A characteristic question - why is Kulik naked? Is he an exhibitionist? The answer is that a dressed dog is unnatural.
Oleg Kulik was not always a dog. Before finally identifying himself with the dog and barking, he made humanistic studies on the theme "Animals are people too." Then, immersed in water, he read the Holy Scriptures to the fish - a clear reference to St. Francis, who carried the word of God to the birds.
Then at the Danilovsky market, in the image of Christ, he bellowed wildly at a pig killed by butchers, testifying that this innocent creature is also a child of God.
To, in the end, founded the party of animals and appeared in public places as a candidate from her for the presidency of Russia with horns on his head.
Kulik also made the action "Gifts from Piglet" in the Regina Gallery in this direction - professional cattle slaughterers in front of the public unexpectedly slaughtered a cute pig, which had previously walked around the gallery and accepted petting, lisping and food from the hands of guests. Then they immediately made kebabs out of it and fed those present. The rest of the meat was distributed. The pathos of this cruel action is simple - you, gentlemen, buy meat in the store, eat sausage - look where it all comes from. Be honest. And everyone loves to pet animals. The public, I must say, ate the kebabs and took away the meat - some time - the beginning of the 90s.
In general, this religiously green activity brought some satisfaction to Kulik, but there was no complete happiness. And the society, together with the professional community, reacted somewhat sluggishly to it. In the mid-1990s, green and vegetarian problems were of concern only to completely abnormal enthusiasts, while religious ones could excite society exclusively in the financial and political aspect, but certainly not in such a refined way as the search for neophytes in the world of jawed vertebrates.
Yes, and the sweeping actions of colleagues in the contemporary art workshop - Alexander Brener and Anatoly Osmolovsky - recklessly invading the space of politics and the then really topical problems of society, confirmed that the main nerve of contemporary art was elsewhere. In short, it was necessary to change the concept.
This is exactly what happened on November 25, 1995, when near the Gelman gallery on Malaya Yakimanka, the action “Mad Dog, or the last taboo guarded by the lonely Cerberus” was revealed to the shocked world - the Kulik-dog first appeared there.
The action was carried out jointly with Brener - it is he who keeps Kulik on a chain, as if passing the baton to him. And the right to insane aggression. Whatever meanings Kulik himself put into this action, it was read unequivocally - a Russian, brutalized from bestial life, with wild energy rushes at everything that moves - at the public, at passers-by, at cars. It was truly a symbol. You remember - well, there is primitive accumulation, privatization competitions, aluminum wars, endless murders, bandits as masters of life. Showdowns, shooters, assaults, set-ups and other concepts rich in meanings that have firmly entered the life of even quite intelligent citizens. And also wild intransigence in politics, such a cold civil war, at times, as in October 1993, turning into a completely hot state. And poverty, but the shops already have everything.
In short, there was something to piss off the Russians. And this character - a naked man, with the aggression of a fighting dog, the fashion for which appeared just then, throwing himself at any irritant - was completely adequate to the time. 
Kulik later said that he was scared - after all, he had never jumped naked on the roadway before. But he did everything perfectly - for half an hour there was a traffic jam on the street in front of the galleries, cars honked wildly, drivers cursed, but did not go outside - they were also scared. And even the art public, accustomed to everything, was scared too - I remember this - so the pearl from Kulik is this kind of primary, creepy and blind aggression.
Having frightened the Motherland with himself-a dog, Kulik cheerfully went beyond its borders, and there he was received with understanding. Abroad, if you remember again, the Russian people were also not perceived very much at that time - both the Russian mafia, which entered the wide international arena, and the vzbryka of our foreign policy like support for painfully native Serbia or no less native Iraq, of course, had an effect. Yes, a simple Russian tourist in a crimson jacket with slightly splayed fingers, who accidentally drank in a bar in some Spanish resort and just slightly trashed the atmosphere out of longing - that's the finished image, so successfully correlating with Kulikovo.
In general, Kulik went to Switzerland, to Zurich, and there he began to guard the entrance to the Kunsthalle, where there was an exhibition of Russian art. Those. according to the logic of any Russian guarding something, he would not let anyone in there. Barked, growled, bit, rushed - but did not allow these filthy foreigners to desecrate Russian art. After all, a foreigner - what is he? Even if he just looks, and already defiles. With his vicious glance, his expressed opinion, his desire to immediately buy something, such a reptile. 
It ended up that Kulik, having little understanding of anyone, thoroughly poked the wife of the cultural attaché of Germany on the leg. As he himself said, he was struck by her reaction. Well, he already had experience, he had a bite to eat a lot of people. So, according to his observations, if you bite a domestic or, if something didn’t fit, a South European woman, then she first of all pulls back the injured limb and the second thing she starts to scream in a high octave. It wasn't there. The German diplomat did not pull back her legs, nor put her voice into action, but tensed up and went on, the blond beast, as if nothing had happened. But Kulik was taken to the police anyway.
