The program Voice as a Strategy, devoted to young Russian artists who have made their voice a key part of their practice, continues with a concert by Olya and The Secret Factory.
Olya and The Secret Factory is an art and music project by two friends and non-musicians: artist and curator Olga Shirokostup and neurophysiologist Kirill Smirnov. The duo rarely plays in music venues, choosing less obvious but friendly spaces like museums and galleries instead. Their performances often turn into conversations with the audience and resemble singer songwriter nights or unfunny stand-up comedy. The duo explores topics like love, separation, jealousy, and look into their contemporary meaning. Describing the contemporary condition in a straightforward, at times clichéd language, they aim to convey its anxiety and uncertainty, while remaining ironic about themselves and what they do.
Leisure Time is addressed to culture and science professionals with schedules as busy as those of the performers, who work on many different projects: those who can get lost in a great number of interests, ideas and career ambitions and forget about the things that might matter the most.
The duo write their texts as a diary of Olya—an incarnation of one of the members, who can sincerely and openly sing about things that worry or hurt her. Fascinated with Russian pop-music and its ability to speak to the listener often despite the listener herself, Olya and The Secret Factory look for ways of reproducing it in their artistic practice in order to "get through to" the audience.
The performance will be followed by a discussion with Yaroslavl Aleshin and Nikita Vasilenko. Participants will talk about the growing number of contemporary artists who launch their own music projects and discuss the possibility of voicing the political through the personal.