|
This is Olga Arefieva's official site www.ark.ru.
Origin: http://www.proarte.net.pl/?action=dynamic&dzial=78&id=813 Olga Arefieva. In the memory of hairless creaturesHow to create your own world? There are many obstacles for the artist to reveal his true self. The atrophy of invention becomes ubiquitous due to widespread opportunism and conformity. Luckily, Olga Arefieva is one of the happy few who avoided this fate. One needs to be extremely careful while discussing Olga's field of interest. Lyrical ballads, agreed. In Russia this genre has powerful roots. Such names as Bulat Okudzawa or Vladimir Wysotsky are well known in Poland. The classic, Aleksander Wertynsky is currently being rediscovered thanks to Olena Leonenko. It is worth noticing that among the motifs of Russian songs, Polish traces are often to be found. It is the case with Wertynsky, as well as with Okudzawa. Olga Arefiewa, who, being impressed with the works of Anna Swierszczynska, composed the music for two of her poems translated by A. Bazylewsky, is no exception to that rule. However, the most characteristic of Olga are her own compositions. Those include not only poems and songs, but also reviews and essays (e.g. a beautiful article about the outstanding theatre "Derevo", well known in Poland). It is worth posing here for a moment. The world of Olga Arefieva emerges from these texts. Josif Brodsky made a remark once about Marina Cwietajewa, that she is the greatest philosopher among poets. It is also the case with Arefieva. Her words induce us to contemplation. They lead us towards anthroposophy and anthropology. Let's not be surprised when, after listening to those chanted poems, we start asking persistent questions referring to who we are and where we come from. According to the laws of Nature, not ideology. Biology, experiencing sensations, the map of a human body do not distance us from the world of nature. On the contrary, through these we are joined with it. Like in the song 'Night-trap', where a man mingles with the "earth", doesn't l! ong for his human form anymore and the source of his happiness is the perfect unity with reality, in respect of which he so often feels guilty. The poet has her own favorite animals. They are the element of the imaginary world, a living fantasy, a dream. They make sounds. Such picture, on the surface, brings echoes of dark climate of spells and incantations (dark folk). Let's not forget, though, that we are in a theatre. Requisites, words and sounds are here to touch the strings in our hearts and minds that have hitherto remained mute, because they have never been struck before. They refer to the notion of man as a tribal being, which, during its joyous dance (and dancing is something Olga is not altogether unassociated with), rocked by the breeze of eternal summer, without any greater cares entertains the kindness of God in the garden of Eden. The idyll is over. There comes the banishment and death. In the song, Adam speaks to us through a warning, that all the time we live under the vigilant eye of Providence. What is faith, religion to Olga Arefieva? As she explains those terms: the artist is, by definition, immersed within transcendentalism, hence there is a strong touch of spirituality about everything he does. Apart from that, he is deeply rooted in ritual and tradition. Tradition, which for Olga, is that of the Eastern Church. The poet does not question that tradition. Further more she very often refers to it. She took part in the festivals of new Orthodox song, for which she was severely criticized by the conservatives linking her name with popular subcultures of the day. To some extent it was her fault. At certain point in her life, she took up the theme, which in Russia was virtually nonexistent: reggae. She used to write Rastafarian songs, very often featuring the Rastafarian god, Jah. Not before long, Arefiewa became regarded as a disciple of Bob Marley. The whole confusion sprang from the fact that whatever Olga was doing, it was done with a wink in her eye, with di! stance or even irony. Someone, somewhere discovered the truth and said that it was not pure reggae. Of course not. The words were too good: And that irony: The point is, that nothing which exists in mass culture is accepted by Olga as a whole and without question. Nothing can constitute the aim in itself. The means may be various. These are the origins of Arafieva's individual style, where the viewer or listener is constantly being surprised by the usage of different ideas and passing through ever different stages of artistic evolution. At the same time, Olga never truly abandons her former concepts. Various projects are being used parallel to each other enriching the artistic outcome. It could be a programme featuring the group "Kowczeg". It could be an acoustic project. It could also be "Chanson Kowczeg" - the notion of presenting folklore songs, romances, ballads or traditional wedding or funeral lyrics (of the similar kind as Goran Bregowi #269;'s orchestra, whose 'Tabakiera' is presently performed by Arefieva and with whom the artist is planning to cooperate in the future). "The Royal Kowczeg" is another example. ! In fact, it is a theatre of a single actor, where each song via costumes, requisites and dancing portrays a different woman character. In this case only two instruments are used: piano (Siergiej Perminov) and cello (Piotr Akimov). The voice of Olga Arefieva is unique. It enables the artist to express her emotions with outstanding clarity. This can easily be observed in the meter of her texts. When the tempo is slower, her voice becomes melodious, it develops from darker passages (alto) and evolves into soprano. The singing becomes atavistic, saturated with unusual sensibility. But it remains classical at the same time. In her career, the artist reached for Bach (St Mathew's Passion) and Pergolesi (Stabat Mater), not excluding the traditional English madrigals (Dowland, Morley). The compositions of Olga Arefieva are very characteristic. She is able to conjure "a jewel" from a single chord. In the meter of her songs she very often uses the low interval of quint, with its very specific function. Through the distance between sounds the unique effect can be achieved. It is sometimes called the poet's heart's confession. Her poems were published in Literaturnaya Gazieta and in Znamia, the magazine of a very high prestige. Olga herself was admitted to The Russian Federation's Writers Fellowship. She is also the author of a lovely series of children's poetry. Unfortunately, this part of Arefieva's works is totally unknown in Poland. She was born in Wierchnaya Salda in Ural Mountains, thirty seven years ago. Both of her parents were engineers: her father was a metrologist and her mother a meteorologist. Her memories from home are good, as opposed to those from her school where human individualism was consistently trampled. She had always desired a special treatment. It was extremely difficult for her to find the right place in the system where collective values were esteemed most highly. As a natural result, her emotional life became richer than the social one. Perhaps this is the moment when the rebel and the poet were born. At the same time however, unlike many people in the similar situation, Olga did not abandon her education. She studied for two years at the University Of Swierdlowsk, at the Institute of Physics. Then there was a local academy of music and finally she graduated from the highly prestigious Gniesin's Institute in Moscow. Today's "elements" of Olga Arefieva are: words, sounds and movement. When we put those together we come up with: a theatre. The theatre, in which only one actor remains on stage. His face is whitened and his eyes are those of a sad clown. But suddenly he is not alone anymore. Various animals appear, real as well as imaginary. Fantastical creatures. Alicias from Wonder Lands. The spectator, the partaker of this performance finds himself in a different dimension. What has been imaginary, now becomes more true than the reality that surrounds us. These worlds are autonomous and each of them is governed by different laws. Listening to Olga Arefieva we stay in touch with a certain archaism. We cannot escape the feeling that the author discovers the phenomena hidden in our deep, perhaps even unconscious, memory. The individual confession, the feeling of greater unity with the Nature and the Universe rather than with any specific type of a man is something that leads Olga into the world of self-analysis. The artist speaks through her true self and we, at the same time, through the power of music and words, begin to experience that affinity ourselves. Suddenly, the golden chest of hidden archetypes and desires is laid open for us. Lately, Olga has arrived to the level of expression comparable to the one of Pina Bausch from Wuppertal and Sascha Waltz from Berlin. These are the artists of dance whom Olga greatly admires. The original and the individual become close to her because these are the features the artist cherishes the most. Over the voice of the multitude, in the fascinating ritual of voice, word, movement and sound there goes straight into heavens the clear belief in the power of creation. By Lech Koczywas
|