Rethinking this matter in his own way, Kulik held the action "I love Europe, she does not love me" in Berlin.
It happened like this. Twelve policemen stood in a circle in the clearing - according to the number of then members of the EU - with dogs in muzzles, out of sin. Kulik crawled between them and aggressively molested dogs with his love - not policemen. The dogs, understanding little of anything, were honestly angry at Kulik and barked terribly, one even cracked his paw on his turnip until it bled. The meaning of the action seems to be clear and does not require explanation.
After spending several years in such an active creative format, Kulik calmed down - in the end, and the fighting dog gets old during this time. He started making meditative posters, but there are also animals there.
From the series "Museum of Nature or New Paradise"
Or installations where animals, in fact, living chickens, sitting in a cage over the figure of Leo Tolstoy, are full of crap on him, thereby asserting the primacy of the natural over the human.
Lately, Kulik has let his beard grow, has dabbled in Buddhism, and is talking to outsider Buddhist koans. He has the right, in the end, he paid many for his peace. In addition, it became clear why he loves animals so much, otherwise there were serious suspicions, in bestiality, like.
A series of images circulating on the network reflecting several stages of the operation, during which the front part of the muzzle, eyebrows and ears of the dog were implanted in the man: 
These pictures are actually the work of Brazilian artist Rodrigo Brada, who asked a veterinarian to sew fragments of a dead dog's head onto a prefabricated silicone model of his own head. Several photographs were taken during this procedure. Well, of course, then I had to work a little with Photoshop.
The dog that served as the "donor" for this fake operation lived in an animal shelter. She was euthanized after all attempts to find her owner were in vain. The dog's corpse was used with the permission of local authorities, so all subsequent attempts by animal advocates to accuse Brad of killing the animal ended in nothing.
These pictures have become the subject of heated debate in social networks.
According to publications dedicated to Rodrigo Brada, the theme of the conflict between man and nature is one of the most important and interesting for this artist.
In 2012, he tied himself to a goat and tried to run in the opposite direction to where the goat was heading. As a result, both began to wind endless circles. In the same year, he entered into a “battle” with a crab with his bare hands - according to the artist’s plan, this “battle” was supposed to become a kind of metaphor for the impossibility of taming nature.
In general, the story of the man-dog is not the first, and, apparently, not the last eccentric experiment of Rodrigo Brada.
It is better for people with a sick psyche not to scroll further, this information can seriously shock
It is very difficult to imagine this in real life. But the man did what he wanted.
Who is this, what kind of circus is this?
Do you think in our modern world is such an operation possible?
The surgeon made an incision in the animal's skin, did we get it right?
The man sawed off the ears of the pet, and then the muzzle and the area around the eyes, why?
But the man who wanted to get himself a piece of a dog is Rodrigo Braga.
The operation is about to begin.
A man is sewn on parts cut off from a dog, right?
A tube was inserted into Rodrigo's mouth so that he could breathe through it.
The image of a dog cannot be left unfinished, ears are needed!
Pretty strange, isn't it? But now you will learn the whole truth about what you saw in the pictures.
As it turned out, Braga is an artist from Brazil, below you will see his work from 14 years ago.
The head of a man, which seems to belong to a man, is in reality just an artificially created copy.
But the parts of the animal are real. The dog died in an accident, and its body parts were used for the image.
Rodrigo wanted to create a hybrid of a human and an animal, so he chose a dog as a creature. More information can be found by typing Rodrigo Braga in the search engine.
Nowadays, people often perform such manipulations with their bodies that others simply shy away from them. But this guy "surpassed" everyone. He decided to "transplant" the dog's muzzle to himself. Photo report on the work done - later in the article. Not to look nervous!
With a scalpel, part of the muzzle and ears are cut off from the dog.
The most difficult thing is with the muzzle. It must be implanted so that the tube does not slip out of the desperate guy's mouth. After the operation was completed, it turned out either a man-dog, or a dog-man.
And now you can breathe. Rodrigo Braga is a Brazilian performance artist. The pictures do not show him, but his silicone copy. Rodrigo implemented this experiment called "Compensatory Fantasy" (Fantasia de compensationación) back in 2004.
The only real thing in this story is the dog. At the time of the operation, the animal was euthanized for health reasons, and its head was given for this performance.
If Rodrigo Braga performed this metamorphosis only with a silicone copy of himself, then 22-year-old Winnie Oh has already managed to shock the public with his appearance.
Samizdat reader and writer Irina Goroshko visited a house in 2016 where eight families lived with dog people. The shocking performance took place in Vienna as part of the Wiener Festwochen festival. Very few people could get into the old mansion. In addition to the report, which really makes you feel uncomfortable, we also publish a short essay by Irina, in which she tells who the dog people are and what she managed to understand about them.
