Bronenosets Potemkin/ Battleship Potemkin
Series of 98 drawings
15 x 21 cm
Nero pencil on paper
My new drawing series focuses on the silent film Battleship Potemkin (1925) directed by Sergei Eisenstein. The idea about the interpretation of the movie is part of a bigger project, which I have started in 2011. It includes the interpretation of Pasolini’s movie Uccellacci e Uccellini (1964) with 80 pencil drawings and of bulgarian director Binka Zhelyazkova’s early movie The tied up balloon (1967) with 71 pencil drawings.
The movie Battleship Potemkin used the events of 1905 rebellion against the tsarist troops in the port of Odessa to give meaning of Russian Revolution of 1917. Bronenosets Potemkin is made up of five major sequences:
Act I, Men and worms: when deploying a food ration sailors realize that the meat for the crew is infested with insect larvae. Led by the brave Grigory Vakulchnik, the sailors protest and demand rations of healthy food.
Act II, Drama on the deck: all those who refuse the meat are judged guilty of insubordination and instantly brought to the edge of bridge where they receive religious rites reserved for death row inmates. In front of firing squad none of them show remorse, convinced that what they are doing is right. The captain gave the order to open fire but, the soldiers in the firing squad lower their guns and the uprising begins.
Act III, The Dead man called: the mutiny is successful but many of the sailors are killed in the battle, including Vakulchnik, the leader of the rebels who took possession of the ship. The Potemkin arrives at the port of Odessa. In my story the charismatic figure of Vakulchnik does not die and continues to fight against the tsarist police. In the next sequences the people of Odessa welcome the sailors, but they attract the attention of the tsarist police.
Act IV, Odessa steps: the police arrives at Odessa in retaliation and march toward the unarmed crowd with their rifles. The people run away, but they shoot men, women, and defenceless children. The scene has become famous: the soldiers are only shown through details that make them impersonal, inflexible, the boots marching and stomping the victims, the guns that shoot. The sailors of the Potemkin then decide to shoot at the police with the guns of the battleship.
Act V, One against all: the sailors of Potemkin decide to go all the way and lead the battleship from the port of Odessa to face the fleet of the Tsar. Just when the battle seems inevitable, I leave the end open and finish with dots and a white piece of sheet...
When I started drawing this series in the late 2013, I didn`t have the clear idea of the political situation between Russia and Ukraine. I saw the movie some years ago and I was influenced of Eisenstein’s way of working with the camera. In some way, I might have known that I would come back to this movie, because I liked the individual shots, as well as the interpretations.
The drawing series consists of 98 pencil sketches on paper, all in a size of 15 x 21 cm. In this work I am reflecting on the scenes of the movie, which I find narrative and try to follow the scenario as close as possible. Black and white sequences of the film were used as sample for the drawings and afterwards they assemble into a new story. At the end of the drawing series “Battleship Potemkin” I meddle with the history and history changes. A fact becomes a fact only when it is presented in a context; or when, in other words it is interpreted. In my project I am interested to sketch the historical realities and to manipulate them in a different way.
- Nestor Kovachev