not hear, all around the world: Motherland listens in Moscow. Motherland listens in St. Petersburg. Motherland listens in Nizhny Novgorod. Motherland listens in Krasnodar. Motherland listens in Kursk. Motherland listens in Zheleznogorsk. Motherland listens in Yekaterinburg. Motherland listens in Perm. Motherland listens to Nizhny Tagil. Motherland listens in Chelyabinsk. Motherland listens in Satka. Motherland listens in Omsk. Motherland listens in Tomsk. Motherland listens in Novosibirsk. Motherland listens in Barnaul. Motherland listens in Gorno-Altaysk. Motherland listens in Krasnoyarsk. Motherland listens in Lesosibirsk. Motherland listens in Sayanogorsk. Motherland listens in Almaty. Motherland listens in Bishkek. Motherland listens in Tashkent. Motherland listens in Yerevan. Motherland listens in Paris. Motherland listens in London. Motherland listens in New York. Motherland listens in Berlin. Motherland listens in Amsterdam. Motherland listens in Brussels. Motherland listens in Venice. Motherland listens in Rome. Motherland listens in the Vatican. Motherland listens in Tokyo. Motherland listens in Bruges. Motherland listens in Kansk. Motherland listens in Florence. Motherland listens in Kyiv. Motherland listens in Minsk. Motherland listens in Sochi. Motherland listens in Tel Aviv. Motherland listens on a playground. Motherland listens in the forest. Motherland listens in the square and beneath the square.

By the way, the installation was eventually made at the Krasnoyarsk Biennale in 2017, so happy end.