You open the door of an old house in the center of Vienna. A sexy girl in a miniskirt and tank top greets you, extending her hand for acquaintance. You see the other owners of the house, one of them is holding a naked man on all fours on a leash. Each host will introduce themselves and ask for your name. You will be shown to the hall, where there are small round tables, and sofas around the perimeter. A bouffant-haired blonde in a tight pink leather skirt and stiletto boots will lead you to a seat on the couch and hand you a pamphlet. The cover says it's an invitation to the Canis Humanus Community Open Day.
Dog people are running around. They walk on all fours, they are wearing old clothes, something homemade and washed: leggings, T-shirts, shorts. Some wear special knee pads. Some don't have a T-shirt, some don't have shorts. They slowly approach the sitting guests, someone caresses and asks to be stroked, someone bites into a pamphlet or the handle of a bag with their teeth. Dog owners run up and teach guests how to interact with them, how to say "fui" if the dog person does something you don't like.
In the brochure, the guest can find invitations, written in different handwriting, from eight families living in this huge house. The brochure also contains rules for behavior in the house and interaction with dogs: “be as quiet as possible”, “do not move in large groups”.
Guests are asked to turn to the tenth page of the brochure, which lists the visit times to the cellar for each visitor.
Basement Rules:
All risks associated with visiting the basement are solely yours;
It is necessary to strictly follow the orders of trainers;
Wash your hands thoroughly before entering the basement;
Remove jewelry, belts and other items that may harm our dogs;
Avoid eye contact with dogs;
Do not approach the dog from behind, you can only approach the dog from the side;
Don't pet sleeping dogs;
In no case do not beat the dogs;
Do not interfere with the actions of the trainers;
In the event of an attack, remain calm, do not shout, avoid fussy movements. As a last resort, lie down on the floor, curl up and cover your ears.
Since my German, once studied at the university, remained at the A2 level (and everything is written in German), a neighbor on the couch, a nice Austrian in a long cardigan, helps to understand the rules. She whispers a fragment about curling up into English, and we look at each other with a smile: they say, it can’t be all that serious. Although people scurrying here and there on all fours, behaving absolutely like dogs, inspire a certain fear: it is not known what can be expected of them, the usual background expectations do not work at all.
My time for visiting the basement is 19:40, we are collected in a group and led somewhere down the stairs. Guests are lined up in front of a metal door and a few drops of hand sanitizer are squeezed into the palm of each. Sexy chick, already familiar to us, turns out to be one of the trainers, she says that you need to be as careful as possible, you can’t behave aggressively with dogs, it’s important to keep the situation under control and if anything, immediately contact her or her fellow trainers. She points to a huge bruise on her arm and states that this is the result of her misbehavior with the dog. Her wrists are tied with bandages, through which you can see the burgundy stains.
We go into the basement. There are cages on the floor in which man-dogs are locked (hunsh in German: hunde (dog) + mensh (human). - Note. ed.). Someone howls, someone barks, someone rushes around the cage and rattles chains. Concrete walls, the floor is stained with something. At the entrance we are met by the chief trainer, he speaks a lot of German, takes a stun gun, shows us how to use it. I get really scared, I don’t understand what it’s about, and my savior-translator ended up in another group. Right there, in the basement, we are taken to the room of one of the trainers.
The trainer's room is decorated in the spirit of some vicious Barbie: wallpaper and bed linen in pink tones, lace linen peeks out of the closet, and an open bottle of vodka, glasses, ashtrays and packs of cigarettes are scattered on the table. The room is incredibly fitting for this brutal and terribly sexy trainer, pairing blonde hair and a pink top with a commanding voice and hard eyes.
Lighting a cigarette and spreading her legs so that her transparent panties are clearly visible, she again says something in German. I understand only those phrases that I have already heard, and I really dislike this out of context. I end up waiting for her to say, “Do you have any questions?” - and I ask you to translate the main theses into English. She sighs and asks who of those present can do it. A lanky guy helps me, he voices the already known rules of behavior, but what is new for me is that there are not only dog people here, but also wolf people, and you can also go to them. It is for communication with wolf people that the stun gun is intended, it is they who are so dangerous that you cannot go there without a weapon. A lady in her forties is also listening to the translation and looking at me, trying to catch the reaction. We look at each other expressively.
The adventure in the basement turns out to be not as exciting as imagined. We were seated on stools next to cages with various man-dogs. In “my” cage sat the cutest girl with pigtails, “from Denmark, that’s why she speaks English so well,” the trainer commented. The nickname of this dog-girl is Shnooki. She looks into the eyes and speaks in a low voice, periodically shaking her head strangely and sticking out her tongue. The lady sitting on a stool next to her got a much more aggressive man-dog, he barks loudly, and she does not know how to communicate with him. She switches to Shnooki, and when the dog girl sticks her tongue out strangely again, the lady smiles.
- Why are you laughing? - Shnooki asks with resentment. - There is nothing funny about me!
The lady is shy, because with her chuckle she wanted to emphasize that this is all nothing more than a fun game, and, they say, you and I understand that Shnuki is a person pretending to be a dog, but the sincere resentment and irritation of the dog girl negate this misplaced attempt.
