Izabela Skorzynska: The
Byelorussian
rock-opera "Narodny Albom": Theatrical citizenship for contemporary
Byelorussians
"Narodny
Albom" is the collective work of Byelorussian performers who in the
1990s
created a theatrical concert dedicated to their national identity and
question
of citizenship. The concert was transformed into a rock-opera dedicated
to
contemporary Byelorussia
understood as the Lithuanian and the Polish-Byelorussian tradition. The
language of "Albom" is Byelorussian, which in practice does not
exist. In this context, the Byelorussian artists create a national
language
founded on oral tradition, an archaic grammar, and on Yiddish and
Polish. The
authors of " Albom" create a "new-old" Byelorussian
language and compose new arrangements inspired by Byelorussian folk
music and
Jewish, Polish and pop music motives as an ironic comment on
contemporary
Byelorussian pop-identity. The
performers are actors and shamans: "performers of a new
identity". My presentation aims to
show the "Albom" as a quasi-ritual, as a site of memory and source of
collective identity created by artists as a bricolage.
A performance like "Albom" is an
original and effective communication strategy for constructing
collective
identity in the context of social and political crisis. My presentation
includes photographs, songs on CD, and English resumes of lyrics and
plot.