Authenticity, Novelty, and Uniqueness

Lecture Performance | Video | Text | English with English subtitles | 30 min

Location: Spore Initiative, Berlin

October 2025

In this second iteration of the Authenticity, Novelty, and Uniqueness project I weave together archival fragments, diasporic memory, and Saidiya Hartman’s method of “critical fabulation” in an attempt to reconstruct the silenced voices of Kalmyk people displayed at so-called ethnological exhibitions in Europe.  

Motion Design: Maria Kobylenko

Sound Mixing and Mastering: Maximilian Schweizer

Kalmyk Translation: Khatan Bata

Consultation: Clemens Radauer.

Henriette Lavaulx-Vrécourt, Maria Ochir

Photos: Clemens Radauer. Gunnar Meier, Maximilian Schweizer, Valya Fetisov

Kalmyk Tea (Jomba) and Boortsog Preparation: Gerel, Tsagana, Lidji