The head trainer breaks into the basement, he drags a man in shorts on a short leash into the room. The man yells, howls, tries to escape. It seems that now he really will be freed and will tear our throats to pieces.
- That's enough for me, - says the lady, - I'm leaving, my nerves are not so strong.
Meanwhile, the first visitors emerge from the room with the wolves, their faces smeared with what looks like soot. I question one of them and find out that there are two wolf people in the room, a man and a woman. Both are in chains. A man enters them with a stun gun in his hand. "Wolves" come very close, touch the visitor or visitor with dirty hands behind the face and, looking at point-blank range, say:
- You, pitiful little man, you secured yourself with a weapon. You are nothing without a weapon. You are guilty of the fact that we are sitting on chains. But it will not always be like this, your greatness will fall, because we will be freed, and then humanity will know the color of blood.
My basement visit is coming to an end. I go out and think that it turned out to be such a curious performance-installation (as the genre is defined on the website of the Vienna Festival) about submission and domination, as well as acceptance of the other. Observations flash through my head: how quickly I got involved in this game, how I stroked the sweetest Shnuki, who really was a dog for me, on the head. I felt a real fear of a room with wolves, and here you can still speculate whether it was the fear of what the wolves can do to me, or the fear of myself and what is hidden in me, because I would have a stun gun in my hand , and I could legitimately inflict pain on another potentially dangerous being. I leave the cage, planning to wander through the Viennese streets and reflect on what exactly happened to me and what components this chic performance is made of.
But it was not there. I go up the stairs, but the door through which I entered the basement is closed. I see another door, I pull it towards me and I get ... into the apartment. Dog owners are sitting in the kitchen, dog people are running around on the floor, and meanwhile the guests-spectators are talking with both of them, drinking tea.
Thus begins a long quest, a journey through the whole house, in which eight families live: people and people-dogs. I try to communicate and ask questions, but few people here speak English. But even if they speak, they only briefly answer my questions - and again switch to German so that everything is clear to all the other guests.
Pepsi dog man
The interiors of the apartments are made in the same style: the rooms, as a rule, are illuminated by the subdued light of floor lamps, and the furniture, curtains, carpets refer to some conditional fifties of the last century. In almost every room there is an old bulky TV with a small screen, on which old talk shows are played without sound. Some rooms have large old-fashioned radios. In every room you can see at least one soft dog toy, in some apartments there are many more. Posters with photos of dogs hang on the walls, all sorts of souvenir figurines of dogs are visible on the shelves.
I wander, restless, to different families. I have never regretted so much that I did not learn German. However, it is precisely thanks to the language barrier that I still maintain a safe distance in relation to what is happening, I do not completely merge, I try to isolate all the tiny details, such as the fact that a very young girl is sitting on a small bed in one of the rooms, and she is wearing short shorts and some kind of then a children's T-shirt, on which a kitten is drawn and “pussy” is written. The girl's nipples are clearly visible through the T-shirt - no one wears bras in this house.
And yet I find those with whom I manage to communicate.
The young man-dog puts his hands on my knees. He is twenty years old, and he is in his shorts. His nickname is Pepsi. He looks into my eyes and I can't look away. I have never seen such bright green eyes before, they produce some kind of hypnotic effect.
- You are a dog? I ask him.
- No.
- Are you human?
- No.
- Then who are you?
- I'm in between a human and a dog.
He continues to look me straight in the eyes, and this contact becomes somehow incredibly intense and uncomfortably intimate.
“You have very pretty eyes,” I tell him.
He straightens his arms and brings his face closer to my neck. He sniffs me and says that I smell very delicious. He puts his head on my stomach, touching my chest, and I'm completely embarrassed. I am in physical contact with an attractive young guy, I enjoy his touch, but at the same time I clearly understand that he refers to different kind that there is something in the attraction to him abnormal almost perverted. Like being attracted to a real dog or…. to a child?
As Dorota will explain to me a little later: “No, they are not abnormal, but they do not grow, that is, their bodies grow, but their minds remain on the same level, they are just like children!”
Dorota is a Polka, to whom the man-dog Snoopy took me when I was about to leave: “You need to go to Dorota, she knows Russian, she is from Poland!”
Dorota is a plump, cozy woman, she was frying cabbage on an electric stove when Snuppy burst into her room shouting: “Irina, Irina, this is Irina, she is from Weissrussland, she speaks Russian, you should meet her!” Dorota immediately gives me a task - to go to the next apartment to the bathroom and fill a plastic bottle with water, she needs it for frying. I bring a bottle of water and start asking questions. There are two man-dogs in the apartment, a young guy and a girl, both wearing only short shorts.
- Come, come here, - Dorota calls the guy. “He speaks Russian,” she says happily, winking.
