Archaeology Of Progress. Elista (2023)

This third part of the series is rooted in Elista, the capital of Kalmykia, where my family moved in 1992—making the common transition from a Kalmyk village to the regional center.

Starting with the first post-Soviet decade, I explore the modes of sonic subjectivity shaped by personal and collective experience. My aim is to generate something new—something that transcends the trap of mere nostalgic rummaging.

I spent the 1990s and early 2000s helping my mom sell fresh imports from the West at the central market in my town, absorbing the variety of noises, music, and conversations—charged with different scales of affects, from hope to hope through the hell of despair.

In this work, I blend fragments of memory with the sounds of Buddhist temples, public gatherings, MTV pop, early TV ads, and Kalmyk music and speech. Together, they reflect the mix of Tibeto-Mongolian, Russian, and Western influences that shaped the region far beyond the purely sonic realm.

This work made its debut at the Sound and Decoloniality event held at Aktionhaus Berlin in 2023, featuring contributions from Natalia Papaeva, Stas Shärifullin, and Marsel Ganeyev, with Giada Dalla Bontà moderating the discussion.

Photo caption:

(Hotel Elista, 1998)

Captured around the football match I recount in Archaeology of Progress, this photograph was shot by my father, Evgeny Akunka (1957–2010). I’m the girl in the foreground; beside me stands Alexey Smertin—then a rising star at FC Uralan, now a senior figure in Russia’s state-run Football Union. On the wall behind us is a taped photo of the Dalai Lama holding hands with Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, then president of Kalmykia.