2016
video
4:46 min
text by Ekaterina Degot
Alina Kleytman’s Tongue is as difficult to watch as the subject it broaches. The artist lies in a drab hospital bed while her tongue swells to monstrous proportions, much to the consternation of the nurse who attends to her helplessly. Ever since the full-fledged invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, this scene has moved a few steps closer to reality. As Kremlin propaganda lays claim to all Russian-speaking areas, Russian speakers from Ukraine find themselves suffocating on their native tongue to the point of abandoning it entirely. Kleytman’s film expresses this feeling but also the stigma now attached to an entire language as the result of today’s geopolitics.