She whispers something in his ear, he comes up to me and says: "Kiss me, Irina." Dorota smiles and he leans his face against mine. I turn away, the guy switches to chatting with other guests. Dorota laughs, pleased with the trick. She tells me about her children, that she has two - a boy and a girl.
- Are your children dogs?
- Oh no, no, they're normal.
- And people-dogs - abnormal?
And it was at this moment that Dorota told me that they have been like children all their lives.
- Well, how did you find your dogs?
- They found me themselves, all dogs find their owners themselves. And that's it - they stay with you forever.
- Is your community, the Canis Humanus house, the only one in the world?
- Well, who knows? We know of only one such house, in Berlin, where several families with man-dogs also live. Here look.
Dorota hands me several photographs, they show a three-story house, a park next to the house, a road.
- And where do they come from, people-dogs?
- Well, it's unknown. But Graf says that over time there will be more and more of them, and someday there will be more of them than people.
- Count? Who is Graf?
- Oh, you don't know the Count! You should see him, it was he who founded our community, the house belongs to him, he sometimes makes prophecies. We believe him.
Dorota quickly gives some orders for frying cabbage to her people-dogs Fifi and Bello, takes my arm and leads me up the stairs to the Count. We pass several other apartments, everywhere Dorota slows down and informs everyone present: “This is Irina, she is from Belarus, she does not speak German, I am taking her to the Count.” Everyone greets me kindly and says their names. I feel that wherever I go, I will be welcome everywhere.
And then I remember that I had already heard about the Count: in the basement, when one of the trainers mentioned him, one of the spectators asked: “Is the Count the most important here?” In response to this question, the trainers looked at each other, and we got the answer: “It only seems to him so.”
The Count and his nephew
We enter a huge ornate room with high ceilings. At the entrance is a nurse in a white suit, she is caring for the Count. Dorota explains to her that it was Irina who came from Belarus, she traveled so far, so, you must definitely introduce the Count. The nurse looks at me incredulously, says that it is important to understand: the Count is very ill, he survived a stroke, so you can’t behave loudly or intrusively with him, you need to be as quiet as possible. I nod. I really really want to meet the Count.
Dorota and I approach the round bed, on which, in the semi-darkness, old man, his eyelids are covered. A dog girl is sitting on all fours next to the bed, a fur jacket is thrown over her naked body, barely covering her beautiful full breasts. Dorota kisses the Count's hands, whispers who I am and where I come from, asks if I can talk to him. The Count nods weakly, and I gently shake his hand with great respect. There is a box next to the Count, he opens it and takes out a photograph. In the photo - a woman in a white dress lying on the bed. The count quietly says something to Dorota, and she translates:
“This is the Earl's wife, the first dog-man he met. He loved her very much. Once he left her in the house alone, and the house burned down. He does not know if he was burned on purpose to kill his wife, out of hatred, or if it was an accident. Since then, he has been gathering families with dog people and helping them exist and support each other.
The Count falls silent and carefully places the photograph in the box.
- That's it, he needs to rest, let's go, - says Dorota.
On the way, she finds out that I speak English well, and takes me to the family, where the owner will definitely be able to communicate with me. We again pass through countless rooms-apartments, guests are sitting everywhere, talking with the owners and their dogs.
- Go there, - Dorota tells me, - talk to them, but then, when you are about to leave, be sure to come to me to say goodbye.
We hug like old friends, and I feel infinite gratitude and sympathy for this woman.
In the room where Dorota sent me, only the owner and her man-dog, there is no English-speaking owner, he left. It turns out that the man-dog speaks good English. His name is Nero, and he has a pronounced oriental appearance. His mistress, unlike the others that I have seen, behaves rather harshly towards Nero, makes him sing and dance “in front of the guest”, slaps a fly swatter.
- Irina, where are you from? Nero asks.
- From Belarus, - I answer, but, seeing confusion on his face, I explain, - Weisrussland.
- Oh, Weisrussland, you are lucky, - he says, pointing to his black hair, - you are white, I am black.
Meanwhile, the owner returns, he turns out to be a good-natured balding man and repeats several times that he is very glad that I stopped by. He is the Count's nephew, lives in this house for four months and is going to move out, because "it's somehow too much." He points to a large dog girl who has spread out all over the sofa and comments:
- Sometimes it’s profitable to keep man-dogs, they cook and wash the dishes, but some, like this one, just lie around all day, and she still loves to climb on my bed, although I can’t stand it, a person must have some personal space!
He speaks loudly and smiles a lot. A pretty girl of about fifteen comes into the apartment, he immediately takes her in an armful and tells me:
- Meet, this is my princess, queen, I adore her! I so want to marry her! Well, say hello!
The girl lowers her eyes and quietly says: "Hello."
- She is shy, yes, just very shy. But don't think, no, no, no! I didn't lay a finger on her, she's too young for me, I don't mean anything like that! - suddenly he starts to convince me.
Needless to say, his loud assurances have the opposite effect, and if before I would not have thought anything of the sort, now I really begin to suspect some not entirely innocent connection between them.
The girl continues to forcefully lower her eyes and portray shyness and timidity.
And then I suddenly come to my senses.
The girl plays shyness and timidity. The owner of the apartment plays lust and vague anguish about this. The actor plays the Count and his post-stroke condition. Numerous actors play people-dogs.
Return
It was extremely uncomfortable to convict oneself of being completely immersed in the reality of the performance. I used to think that I can stand firmly on my feet and keep the necessary distance in relation to fiction of any degree of complexity. However, here all the details are thought out so meticulously, and the actors play the owners and man-dogs so convincingly that the psychosocial experiment was a success: I plunged headlong into an alternative reality, experienced true fear in a cage, incredible reverence for the Count and attachment to the man-dog. Hell, in this universe, I could well afford to negotiate with the owner and somehow take for myself (buy? people-dogs for sale?) Pepsi, this young dog with incredible eyes.
I leave the apartment of the Count's nephew and look for a way out of the house: I need to rest, my reality suddenly became too unsteady.
Finding a way out is not so easy: the house is full of incomprehensible doors and corridors, and no matter who I talked to and asked where the exit was, the story ended the same way: they ask me why I'm leaving, and they persuade me to stay, sit, drink tea.
In the end, I still find a way out. Already on the stairs I meet a woman with whom I talked about ten minutes ago.
Are you leaving anyway?
- Yes, I'm very tired, it's time for me to go home.
The clock is almost twelve, the performance began at seven. I'm thirsty, I want to sleep and I want to get back to reality - before it's too late.
- Did you like our open day?
- Yes, it was a great honor for me to be here, to meet all of you, I am very grateful for this evening.
- Well, - the woman smiles, - it is very important for us that people know about us and accept us, - she becomes very serious. - Thank you for coming. Here, take it, - I have a large white envelope in my hands.
- Auf Wiedersehen!
- Auf Wiedersehen!
I leave the house and find myself on a bustling Viennese street. What was it? Where was I just now? And what happened to me? I tear open the envelope and find inside the pamphlet of the performance-installation We Are Dogs. With photos, different texts, and most importantly - the main thing! - the names of the actors.
It was just a performance. Reality is still the same. This is simply incredible, brilliant, on the verge of cruelty - performance.
I approach the hotel, and my heart sharply pierces the pain. I didn't come to say goodbye to Dorota, how could I?!
The next day I wake up and realize that I really miss the man-dogs. I'm sad that this world turned out to be a fantasy. I'm sad that these incredible creatures don't actually exist.
Who are dog people and where did they come from?
WIR HUNDE/US DOGS is the creation of the SIGNA creative team, consisting of two people, the spouses Signa and Artur Koestler. Signa is Danish, Artur is Austrian. They live and work mainly in Copenhagen. On their official website, they describe their activities as follows:
« Each project is a site-specific performance, which is carried out in non-traditional spaces. In collaboration with international members, the founders of the collective create fully immersive (providing the full effect of presence. - Approx. Aut.) Long-term installations that work with archetypes, improvisation and carefully crafted visual landscapes to explore the structures of power and degradation, identity and desire. The public is invited not only to visit and explore the spatial installations, but also to participate in them and, in some cases, influence the course of events. Duration of SIGNA performances: from six to two hundred and fifty hours non-stop. The long running time allows complex stories to be developed, while also giving the audience time to adapt and immerse themselves in the world of performance. With a few rare exceptions, there is no physical barrier between actors and audience in performances. Viewers are invited to get involved in the project in the same way as they do in everyday life, absorbing all the visual, auditory and tactile signals of the external environment. Influences on different senses are worked out in detail in each project to ensure maximum audience immersion. For example, the viewer is invited to participate in the preparation and consumption of food, to help with household chores, or to be physically involved in the rituals led by the performers.”
Having studied the list of other performances of the group, I understand that I happened to participate in something quite easy, since among their creations is "Salò" based on the film of the same name by Pier Paolo Pasolini. This is where the faint of heart should definitely not go!
Dog Kulik
Oleg Kulik, a Russian performance artist of Ukrainian origin, became famous for a series of performances where he appeared as dogs of varying degrees of rabies. It was Kulik that came to mind when I just entered the house and saw a naked man in a collar and on a leash standing on all fours. For the first time Kulik "became a dog" in 1994 in the gallery of Marat Gelman. The performance was called "The Mad Dog, or The Last Taboo Guarded by the Lonely Cerberus". The leash was held by the artist Alexander Brener, and the naked Kulik-dog rushed at the audience and passing cars. In the documentary Oleg Kulik: Challenge and Provocation, the artist says that at the time of the performance itself, when he ran down the street in front of the gallery and rushed at people, he was in an altered state of consciousness due to the fact that the collar was squeezing his throat, and the artist not enough air for normal breathing. The performance lasted seven minutes, which Kulik claims he does not remember.
However, Kulik the dog really became famous after the performance in Zurich "Reservoir Dog". Kulik wanted to be, in his words, "such a nasty dirty dog", he sat naked on a leash at the entrance to the Kunsthaus gallery and rushed at those who tried to get into the exhibition. The shocked Swiss called the police, but in the end, even the representatives of the law did not really understand what to do with a dirty and naked man on all fours, biting people. As a result, Kulik was taken away, they announced that they could charge a violation of five articles of the Criminal Code, but they quickly released him.
Kulik's dog is a free, aggressive, unrestrained dog. He is direct in his impulses, dangerous, vile, uncontrollable. This is not the same dog that went through the basement of Canis Humanus with his sexy and brutal trainers.
A naked man in a collar crawling on all fours, obedient and docile, is also a reference to BDSM culture, in particular to such a direction as dog play (there are also variations on this theme: pet play, pony play, and so on) . As part of the dog play, the so-called “bottom” plays the role of a dog that the dominant trains and generally does with it what he wants. In BDSM culture, a dog is also understood as a passive and accommodating creature that deserves punishment for “bad behavior”. Just like in Canis Humanus. (Although this is all, of course, my assumptions. Not being part of this culture and relying only on sources dug up on the net, I can be very wrong).
Dogs of the Koestlers
Giving the viewer/guest a real stun gun to visit the wolf people's cage, the Koestlers take a risk, because you never know who will come to them (Signa Koestler herself plays the wolf person). The viewer finds himself in a space where it is legitimate to hurt another, and the only limiting factor is your personal boundaries of acceptable. Such an experiment can reveal to us those aspects of our animal nature that many do not even want to know about.
One of the most famous examples of this kind of performance-experiment is Rhythm 0 by Marina Abramovic. In 1974, in Naples, Abramovich gave her body to the audience for six hours. The performance participants were offered 72 objects with which they could interact with the artist's body: a rose, honey, grapes, a pencil, paints, a candle, a whip, a blade, scissors, a scalpel, matches, a gun, a bullet. People cut off Abramovich’s clothes with scissors, stuck spikes into her skin, cut with a blade, and the performance ended when one of the spectators inserted a bullet into a gun, put it in Abramovich’s hand, leaned the gun against her temple and put the artist’s finger on the trigger. Then the performance was stopped, because other spectators came to the defense of the artist's life. Abramovich says that what struck her most was that when the performance ended and she went to the audience, they fled in horror. They were not ready to interact and make eye contact with the person who had just been in their power.
The man-dogs roaming the house with saliva hanging from their mouths also made me think of Signa Koestler's compatriot Lars Von Trier. His "Dogma No. 2" movie "The Idiots" rhymes stylistically with "US DOGS". If the heroes of Trier revealed "inner idiots" in themselves, then the man-dogs show their "true nature" of liminal, "between" creatures that do not fall under any of the stable categories. The heroes of Von Trier are neither normal nor mentally ill, man-dogs are neither people nor dogs. Existence in a closed space of an unusual community at Trier ends with the collapse of the community itself. What could have happened in Canis Humanus, we can only guess, but even the crumbs of information that I managed to collect demonstrate that the community has an extremely ambiguous attitude towards the guru and founder - the Count. Here you can think of hundreds of stories.
“I was born as a human, but I am actually a dog. I've always known about it. Both people and dogs - everyone guessed about it, but no one could understand. How can this be allowed - a man-dog? I grew up in total isolation and thought I was the only one. I hated myself, became caustic and unsociable. Neither man nor dog can live like this - alone. To feel like a dog, I allowed myself to be beaten, mistreated. Opportunities abounded, but love saved me. I was found by "my" people who can love me like a dog. Now I'm part of a family and I'm happy."
“I am a dog man, abandoned, sick and angry, no one loves me. I don't have a name, and I don't need one. And I will tell you: I will be born again and again. Your mothers, sisters and daughters will give me life. I promise you this. And when there are thousands of us, the time of people-dogs will come. And what will you do with it then? What?
God will be furious. You have never seen him, so you have neither fear nor love. But I saw God, and therefore I am very scared and my love is strong. I have nowhere to hide.
I'm an outsider, but I won't always be like that, because the time of the dog people will come. And then you will also have no shelter. And it's not a crazy house. This is a prison where people and dogs live, my only roof over my head, a good roof, even if it leaks sometimes. But this prison will not hold me, because there will be thousands like me, and we will break into your homes. I am already in your gardens and yards. What now?
dog theme
Dog. Why a dog? The most sociable of pets, a sweet creature, often a real family member. However, the search engine queries “the dog killed the man” and “the dog killed the child” can assemble a whole collection of creepy news stories. A dog is not only a bundle of tenderness and affection, but also a mortal danger in your home.
Not so long ago, the Hungarian theater and film director Kornel Mundrutso worked with the theme of dogs in the film “White God”. Remember, at the very beginning, Hagen is a cute dog of the main character, loyal and harmless. However, when Hagen is left alone in a crazy and cruel world, he turns into a real predator, cruel and uncompromising. In the film, both the main character, a teenage girl, and her dog Hagen suffer endlessly because of the selfishness of the girl's father.
Have you noticed that people often use similar language structures, intonations and behavior in general to communicate with animals and children? Animals need to be trained, children need to be brought up, and in both cases, an adult person turns out to be the bearer of some knowledge and idea of what is “right” and what is not. However, something else is more important: an adult has the power to impose his will on children and animals. And he constantly uses this power.
Let's remember the space of the house where families with people-dogs live. In the rooms and apartments, I almost did not observe violence (with the exception of the hostess Nero, but still this is such an easy option). Already adapted, that is, trained man-dogs live in families. They know the commands and they can be controlled. In order for them to become such comfortable members of society, a basement is needed where violence occurs. Trainers can easily raise a hand on a man-dog or neutralize him with a stun gun. The viewer is also invited to feel all the charm of his power: it's not us who are sitting in cages, it's not we who need to learn to obey. Man-dogs must get rid of their dangerous animal manifestations in order to be accepted by their owners. Only those who give up part of themselves deserve love and acceptance.
On the Internet you can find a very interesting book by one of the authors of the Looo.ch project Nikita Elizarov under the intriguing title "Children, Animals, Sex". "Why are furry and clumsy animals so strongly associated with childhood and its trappings?" - Elizarov asks a question.
With his argumentation, the author can greatly confuse the minds of the inhabitants (on the site the book is announced as such: “an intellectually fearless analysis of the prejudices prevailing in culture”). For example, reflecting on the sexual relationship between people and animals, he states: “Bestiality is a ubiquitous phenomenon that occurs in different cultures independently of each other.<…>Constantine the Great had a nickname “Koroob”, Hatshepsut had dogs trained to do cunnilingus, the wives of Roman senators had no right to refuse the dogs of Tiberius.” Why? Because the modern social person is the same domesticated beast. It is transformed in the same way as all those sweetest cats and dogs that live in apartments in city high-rise buildings are domesticated. There is no particular difference between a man and an animal, no matter how we are assured of the contrary by the Christian ideology, which proclaims that man is the crown of creation.
Elizarov argues with the opinion that at first people learned to talk to children, and then they began to talk to domesticated animals as if they were children, because they look like young normal, wild animals. He reverses this argument: people talk to children like animals, because the concept of “childhood” itself is a relatively recent invention. Referring to the works of Erasmus of Rotterdam, Elizarov argues that until the New Age in Europe there were no ideas about the upbringing and training of children, that is, children grew up as they had to, and no one specially adapted them to the future adult world. Erasmus, writes Elizarov, used "already established and working in practice models of animal training for raising children." That is, at first people learned to interact with animals and only then - with children, using already worked out training schemes.
Finally
What is all this for? Remember, Dorota commented on the behavior of man-dogs: they say, they are just like children? Remember my extreme embarrassment when I felt the pleasure of close contact with a man-dog? Elizarov's book explains well (albeit somewhat frighteningly) what's going on here.
Modern normative sexuality, writes Elizarov, citing kinship researcher Mark Schell, is limited to two main taboos: incest and bestiality. According to the researcher, both taboos are related to the maintenance of kinship structures: you can’t reach out to representatives of another species, you can’t want sex with relatives. Everything seems to be simple here. However, when the figure of a pet child appears, the scheme becomes more complicated. A pet is no longer quite an animal (after all, it is domesticated and as close as possible to a person), because "it turns out to be in the acceptable spectrum of sexual objects." But at the same time, he is a “child”, and no one has canceled the taboo on incest and pedophilia. A pet child becomes a forbidden object of desire; due to its duality, it is attractive and, like everything most desirable, is inaccessible.
All these soft toys in the owners' apartments, young human-dogs walking almost naked on all fours, deliberately infantile trainers' rooms vividly demonstrate that this sexual tension in the performance was created precisely thanks to the exploitation of the image of a child-pet. Among the dog people, there were very few actors or actresses who looked older than twenty. Most girls have small, “teenage” breasts, most guys have a thin build.
Man-dogs are the realization of a fantasy about a child-pet who is no longer a child, and therefore communication with him becomes possible. The viewer finds himself in an extremely uncomfortable position: it’s okay to discover in yourself a thirst for violence and pleasure from power, they have begun to talk about this more and more often now, but the attraction to pet children is already too much.
In US DOGS, Signa and Arthur Koestler showed no pity for themselves, the actors, or the audience. The Koestlers mercilessly brought to the surface the most forbidden desires, offering the spectator-participant the opportunity to feel what it is like to be freed from the oppression of morality and culture, at least for the duration of the performance. However, only a few can dare to take this step into the abyss with them. To see the abyss hiding in the soul under a layer of learned and instilled moral norms is scary.